Louisa Beal, DVM Mario, a West Highland White Terrier had snapped at a two year old girl. If Mario couldn’t be trusted around children, his owners would have to get rid of him. The knee jerk response to this would be to try to modify the behavior of the dog. Mario’s behavior is definitely unacceptable. … [Read More]
Dog Training & Behavior
I Have Four Cats, One Dog, and Two Pet Peeves
Louisa Beal, DVM I like to consider myself a fairly non-judgmental person. People may do things to their pets that I think are horrible, but I cannot judge them, since, in the past, I have done most of those things myself. We all grow and learn and change. However, there are two things that get… [Read More]
Work It Kitty!
Katherine Ayres, PhD The work-to-eat movement has grown steadily in zoos and is really starting to take hold for companion animal owners as well. For those who are not familiar with work-to-eat, the theory behind it is that cats and dogs evolved as predators and predator/scavengers respectively and should not eat food in a bowl… [Read More]
Pit Bull Thoughts
Greta Kaplan, CPDT, CDBC My colleague Christine blogged recently about herding with her Aussie, Conner, and about dogs’ instinctive behavior as modified by human breeding decisions. She mentioned the frequency of dog-dog aggression among pit bulls. This topic has been on my mind lately, and frankly, I’m getting angry. A very nice woman contacted me… [Read More]
Cat Behavior & Training
Cat Litter Box Problem Solved: Texture Aversion
Katherine Ayres, PhD Eva came to us at 3 months after being a “stray at large” in Lynnwood, WA. She was sweet, extremely social, fun to play with and of course had a healthy obsession of watching birds out the window making that amusing chatter noise. Her litter box habits for the most part were… [Read More]
Indoor Cat? Outdoor Cat? Why Choose?
Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT-KA, Katherine Ayres, PhD We know that outdoor cats live shorter lives subject to disease and injury, yet many cat owners believe that their cats cannot be happy unless they go outside. I think one of the reasons people believe this is that many cats suffer from environmentally deprived environments without their… [Read More]
Tips For Getting Your Cat To The Veterinarian
Miles Bensky, BA, CTC When I read the September edition of the Animal Behavior Associates newsletter, I found a statistic that was quite alarming. It was estimated that 36% of the 81 million cats in the United States did not see a vet in 2006. Why are so many cats not receiving regular healthcare? Regular… [Read More]
Kitten Socialization
Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB Cats, like all mammals, are social creatures. While cats are far less social than dogs, to think of cats as asocial is wrong. The degree of social behavior and the ability of an individual to adapt to a changing social environment varies with species (certainly cats are less social than dogs),… [Read More]
Pet Health
Rehabilitation Therapy for Dogs
Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT-KA Many of the medical treatments that have been available to human patients are more commonly becoming available for our pets. In fact, some research being done at veterinary schools like Purdue and research centers in veterinary oncology are furthering human research and treatments. When I got curious about water therapy and… [Read More]
Do You Dread Going to the Veterinarian?
Christine Hibbard, CPDT-KA and Anna Baxter, LVT Do you dread trips to the veterinarian with your dog or cat? Do you wonder if the veterinarians and vet techs dread your visit as much as you do? The veterinary staff needs to be able to perform thorough examinations, provide treatments and perform procedures. How can they… [Read More]
Western Veterinary Conference 2011
Guest Blogger: Anna Baxter, BA, LVT Recently I attended the Western Veterinary Conference, one of the largest gatherings of veterinary practitioners in the world, for some continuing education. My focus was Behavior, where I went to all 20 hours of scientific programming by some of the best in the industry. Some of the speakers (DVMs)… [Read More]
Don’t Touch Me There!
Louisa Beal, DVM Mario, a West Highland White Terrier had snapped at a two year old girl. If Mario couldn’t be trusted around children, his owners would have to get rid of him. The knee jerk response to this would be to try to modify the behavior of the dog. Mario’s behavior is definitely unacceptable. … [Read More]