Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 5 minutes It’s conventional wisdom among dog trainers that a handler’s anxiety “travels down the leash” to influence the dog. To be honest, this had always sounded like some kind of woo-woo mystical nonsense to me. When I got my current extremely reactive Pug, the trainer I was working with – who I respected for being pretty […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Pets are so much part of our families that it’s easy to forget they’re different from us in many ways. To give them a good life, sometimes we need to get outside our human heads and understand what’s important to another species with different senses, needs, and instincts. Zookeepers are experts at this, and we […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Lots of people are crazy about ferrets. “I think most veterinarians that work on ferrets will tell you they’re pretty darned adorable,” says Valarie V. Tynes, DVM, DACVB. But people who love them want you to know about the challenges of living with them. “The first thing I always ask people is, ‘Why do you […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes More and more veterinarians are taking low-stress and Fear Free approaches to care. But as pet owners, we can’t leave it all to them. It’s equally important to do our part to make health care less stressful for our dogs. That starts at home – and it’s really not hard. You may think your dog […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes When we think of exercising our dogs, we tend to think of going all out – long, brisk walks, throwing a ball as far as possible, vigorous romping with other dogs. But in the life of nearly all dogs there will be circumstances where that’s not possible, including when your dog is recovering from injury […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Even those of us who love dogs don’t love the sound of constant barking. One effective way to get dogs to bark their heads off is to leave them outside in a yard alone. Maybe you have a neighbor who does this, but maybe you even do it yourself, because you think your dog loves […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Traditionally, little thought was given to enrichment for reptiles, and a pet tortoise can often play a role more like a decorative object than a pet. But times are changing, for good reason. “In pretty much every species it’s been shown that the ability to have choices and make decisions and perform a full range […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes My first dog was thrilled to go anywhere and meet anyone. Crowds, children, traffic: she was calm in the face of it all. So I could not understand what was wrong with other dogs or, more to the point, their owners. You know the ones I mean: their dogs jumped and barked and were out […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes About a year ago, when my veterinarian was unable to get a blood sample out of my reactive and extremely opinionated young Pug, I got to thinking. I have a background working in zoos, where it’s now common to train animals to cooperate in their own medical care. Animals of many species, including bears, hippos, […]
Reading Time: 5 minutes Capybaras were almost unknown in the United States a few years ago. Now the world’s largest rodents star in memes about how chill and friendly they are. There’s even a Tumblr of Animals Sitting on Capybaras. And if you’ve ever seen a photo of a pet capybara sitting on a sofa, there’s a good chance […]