Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Something’s going down with our relationship with “man’s best friend,” and it’s not the number of dog bites. According to an article in the April 12, 2023, Insurance Journal, the number of dog bite claims since 2003 has gone from 7,359 to 17,597: a whopping increase of 139 percent. That number far exceeds the corresponding […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes April 10 is National Hug Your Dog Day, but hugging dogs isn’t always a good idea, or even an expression of love, at least not from the dog’s perspective. All primates, from chimpanzees to Japanese macaques (snow monkeys) to humans, are hard-wired to console others and communicate affection by hugging. Dogs are not primates. Perhaps […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Is it really love? When cats purr, what are they trying to tell us? First, how do they do it? It’s surprising that cats have no special apparatus in their body to enable them to purr. Purring involves the rapid movement of the muscles of the larynx (voice box), combined with movement of the diaphragm […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes When young kittens reach sexual maturity, often at 5 months or younger, the yowling, spraying, and escape attempts can overwhelm cat parents, but there’s a solution.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Aversive dog training methods don’t work. Here’s what does, and why it’s vital to saving dogs’ lives.
Reading Time: 4 minutes Northern blue tongue skinks have advantages: they’re not too large, they don’t require insects in their diet, and they can have long lifespans.
Reading Time: 3 minutes You see them everywhere, and you may think kinda cool, a dog walker with anywhere from four to a dozen and even more dogs all strolling together in what are sometimes marketed as “power walks” or “pack leader walks.” A more accurate term may be “precarious walks.” Dog walkers can be a valuable benefit, assuming […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes No one sent an email to pets explaining, “Everything is about to change; there’s a pandemic and your people with be home 24/7.” Some pets took a while to adjust to their new normal, while dogs who may have been walked more often and cats who could sit in laps more often relished this new […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes A worrisome trend that began during the pandemic is that more people are walking dogs off leash, even in crowded urban areas. There are lots of concerns regarding this craze, but safety is number one. Here are seven reasons to keep dogs on a leash: Safety First: It’s true that dogs can learn to navigate […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Depending on where you happen to live, your neighborhood may seem like a horror movie come to life. Millions of cicadas from Brood X, or the 17-year cicadas, will swarm and create a cacophony louder than several jackhammers. They are annoying to us but otherwise harmless, although some dogs consider them an opportunity for a […]