Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes When cat litter was invented in 1947, it was made of grains of absorbent clay called Fuller’s earth. There was just one brand, called Kitty Litter, and cat owners had a choice between that or natural sand or sawdust. Today cat litter is a $2 billion industry in the United Sates. Much of that is […]
Reading Time: < 1 minutes Noodles gets the “crazies,” the zooms-at-three-a.m. stuff. Dusk and dawn are favorite times, when the predator is on alert. She thunders up and down stairs, races down halls, or gnaws on your head, on your nose, on toes. She’s after prey, whether imaginary or just you. Cattens also knock things over, for the fun of […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes When thunderstorms strike, does your cat run and hide under the bed or in the closet? Maybe you notice that she just disappears and you don’t think much about it? Dogs earn the greatest amount of recognition when it comes to fear of thunderstorms because their reactions are more visible: they tremble, pace, hide, try […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes The Fourth of July is one of the busiest days of the year for animal control officers. Lost and terrified pets fill shelters. Booming fireworks cause frightened dogs to jump fences they’ve never jumped before; others leap from their owners’ arms and disappear across a busy street. An anxious dog may show subtle or dramatic […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Storm phobia is a problem not just because dogs are afraid. The physiological reaction to fear is bad enough—the racing heart, the rush of stress hormones—but fear also causes dogs to react in dangerous or destructive ways. They may destroy doors or jump through windows in an attempt to escape the frightening situation. By the […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Do you jump at unexpected loud noises? It’s adaptive for humans and other animals to startle at sudden loud sounds. We might run the other way or hide if we didn’t understand what a certain sound was. The same thing happens with many of our pets when they hear fireworks go off. It’s not that […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Spring is the time for new beginnings, flowers, sunshine, and kittens. Yes, kittens. Spring and summer are known as kitten season, for good reason. It’s the time of year that the tiny cats-to-be are born and, at the appropriate age, go to their new homes. Before you bring one of these cute kittens home, learn […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes It’s a reality that not everyone wants to hear: Not all dog parks and dog beaches are for all dogs or for that matter for all people. Here’s what I mean. I recently visited a dog beach, and one particular Mastiff was taking advantage of his size, acting like the beach bully. He bulldozed other […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes How much does your cat like his carrier? If your cat is like most, the answer is “Not at all!” Most of us drag the carrier out of storage minutes before we need it and wrestle our cats inside. If we are lucky, no one is bleeding and we can still get where we need […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes If your dog is fearful of storms with thunder, lightning, hail, or high winds, you’re not alone. There are no statistics on the numbers of pets with storm phobia–or to give the fear its scientific name, astraphobia–but it’s likely that the prevalence of this type of noise sensitivity in dogs is 20 percent or higher, […]