Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 4 minutes It’s an immense privilege to have loved my Lab mix, Rio, for over 12 years. My husband and I adopted him from an animal shelter when he was just a few months old, and we’ve enjoyed each life stage – curious puppy, athletic adult, and now, sweet senior. But it’s concerning to watch the dog […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes My 80-pound Labrador, Logan, was quivering in excitement to meet his new little brother. “Little” was not an exaggeration. My new Papillon puppy, Finian, weighed a scant 1.2 pounds. Was the size difference between the two a big deal? Yes! Planning ahead, I had prepared everything for a safe, positive introduction. I sat on the […]
Reading Time: 6 minutes It’s been said that you are what you eat. But perhaps when applied to dogs, it’s more accurate to say, “You are how you eat.” The way dogs are fed, starting in the formative time of puppyhood, has monumental effects on their physical, emotional, and mental wellbeing and has power to change their internal state […]
Reading Time: < 1 minutes You take your dog or cat to the vet or groomer, and when they come back, your other pets growl or hiss at them, as if they’ve suddenly become the enemy. That’s because your pet smells different, maybe even scary, thanks to the scents they bring back from the clinic or salon, where they’ve been […]
Reading Time: < 1 minutes It’s spooky season! And while that might be fun for you, your pet doesn’t always feel the same way about ghostly decorations or sinister costumes, let alone kids knocking at the door demanding candy. Our handout offers tips on keeping your pet’s scare levels low and ways to help them enjoy the festivities, either in […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes As a baseball fan and dog nut, I was delighted a few years ago when the Colorado Rockies announced tickets were on sale for a dog-friendly event called Bark at the Park. Rockies fans could bring their socialized, vaccinated dogs to Coors Field to watch an actual MLB game. I bought tickets, submitted my dogs’ […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes What simple behavior could save your parrot’s life? Scale training! Sounds silly but getting and recording regular weights on your parrot can be a life saver. One of the things we know about parrots is that they have a tendency to mask signs of illness. The theory behind this is that in the wild, a […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Can you tell if your horse is afraid or stressed? As prey animals, horses work hard to hide their emotions and the signs could be very subtle. A horse’s reaction to a scary thing might seem like a sudden explosion because you missed the clues about what he was thinking leading up to that moment. […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Being in a shelter is stressful for any dog. But does the color of a dog’s fur determine how long they will be in that shelter? The idea that black-coated dogs are more likely to stay longer than others is known as Black Dog Syndrome (BDS) and is a controversial topic. Is it real? Here’s […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes If you’ve ever had the triumph of a newly vacuumed floor disrupted by a tumbleweed of cat hair drifting around the corner, you know that a truly clean house is difficult to achieve when you live with pets. For the approximately 10 to 20 percent of adults worldwide who have allergies to cats, the consequences […]