Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Does your cat streak for the bedroom and dash underneath the bed every time she hears the doorbell ring? Do visitors seem disbelieving that you actually have a cat because they’ve never seen her? I know just how you feel. That was the case with my cat Shelby, a beautiful but painfully shy black-and-white domestic […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Stress: we can’t live with it; we can’t live without it. Defined as emotional strain or tension resulting from environmental challenges or demanding circumstances, stress is an integral part of being alive. No living being or environment is completely stress-free, no matter how sedate the existence. Stress jump-starts the body to meet challenging situations. The […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Bones, my five-year-old English Shepherd, is an athlete. He twists, turns, dashes, and runs hard. He leaps, jumps, and climbs. While all this hard exercise keeps him physically fit and mentally happy, he is tough on his paws. Once in a while he’ll scrape a pad or come up with a cut on a paw, […]
Reading Time: < 1 minutes Most of us know the importance of physical wellbeing for pets. And it’s no surprise that pets who like going to the veterinarian are healthier because it’s easier to get them examined and cared for. That’s one of the reasons so many veterinarians are now bringing Fear Free techniques into their practices. Now we […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes One of the biggest upsets for many pet-loving families is getting a diagnosis of cancer in their beloved dog or cat. Luckily, many advances in veterinary medicine allow pets to live longer, high-quality lives despite this diagnosis. The prognosis will vary dramatically with the type of cancer, but many pets can gain years of good […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes A good grounding in nail anatomy is one of the secrets to a nail trim that doesn’t cause your dog to run away in fear and you to stress out over giving it. Understanding exactly how and where to trim helps to ensure that you don’t “quick” your dog, a painful experience that typically leads […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes My grandfather and his dog, Trimmer, a Redbone Coonhound, went about their daily routine of feeding the cows. When they didn’t come home at their normal time, my uncle and a neighbor went to look for them. They found my grandfather slumped against an old oak tree where he had collapsed from a fatal heart […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes You’ve brought home your new car, loaded it with the things you normally carry, and you’re ready to go for a drive with your dog riding shotgun (safely secured, of course). But when you invite him to jump in, he puts on the brakes. Your faithful canine companion knew your old car. This car is […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes From a pet’s perspective, ear handling and care can be unsettling and downright scary unless it’s conducted in a way that allows the pet to feel safe and comfortable. Why do pets fear ear cleaning and care? For an animal with fear, anxiety, or stress (FAS), ear care may seem threatening, especially if sensitive ear […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes The photo on social media shows a box of young kittens. The text says, “Kittens abandoned. Fosters needed.” You look up the rescue group and find they are local to you. Fingers poised over the keyboard, you ask yourself, should I foster? Having fostered kittens for a number of years, I’ve faced this scenario more […]