Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Repeat after me: Any dog can bite anyone at any time. Yes, even nice dogs, shy dogs, and scared dogs can and do bite people every day. The victims are not limited to mail carriers perceived or to children determined to deliver big hugs. About 4.5 million people of all ages from all states are […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes You’ve noticed your dog hates hats. As in people wearing them. What’s going on? Has he become a fashion critic? We take for granted our dogs’ incredibly acute senses of smell and hearing. But dogs also rely on vision to navigate their world. Depending on their breed, age, and the circumstances around the headgear, dogs […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Not long ago, a woman contacted me about her dog. He was an accomplished trash can raider and recently had surgery to remove several foreign objects from his intestinal tract. “I guess it’s time for him to be trained,” she said. This idea that training is something that happens to the dog is not unusual. […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Scratching. It’s a perfectly normal, natural cat behavior that meets grooming, exercise, and communication needs. But while cats enjoy the sensation of scratching and use their scratch marks to send messages to other cats—“Blinky was here” or “Look how big I am!”—the destructive nature of the habit can put owners and cats at odds with […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Audra H. has been disabled since a car accident while she was in college. “I have a blood clot on my brain that causes episodes of syncope. Simply put, I pass out,” she explains. “I have fibromyalgia, bilateral neuropathy, bilateral sciatica and constant migraines, just to name a few of the issues I live with.” […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Does your dog whine, wiggle, and wet whenever you come home? That could be excitement related or even fear related to your homecomings. Of course, you don’t want your dog to be scared, but the wet floor ratchets up your stress levels, too. What does it mean, and what’s a caring pet parent to do? […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Your elderly canine friend might be a little grumpy about being brushed as she ages. Here are some tips to keep grooming sessions stress-free while taking a few extra steps to ensure her day-to-day comfort. Keep Sessions Short Older dogs may not be able to stand comfortably for more than a few minutes at a […]
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: 3 minutes Ivan, my 12-year-old Siberian, is a brainiac. It’s a challenge sometimes to stay one step ahead of him. When he was about four months old, he learned to open a cabinet door to get his favorite toy. He then transferred that knowledge to other cabinets and various types of closet doors not only in our […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes When cats aren’t scratching where their people would like, it may mean the cat lands at a shelter or is dumped outdoors. It may also mean that the cat is punished by being declawed, which is nothing short of an amputation. To be clear, the last portion of each digit is removed (akin to cutting […]