Separation Anxiety: The Great Imitator, Part 4 By Meredith Stepita, DVM, DACVB It’s hard to believe we have been able to cover so many differentials for behaviors associated with separation anxiety in just 3 blogs! The only other differential I want to briefly mention is predatory behavior. Destructive behavior (and even vocalization)...
Separation Anxiety: The Great Imitator, Part 3 By Meredith Stepita, DVM, DACVB Another common symptom of separation anxiety is urination and/or defecation in the house. First, all medical causes (e.g., intestinal parasites, urinary tract infections, etc) need be ruled out by visiting your veterinarian. Then, other behavioral causes should be considered. When...
Separation Anxiety: The Great Imitator, Part 2 By Meredith Stepita, DVM, DACVB One of the first natural remedies most people try when their dog is destructive to the house is confining the dog to a crate. Unfortunately, most of my patients with separation anxiety DO NOT improve when placed in a crate....
Separation Anxiety: The Great Imitator, Part 1 By Meredith Stepita, DVM, DACVB Clients often tell me that their dog has separation anxiety. When I ask them what exactly their dog is doing, the answer varies widely. This is because there are many different causes of behaviors that mimic the signs consistent with...
Why It’s Hard Being Tiny and Cute by Jennifer Summerfield, DVM Today, I want to talk about little dogs. I was at a client’s home a few weeks ago, doing a behavior consultation for their adorable two-year-old Maltese mix. “Chloe” had a tendency to get over-aroused and begin barking,...
Worried about using food luring during training? by Kelly Ballantyne, DVM, DACVB The science is pretty clear at this point that using positive reinforcement (i.e. giving an animal something s/he likes to increase the chance they’ll repeat a behavior) is the most effective and humane means of training. In...
Dogs and cats are social animals who can learn easily to respond to many of our words, gestures, and body language cues throughout any given day. In some cases, our pets learn our words so well that we end up having to spell them out when communicating with other...
Can Music Make Cats Less Stressed? by Mikel Maria Delgado, PhD Psychology I love music – always have. I listen a lot – while I’m working, while I’m cooking, while I’m driving, running, if I’m not sleeping there might be some music in the background (right now, it’s Bob Mould’s new...
Cats in the Basement: Let’s Help Them Venture Forth! (Part 3) by Cheryl Kolus, DVM, KPA-CTP In Part 2 of this series, we discussed big-picture strategies to help mitigate your cat’s fear and talked about triggers and reinforcers. We also emphasized the importance of ruling out underlying medical problems and...
Cats in the Basement: Let’s Help Them Venture Forth! (Part 2) by Cheryl Kolus, DVM, KPA-CTP In the last article, we looked at why some cats are fearful, the body language of fear, levels of fear and the effects of fear. Now that you have a better understanding of...
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