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 separation anxiety. Sometimes pet owners may not […]

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, jumping, and nipping over seemingly benign […]

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 most cases when we are working […]

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 people in the family. (“John, we […]

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 album, “Sunshine Rock”). But does my […]

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 providing hiding places so your cat […]

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 your fearful cat, let’s get to […]

Cats in the Basement: Let’s Help Them Venture Forth! by Cheryl Kolus, DVM, KPA-CTP A recent client told me that her petsitter, who stops by a couple times a day when they’re out of town to care for the couple’s two dogs and two cats, has never seen Whisper, their 8-year-old kitty. Never laid eyes […]

It’s useful for many reasons to teach your dog to Sit and Stay while the front door opens. In addition to preventing bolting, a reliable Sit/Stay by the front door can be used to prevent crowding, jumping on, or mouthing at visitors when they arrive; to prevent chasing after owners when they leave the house; […]

Do food puzzles increase feline frolicking? By Mikel Maria Delgado, PhD Psychology I’m a big fan of food puzzles as an enrichment choice for cats. As natural predators, cats have evolved to work for their food. We brought them inside, handed them a bowl of food, and took their jobs away. At least that’s the […]