Cat & Dog Behavior & Care Advice
Amy Shojai, CABC, Pet Expert & Award-Winning Author
DWAA Hall of Fame & AVMA Veterinary Media Award Winner
Fearful Fido? Know the Signs of Dog Fear, Anxiety, and Stress (FAS)
Do you have a fearful Fido? Do you need help with the loud thunderstorms happening this time of year that makes dogs scared? It seems silly, but some dogs feel stress when their human wears a hat! I wanted to share some resources for recognizing and understanding signs of canine fear, anxiety, and stress.
Dog Hunting Behavior & How to Control Canine Prey Drive
That pooch on your lap or sleeping by your feet doesn’t need to hunt to eat. Well-fed dogs hunt better than hungry dogs, too, because hunger doesn’t trigger canine prey drive. The sound, scent, or sight of moving critters triggers canine prey drive. Yes, hunting breeds may have this instinct fine-tuned, but even a pampered pet dog reacts to a leaping squirrel, the rustle of leaves, or the scent of the bunny frozen in the shrubs.
THRILLER BOOKS 1-3 AUDIOBOOK SALE!
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Best Pet Door, Puppy Gate, and Pet Gate Options: How to Train Pets to Use Baby Gate
According to many who know, a cat is always on the wrong side of the door. They drive us crazy with meow-demands to open the door, let them in, let them out, with rarely any rhyme or reason to their requests. So pet doors, baby gates for pets, puppy gates, and other pet barriers can offer the best options for your cats and dogs.
Why Use Pet Gates?
People use pet doors and puppy gates for convenience, but also for safety reasons. While dog doors typically give access to the backyard doggy potty area, there are multiple ways a pet door benefits Kitty. Think outside the cat box and a pet door helps you manage your multi-pet household, as well as potential behavior issues.
There are too many risks involved to allow cats or dogs to roam outside unsupervised. Coyotes come right up on my back patio and would love to munch my Karma-Kat. But if partnered with a safe area, a pet door offers lots of convenience for a cat, especially when you aren’t home to do door duty.
Install pet doors in the interior or exterior walls, doors, windows, or even sliding panels to give access to an inside room, or safe outdoor area. Cats love window watching, so this can be a great option when the pet door unit simply fits into the existing opening.
How to Provide Scent Enrichment for Cats
Our cats are sensory creatures, but we often overlook their acute sense of smell. Dr. Mikel Maria Delgado reports that studies indicate cats can even sniff out their human’s stress–detecting fear, happy smells, and more. Scent enrichment for cats in their environment offers inexpensive, effective, and fun ways to keep your cats happy, stress-free, and healthy. It often reduces, eliminates, or prevents cat behavior problems.
Make Car Rides Pet Safe With Harnesses
Pets car ride safe travel provides vital protection for dogs and cats. With Magical-Dawg, we used a pet gate to keep him safely in the back seat, and later a halter that buckled into the seatbelt. Bravo suffered from car sickness, so we added seat covers to protect the car seat. These days, Shadow-Pup thinks he owns the car and demands a ride every morning. That means we make car rides pet safe with harnesses.
Food Obsessed Pets and Why Pets Gobble Food
Do your pets gobble food? Are they pushy around the food bowl? Food aggression in cats (rare) and dogs (more common) can be a problem. But food obsessed pets happen for a variety of reasons…
CBD Oil For Dogs from HempMy Pet
I was contacted by HempMy Pet about their hemp pet treats and CBD oil for dogs. Now, I’ve heard about hemp oil for dogs, and the Internet has a wide variety of hemp products and organic pet treats available. Since a veterinarian endorsed the products on the website, I...
What Are the Health Benefits of Pets?
Anyone who has ever lived with a cat or dog knows they increase our happiness quotient. But did you know that they actually improve our health? Multiple studies have proven what pet lovers intuitively have known forever. Pets are good for what ails you!
Cat Scratch Training Tips: How to Stop Cats from Clawing Furniture
One of the top questions I receive involves how to stop cats from clawing. The answer is–you can’t! But you CAN teach them to scratch “legal” options instead of your furniture. And of course, you can clip your cat’s claws–here’s how. As with other behavior “pet peeves,” the key is understanding the issue from the cat’s point of view.

















