🤔 When you buy your older cat a raised bowl, to increase their comfort, so they don’t have to bend down to eat…
… And they treat it as a puzzle feeder, and end up bending down to eat anyway…! 😹
😻 Anyone else have any well-intentioned/kindness fails, where your pets have laughed in the face of your best attempts to support them!? Please share 👇🏻
#catswillbecats #catsincontrol #allabouttheindividual #showswhatiknow #happycaturday
🍂☀️ Summer has gone, but we have some beautiful autumn days to mooch about in the sunshine, & there are plenty of apples on the ground, and wasps to feed on them 🍎 🐝
🐶 🤔 I captured this moment of emotional conflict as Evie tried to gain an apple whilst avoiding the wasp!
💡 It’s a lovely example of emotional-motivational conflict. This is something we all experience, and we often see in our animals – it’s a state of “I want and I don’t want at the same time”
✅ This example is cute, & Evie has lots of choice and control - there is no need for me to do do anything, as she is able to use her own behaviour to manage the situation
❌ However, conflict can be very difficult for our pets, eg when they are in situations that they cannot control, or that are unpredictable, or that cause pets to feel emotionally distressed, or which do not allow some form of resolution for them
😿 Common examples are when a pet is trying to access something they want but cannot, or when they are trying to get away from something they are concerned about, e.g.:
- A cat that rolls over & exposes their tummy in front of you, & we tickle it (“I like you, but I don’t like that“)
- A dog that runs away when you pick up their walking harness (“I’d love to go for a walk, but I don’t enjoy the handling to put my harness on”)
- A patient at the vet clinic that lashes out “for no reason” (“I can’t escape or avoid you, & you are trying to handle me”)
❓ Have you ever seen your pet being conflicted? What did it look like, & how did you know? 👇🏻
🐶 Evie and I love to do scent games & training together 🧡🤍
👃🏻 It is a lovely calm, cognitive & empowering activity for our dogs. Any dog, of any ability can take part, enjoy it & be successful 😊
💞 We have no aspirations to compete or gain rosettes - we do it for fun & bonding, & love carving out time just for us 💖
At the mo, we’re working on 3 elements of fluency for our indicator behaviour:
➡️ Precision (what the behaviour looks like) – a hover at the odour source, or as close as she can get. I think it’s looking good! 🥳
➡️ Duration (how long she does the behaviour for) - I would like to her to hold the hover for >5 seconds, &/or until I click
✅ I vary the length of time she holds the position before I click – sometimes shorter, sometimes longer, then reward her 🍖
➡️ Distractions (being able to do the behaviour with things going on around her) – important so I can indicate that I have read her & believe she has found the scent, while Evie keeps hovering until I mark her
✅ I am speaking in a silly voice, & moving my hand (phone!) around, while she maintains her indication 🌀
💪🏻 And she is rocking it! 🔥
☕️ We train little & often, & grab moments while the kettle is boiling. This can be such a successful way to teach 😁 #QualityOverQuantity
🤔 Often the emphasis in scentwork training is on search/find, with cursory attention to the indication. Finding is the easy bit for most dogs! The indication is the last piece of the chain, so should be highly rewarded so the dog is paid for finding AND is also enjoying indicating 😊
💡 I love to teach various types of nosework to the dogs I work with, not just for mental stimulation & bonding with their caregivers, but also to add positives & build confidence - which can be so valuable in many of my behaviour cases. I also use it to teach a natural, enjoyable & engaging activity in the face of all sorts of environmental stimulation, & which
❓What is wrong with this picture? 😼
💩Not a sexy topic, but an important one for our cats 🐱
🐱 The sharp-eyed cat folk will spot what I saw when walking by this home – ie this litter tray in the porch 🗃️ 💦 💩
🤔 What do you think about it? Any loves or hates?!
❓ What do I love about it? Well, not a lot!
✅ To be fair, it had low sides, which means it is easily accessible, even for cats with mobility problems
✅ It was filled with a soft fine-grain substrate (it looked like soil), to a good depth
💡 Some cats prefer natural litter substrate, & all should have the opportunity to dig, so litter should be deep enough (min. 4cm) for them to bury urine/faeces, & it should be fine/easy for them to walk on & dig in
✅ It had open sides & 360° visibility
💡 Whilst all cats are individuals, & some do like hooded or covered trays, many do not, & it can make them feel vulnerable (esp. in multi-cat homes 🐈⬛🐈) or be off-putting if smells are trapped inside 😷
⁉️ What did I hate about it?
❌ It was very small
💡 Litter trays should be large enough for cats to get in & move without any part of their body touching the sides – ie about 1.5 times the length of the cat
❌ I could see it was dirty – implying that it had not been cleaned in a while… 🤢
💡 Litter trays should be checked & scooped at least twice a day, more if there are multiple cats or the cat is toileting more for any reason (inc illness), & they should be emptied/washed every 7-10 days (depending on how much use they get)
❌It was VERY exposed - not only was it in the middle of the room, surrounded by clutter - inc. a mirror 🙀 but everybody (dogs, cats, people) who walked by (or came to the door) could
see through all of the glass surrounding the litter tray
💡 Just like us, cats like to use a clean, secluded loo that feels safe, & where we are not feeling vulnerable – litter trays should be situated where the cat can see around them, bu
💖 Some great advice here from International Cat Care regarding the use of scent for cats, based on some discussions we have recently had on their Feline Well-Being Panel:
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/6couvbpxcnNKGNqf/?mibextid=WC7FNe
🐱 👃🏻 Using scent for entertainment, engagement, & optimising the environment for cats can be really beneficial & fun. We must always consider the individual cat, in terms of what they will enjoy, how they might respond, whether it is safe for all around them, & also how we provide cat-safe scented items (some products are better quality, & more engaging for cats)
💡💰 You don’t need to spend much money to provide sensory stimulation. E.g., you could stuff an old sock with homegrown catnip for them to grip, rub & kick. Or sprinkle some valerian on a textured mat for cats to roll about on. A little can go along way, & it can really last if you keep it sealed 👍🏻
😻 We have just swapped Olive’s toys about – we keep a Ziploc bag of toys - one with dried valerian, & another with catnip. Every 7-10 days, we gather up some toys from around the house, put them in these bags, & fish some new ones out, so as to refresh the scent & have her enjoy them all over again!
Note the licking, biting, shaking, kicking, stretching, rolling, rubbing & self-grooming behaviours – whilst she is somewhat aroused, she is calmly & happily engaged in enjoying her newly valerian’d rat! 🐀 😁
🤔 Did you know that sensitivity to catnip is genetic, & – while 70-80% of cats will respond, some cats won’t even acknowledge it?! Also, there may be varying levels of arousal (or they may relax), & the response is largely involuntary. The response tends to wear off quite quickly, & then they no longer engage with the scent 😺
❓Have you tried catnip, valerian, tatarian honeysuckle, or a silver vine with your cat(s)? How do they respond? ⬇️
⚡️Fresh from a weekend of learning at the Canine Arthritis Management chronic pain symposium this weekend, this seems very pertinent… Over the weekend the Council put a top dressing on on our road, which includes a thick layer of sharp chippings embedded in the tarmac 🛣️
😣 This morning, on our short before-work stroll, we headed out of the house as usual, and this is what I saw…
🤔 Notice the lack of bounce, the tail & head down, the tight scrunched-up face, ears down, the wide-based gait and slow walking? See the moment she looks up at me & looses her balance? This is very far away from her usual confident, tail-up, curious and engaged jooshey approach to life…
❓So, what’s going on? Well – because she has elbow arthritis, if she is having to walk on spiky gravelly terrain, she will need to adjust her gait as it will be uncomfortable under foot. This will impact how she moves her joints, and her entire body, so we will end up with a very uncomfortable girl in that moment, but this is also likely to impact pain later in the day, & potentially cause all sorts of issues that will need to be sorted out by our wonderful physio over weeks to come if I allow this to continue. Of course, I did not!
✅ I immediately recognised that this was uncomfortable & difficult for her. How did I know? I looked at behaviour - she told me! I noticed all of the little pieces & put them together to recognise she was having a problem 🤲🏻
💭 However, she initially told me she wanted to continue! What - it hurts!? This is likely relates to the conflict of wanting to go for her walk, but it being painful to do so. We must always acknowledge that the presence of motivation does not equal the absence of pain…
💪🏻 So, until the road smoothes out again, we will be driving to the Forest, or taking her chariot, so that we can skip to the good bits of her walks without risking discomfort & harm 😊
💡 Pets’ moment-to-moment behaviour is telling
😻 Just walked in on this cuteness 🐱🐶🥰
📺 🦦 Watching otters on TV is fun, apparently (if you’re a cat! Dogs - not so much, it seems!) 😺
👍🏻 I love her calm engagement - she’s just interestedly watching - no twitching tail, frantic movements or jumping at the telly - nothing that makes me think she is frustrated. She’s enjoying it 😸
❓Does your pet watch TV? 👇🏻
Some nosework under the shelter of the woods on this soggy day 👃🏻 ☔️
Really clever work from my sweet friend “P”, & lovely handling from mum 👏🏻
“P” is one of my favs, & I’ve known him since he was a pup!
I’ve been working with this brilliant team for a few years now - staring with puppy socialisation & life skills, through to adolescent “challenges”, with some troubleshooting & support along the way to help him with some situational anxieties - including handling for care interactions - and it’s always a pleasure. His fantastic family are so caring & diligent, & always want to do their very best for him 😁
Nowadays, he’s such a goodie-good-boy, & we spend our sessions doing fun stuff - he really loves & excels at nose work 💝
❓What’s your pet’s favourite rainy day activity? What do they excel at? 👇🏻🌧️
🐱Are there any cats in America ⁉️
🇺🇸 We’ve just come back from a fantastic, blowout trip for our birthdays to see my favourite band, U2, in Las Vegas (the show was AMAZING!) 🕶️ 🎤 🎶 🪩 We then had a week of holiday to road trip (across desert & vineyards) to San Diego ☀️
Some animal observations that I found curious as we travelled…
We spent time in 2 big cities, as well as out in the countryside in rural places – but there were no cats… And - obviously, even though I was on hols - I was looking…! 😹
🤔 Cats are a hugely popular companion animal across the globe, including in the US – so, where were they all?! We saw none out’n about doing cat stuff, including in the smaller towns & villages, or in the country - no pet cats, no free-living cats...The only cats I saw were when I peered through the window of a closed cat café (there were a lot of cats, confined in a small space - they did not appear to have enough resources, & looked quite stressed 😿) I was glad not to see cats out & about on the city streets, or being carried in backpacks though 👍🏻 Perhaps they were largely kept indoors in the areas we visited? 💭
So, I was very cat deprived by the time we got home, & delighted that Olive has been in the mood for loads of snuggles over the last 48 hours! 🧡🖤😻 (Please do share some of your beautiful cats to make up for it! 👇🏻)
🐶 We did see LOADS of gorgeous dogs. Dogs all over the place, being taken everywhere, in big cities, in the casinos of Las Vegas, in handbags, dressed up - some doing OK, some not coping so well… What I found tough to see was the amount of dogs being walked (& jerked) on metal prong collars - everywhere we went, & being overtly used – it was really sad to see their prevalence 💔😢
Some differences that were interesting & thought-provoking to me, for sure. (I did also notice that the streets are definitely not paved with cheese 🧀 😆)
So now back t
