Linda Ryan: Inspiring Pet Teaching - Cat & Dog Behaviourist & Trainer

08/08/2025

😻 Happy International Cat Day! 🎉

(😸 Although, of course, every day is a day to celebrate cats! 💝)

🤗 Our wonderful friends at International Cat Care , who do so much to advocate for & educate on cat welfare, are custodians of & their theme for 2025 is all about “being cat friendly every day”❣️

💡 This theme explores individualising ways to meet the social & physical environmental & care/health needs of all cats, no matter what their circumstances or lifestyle, to offer great wellbeing for cats 😺

🏡 I thought I would share just a few of the MANY ways we are cat friendly to support Olive’s wellbeing every day 😻

🖤🧡 Olive is a human-social pet cat, who lives with us in our home, & is adored. She is a senior lady now, & so we tailor how we support her as her needs evolve 🫶🏻

💭 As a baseline, we ensure that she always has free & immediate physical & emotional access to safe places, multiple & separated resources, opportunities to predate and play, & plenty of cuddles – which she loves! We aim for the home environment to be respectful of her amazing senses, including sight, sound & especially smell 👃🏻
✅ We have introduced ramps & steps to allow easier access now that she is older, & have large, low-sided litter trays with soft litter, as well as raising her food & water bowls 👍🏻

🐱 Here you can see some specific examples -
👉🏻 A large, warm comfy floor-level bed, which happens to be her cat carrier! 🧺
👉🏻 Double whammy - her carrier is an accessible bed, but we have also trained for it to be a safe place, making vet visits & travel better! 💚
👉🏻 Opportunity to deposit scent in places which are important to her – please don’t clean up those greasy little marks at nose height!
👉🏻 Easy access to high places where she can comfortably perch & surveil (& be safe & in the right in a busy kitchen!)
👉🏻 Access to outside; cover to see, but not be seen; & steps to make access easy 🪜
💓 And SO much more… 😊

🤔 Do you have cats in your care? How do you individualise what you do to give them great wellbeing? And how will you be celebrating cats for ❓👇🏻

04/08/2025

🥳 Today we are celebrating 11 years of our beloved Evie in our lives! 🎉💝🥰

🥹 We love her more & more, & we are so grateful & happy to share our lives with this amazing friend❣️ 🧡🤍

🕰️ ❤️‍🩹 Time takes its inevitable toll on her little body, but we are privileged to care for her into senior years, & have the best team around us - supporting her in the most Evie-centric way 💚💪🏻

😘 HAPPY GOTCHA DAY my darling! Here’s to many more happy days & years together 🤞🏻🤗

🚶🏻‍♀️🌧️ 🥂 A lovely pub walk for my girl today - her fav 😊 🐾

31/07/2025

💔 Goodness, I feel sad & mad when I see dogs & their caregivers who've been through the hands of "balanced" trainers 😡

😔 Yesterday, I worked with a gorgeous young dog who's struggling in various situations, inc. around people & dogs, & has situational fears, esp. around loud noises 💥

🐶 Her caregivers love her but are so distressed, & the advice they've received from unqualified aversive “trainers” has been very harmful, likely contributing to the current issues 🥺

❌ From puppyhood, they’d been advised to:
* Yank their puppy back if she approached someone (to the point she was injured once! 😖)
* Set up scary & noisy "b***y traps" to frighten her if she did something "wrong"
* Shake loud metallic objects near her for unwanted (normal puppy) behaviours
* Ignore her for long periods
* Withhold food & WATER
* Confine her, distressed & screaming, to a crate overnight for weeks
* Use punitive equipment 😣

⁉️ It’s unsurprising that this poor dog has issues with people approaching her & is sensitive to sound 😠

❗️Not only does aversive training damage emotional wellbeing & the human-animal bond, it causes trauma, & it’s completely unnecessary!

👎🏻 It’s so sad that people, in good faith, pay their money, follow advice, & subject their dogs to abuse…..

📢 We have compassionate, science-based positive reinforcement methods to set people & pets up for success! These problems don't have to happen & can be helped!

🤷🏻‍♀️ How, in 2025, is this still happening?!

💪🏻 Protect your pup! Advocate for them! 🐶

📖 Please do your research! 🕵️‍♀️ ✅ Make sure anyone you work with is properly qualified, experienced, & voluntarily regulated by a reputable, ethical professional body. Ask questions. If trainers use aversives, &/or are not shouting about their positive reinforcement credentials, be concerned… 😱

💡 And hire the right pro: trainers for training, & clinical behaviourists for anything other than “normal”, ensuring they collaborate with your Vet team & ask for a referral.

👿 It's the Wild West out there – please be careful people!

💡 PLEASE just say NO to harmful animal training practices 🐾 Choose positive reinforcement & compassionate teaching ❤️

19/07/2025

🐾 It’s the weekend 🥳

😻Olive says - ENJOY! 😉 🧡🖤

15/07/2025

🐶 What a difference time, care, teamwork, support & expertise make! 💚 💪🏻

🤍🖤🤎Beautiful H is one of my longest-standing & most beloved dog clients, with an incredible mum❣️

💅🏻 I have been reflecting on how far we have come today, as I quickly & easily clipped her claws, trusting H & her mum to let me know how they were doing & what they needed from me as I worked around her 💓

❗️When we first met, veterinary visits were a source of distress for all involved, with H using dangerous protective behaviours due to fear & learning, making treatment impossible 🛑

💡 We’ve been on a learning journey together since then, & EVERYTHING has changed! We have worked on building trust & communication, finding ways to work around H that help her feel safe & in control, & collaborated with vet teams for successful outcomes 🌟

🥳 Today, H chooses to engage. She cues the vet team when she’s ready to be touched. Her amazing mum advocates & communicates for her. H is a joyful participant in her care, & vet visits are now safe, calm & easy! ✨ 👏🏻

👀 Look at the difference in her body language! 🤩

✅ Change is possible! If you’ve ever worried about your pet’s behaviour at the clinic, groomer of for husbandry/care, you’re not alone, & there’s often lots we can do to benefit everyone involved 👍🏻

08/07/2025

🙄 Really Evie…??! 🤷‍♀️

💝 When your humans adore you beyond reason, & are moving heaven’n earth to keep you comfy & happy in your senior years, dealing with your arthritis as best they can ⚡️ & you have an orthopaedic bed in every room, but… you stuff yourself into the smallest cat carrier for a morning snooze… 😳😴🤪

💤 Less than ideal, as arthritic dogs need to stretch out & sleep supported (she does love her fabulous bed, honest!), but 😆

💪🏻 We are all about choice & control in our house - hence multiple cat carriers set up for Olive, which not only serve as safe & comfy sleeping places, but also mean that her carrier is a familiar & trusted item - “money in the bank” for vet visits 😻💰💚👏🏻

❓Does your senior pet have any quirky preferences? How do you balance their comfort with offering choices? 🐾👇🏻

07/07/2025

❣️Re-sharing this on the third anniversary of launching these videos – they are still so useful and relevant to so many cats and their people 😻

https://icatcare.org/articles/inhaler-training

😸 Well done dear, wonderful Olive 🥳

🤝It was brilliant to work with International Cat Care Veterinary Society - Formerly ISFM & Dr Sarah Ellis on creating these, supported by Trudell Animal Health 💚

🐱🐶🐰🐑🐓 There are also loads of tips for husbandry and consent-based training in general included in the videos, so they are helpful not just for asthmatic cats, but for lots of different species for lots of different reasons 💪🏻 🐾

❓Anyone done the training?! Please share how you got along! 👇🏻

🤔 The alternative for asthmatic cats is either oral steroids, which can have other health concerns, or having their inhaled treatment enforced, which may be really distressing and counter-productive – so teaching your cat how to take part in their own treatment is not only essential, from a welfare perspective, but a game changer in terms of treatment efficacy 🎉

In partnership with Trudell Animal Health, we have created a series of videos to help caregivers train their cats to use asthma inhaler devices.

Inhaler therapy is generally preferable for treating feline asthma, however, the thought of teaching cats to put their heads anywhere near inhaler apparatus may – understandably – initially seem daunting. And, if a cat is not breathing well, the last thing you want to do is stress or frighten it by using force.

Achieving this positively, and in a cat-centred way was the inspiration behind this new series of videos. Until now, there hasn’t been much help out there for caregivers, and these videos are designed to help caregivers to train their cats to use the Aerokat* device calmly and without fear or distress in a step-by-step format that’s easy to follow.

You can watch the full series of videos here: https://bit.ly/3AA2WtM

And find more information here https://bit.ly/3dR2T2Q

30/06/2025

😻 “Hi Mum – glad you’re home!” 💖

😸 Just a purry cat, stretched out with her paw in a sunbeam for your Monday morning delight! 🌞 🖤🧡

🐱 I have had THE most brilliant weekend at the International Cat Care Veterinary Society - Formerly ISFM conference with “my people” - teaching, learning, being inspired, spending time with friends and making new ones, enjoying beautiful Edinburgh, and generally being in the wonderful, warm, inclusive cat friendly “bubble” the team and delegates created 💝

💪🏻 All with the shared goal of making life better for cats 🐱

🤗 Huge thanks to the organising team, our brilliant & engaged delegates, & my fellow speakers 👏🏻

🗣️ And now prepping for a week of teaching! 😊
Great to come home to my two girls, Olive and Evie 🐶🐱🧡

International Cat Care

26/06/2025

😻 🗣️Four talks written & practiced; four panel discussions prepped for; Wilma is packed 😹; nails are done ✅ 💅🏻 👉🏻 International Cat Care Veterinary Society - Formerly ISFM here I come! ✈️ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🔜

😸 So excited to be going, and honoured to be taking part at this year’s International Cat Care conference - my fav - in my beloved Edinburgh this weekend! 💝

🐱 I am delighted to be speaking on kitten socialisation and training, cooperative care, and the role of training in behaviour cases, and taking part in some really fascinating panel discussions with amazing colleagues – &, of course, so much great learning to look forward to! I can’t wait! 🤩

💡 “Cat fashion” is always a thing, so I have splashed out on some cat nail art! Thank you so much to Wendy at silkysweetsugaringandnails - I think these cats are adorable! 🐈‍⬛ 🐈 Shall I name them?! 🤔 👇🏻

❓Looking forward to seeing friends & colleagues - who is going? Please say hello 👋🏻

13/06/2025

😻 Success Story! Lovely M's Journey to a Happier Life 🐾

🖤 Meet M, a handsome & much-loved cat struggling with stress cystitis (FIC). Referred by his internal medicine specialist, M was experiencing cystitis every 2-3 weeks ⚡️😖

Living with another cat he didn't get along with, plus stressful neighbourhood cats, & M not having the autonomy he needed, led to anxiety & frustration 😿

💪🏻 Working with his amazing mum, & brilliant vet team, we found solutions benefiting all cats & humans 💚

💡 Improving M's physical health relied on addressing his mental well-being, which increased quality of life for the whole household 😺

🤗 M's mum shared: "We were unsure about a behaviourist, thinking we already did our best, but we learned so much from Linda. As long-term cat owners, we certainly learned new ways to keep the house calm. Job well done & a house of happy kitties!" 🐈‍⬛

😻 M’s case highlights the importance of teamwork, the involvement of a feline Clinical Animal Behaviourist’s support, esp. from a Veterinary Nurse - all taking an individualised approach to supporting M & his family 💞

💚 Vet Pros: When you have feline patients with stress-related cystitis, do you consider referring them for behavioural support? Addressing stress makes a world of difference to case outcomes!

❓ Cat caregivers: Do you have a cat who suffers from stress &/or urinary signs? 👇🏻 Feline clinical behaviourists can help!

👍🏻 Whilst these cases can be challenging, I am always happy to collaborate with Vet teams & support caregivers, so please don’t hesitate to reach out! 😊

24/05/2025

💜 Having a fab time in Porto at the European Society of Veterinary Oncology (ESVONC) Congress 🇵🇹

🤓 I love this opportunity to learn, network, be inspired & be among my veterinary oncology & nursing community 💚

🤔 I may not be on the “shop floor” doing clinical oncology on a daily basis, but I remain involved in the veterinary oncology/nursing world, I use my specialist skills in my day-to-day clinical & nursing work, including in teaching, & I very much value my Veterinary Technician Specialist status - so keeping up to date through continuing education is really important 💪🏻

📚 It’s been a wonderful Congress & I’ve connected with old friends & made new ones, been to some great lectures, as well as having the honour of being involved in some exciting oncology nursing initiatives - it’s incredible to see our strong, dedicated professional evolving 👏🏻 🤩

🤗 Thank you to everyone at ESVONC for the great Congress!

🥧 🍷 I’ve probably eaten too many custard tarts & drunk just a little too much port, & now it’s off to the gala dinner…! 🥂

15/05/2025

🧶 My craft project from last weekend! 😻

💻 I bought a tablet for work a few months ago, which was supposed to make my life easier, but I am not feeling the love (yet…)! 🙀

😸 I tried adding Olive to the home screen, which improved my feelings towards it, of course! But it still needed more…🤔

💡So I decided to invest time & effort into it, & crocheted a cover with paw prints and rows of cats! 🐱 🐾 I think it turned out well? 🤍🧡🖤

💭 I had a conversation with some esteemed colleagues yesterday about how investing time, effort & care into a relationship - under expert guidance, in the case of clinical animal behaviour cases - can really make a difference. I see this being successful so often as part of the process of working with the cats, dogs and caregivers to support them 💪🏻 Maybe it can work for tricksy technology too! 😹

👇🏻 Have you ever invested effort & time in a solution for your pet & it changed how you felt about your relationship & made things better for you both?