Dr. Jennifer Feeney - Build a Better Bond Pet Behavior

30/11/2024

In a multi-cat household, resources are everything! A key rule to maintain harmony is ensuring there are enough resources - aim for at least one more than the number of cats in your home. This is especially important for litter boxes, but don’t stop there! Think about other essentials like water dishes, scratching posts, cozy resting spots, and toys. Sharing might be caring for us, but for cats, it can lead to stress and conflict. Providing plenty of options keeps everyone happy and healthy! 🐈✨

05/11/2024

Sharing my gofundme again! This cause is so important, these poor dogs suffer in such nightmarish conditions - it’s nothing like here in America.
I know we could find this new ambulance pretty fast if everyone with ten bucks to spare donated and SHARED!!

🐾🐾🐾 Please help 🐾🐾 Please share 🐾🐾

I know we can make this happen! My friend Titas Mukherjee runs… Jennifer Feeney needs your support for Help Buy an Ambulance for Urgent Care for Stray Dogs

23/10/2024

BORN THIS WAY?
Why is a dog the way they are? Are they just born this way?

Genetics certainly play a part, but genetics are not always a reliable predicter of behaviour.

Genetics can provide us with insight as to what could be expected, but it’s so much more than just that.

Genetics, environment, life experiences and individuality all play a role in shaping a dog’s behaviour.

Just like us, dogs are unique individuals, each with their own personalities, emotions, likes and dislikes, sociability, preferences or different health issues. These often change throughout life.

Just as we learn and change through our life experiences, so do dogs. Negative or positive experiences, trauma, stress, learned habits, training methods, trust, feeling safe and secure, predictability and stability are all part of how these type of experiences affect behaviour.

Many dogs live in environments that are not compatible with what they were selectively bred to do.

People bred dogs to do certain jobs like guarding, herding, hunting, pointing, scenting, tracking or companionship. When dogs that were bred for specific jobs, find themselves “unemployed” and have no outlet for what they were originally bred to do, this often leads to pent up frustration and behaviour problems.

Conflict between the environment and a dog’s genetics are an increasingly common reason for behaviour problems.

Yes, a dog may have just been “born this way”, but always look at the whole picture to understand the why of behaviour.

Genetics, environment, individuality and experiences – they all matter.

18/10/2024

This is a GREAT and simple activity to get your dog’s brain working!!

02/10/2024

Watch THIS before you get a herding breed dog! They need a LOT of exercise!!!

01/10/2024

DON’T FORCE ME TO BE SOCIAL!
It may be really disappointing and frustrating when our dogs are not the social beings we expected them to be.

Many believe dogs should just naturally get along with other dogs, after all they’re the same species.

Some believe the “unsociable” dog has a behaviour problem that needs to be “fixed”.

Early, appropriately timed and correct socialisation is vitally important, but sometimes despite all of this, some dogs are just not that sociable.

Sometimes this can be improved, especially if the cause is from a negative experience, but genetics, breed tendencies, individual personalities, health and age all contribute to tolerance and sociability, which also change throughout life.

If we, as a human species, don’t get along with everyone we meet, how can we expect our dogs to?

Do we label every person that has an argument, doesn’t make friends with everyone they meet, doesn’t like every other person, prefers not to socialise - as having a problem that needs to be fixed?

Why is it so easy to accept that every individual person is different than to accept that every individual dog is different?

When we have done what we can to improve our dogs’ social skills, we need to accept and acknowledge our dogs for the individuals they are, allow and respect their choice of whether to be sociable or not and never force interactions that a dog is not comfortable with.

04/09/2024

Living with multiple cats can be rewarding, but it also comes with challenges, such as intercat tension. Recognizing and addressing this tension is crucial for maintaining the health and happiness of your cats. What is Intercat Tension? Intercat tension refers to social tension between cats and is

12/07/2024

If you struggle with nail trimming your dog, consider training them to do it themselves!!

10/07/2024

30,000 years of living alongside dogs and refining breeds to meet our needs.
10,000 years of cats tolerating us for food 🤣🐾🐾❤️

09/07/2024

Yup!

Literally Me!

09/07/2024

❤️❤️

😂😂

02/07/2024

Fireworks are SCARY! This can help.

Last Call 🚨

Capitalize on our Buy with Prime option on site, just in time for 4th of July! Get your ThunderShirt products now before fireworks kick off 🎆

01/07/2024

Please start planning now

28/06/2024

A little bit of non behavior advice for Summer!

Is it true that if we use cold water on heat stroke pets they will go into shock?

One of the most common things we still hear is that we can only use tepid water on a pet with heat stroke, incase they get some complications like hypothermic overshoot, peripheral vasoconstriction hindering a cooling response, and cardiogenic shock...

We have heard not to use cold water in case it causes shock... this rarely happens!

But guess what? In a recent study over 26% of dogs presented with heat stroke died, with flat faced breeds making up nearly half of heat stroke cases seen in the study.

You should:

💧Get someone to call the local veterinary practice and tell them you're going to travel down with a heat stroke patient
💧Pour, hose or if possible immerse the pet in very cold water (this should obviously be done under constant supervision, ensuring the head is fully above water and immersion should not be attempted if the animal is too large, or you are unable to do so without hurting yourself)
💧NB: If using a hose pipe, make sure it has run through until cold, as they can often contain water that is extremely hot in the tubing initially
💧Do not drape in towels and leave them in situ. Keep the cold water flowing.
💧Move to a cool, shaded area
💧Prepare to transport to vets in a cold, air conditioned car

In studies they found that:

🌅International consensus from sports medicine organisations supports treating EHS with early rapid cooling by immersing the casualty in cold water.
🌅Ice-water immersion has been shown to be highly effective in exertional heat stroke, with a zero fatality rate in large case series of younger, fit patients.
🌅Hyperthermic individuals were cooled twice as fast by Cold Water Immersion as by passive recovery.
🌅No complications occurred during the treatment of three older patients with severe heat stroke were treated with cold‐water immersion.
🌅Cold water immersion (CWI) is the preferred cooling modality in EHS guidelines and the optimal method applicable to UK Service Personnel
🌅Studies suggest using either ice-water or cold-water immersion

The best intervention is PREVENTION, but if you find yourself with an animal with heat stroke, using cold water either by pouring, hosing or ideally (if safe) immersion then this may help reduce their temperature to safe levels while you transport to a veterinary practice.

Read more below:

https://www.vetvoices.co.uk/post/cool-icy-cold-or-tepid

27/06/2024

The Ten Myths of Canine Behavior
Myth #10: My dog growled at me. I need to punish the growl.
One of the most important behaviors to reinforce rather than punish in dogs is growling. Growling serves as information, signaling that a dog feels uncomfortable in a situation. It is not an act of aggression but a form of communication, and for that, we should be grateful. We can address growling constructively by identifying and avoiding the actions that triggered it. Punishing a growl risk suppressing this warning signal, potentially leading to a bite without any preceding warning.