The Holidays and Our Pets Behavior
It may be called "the holiday season" but we all know the real deal. Between planning meals, shopping endlessly for the right gifts and hosting out of town in-laws, "the holidays" become synonymous to having a second full- time job. So, here we have all this holiday mayhem and we haven't even mentioned our pets' sudden unattractive behavior: jumping into the laps of guests, pulling the table cloth down along with the turkey, refusing to use the litter box and clandestinely munching on the holiday ham. Sometimes strange humans tromping through the house or the unexpected arrival of a new pet can make our dogs and cats go haywire. They may either exhibit behaviors that we have never experienced in them before or more extravagant displays of wildness that we've only seen hints of. This dose of HealthyPetNet News will focus on behavioral problems in our pets -- things they do and what we can do about it.
Understanding Our Pets
If every pet owner in America took a little more time to understand the root of their pets' behavioral problems, shelters and streets would be a lot less populated with strays. About 60% of animals in shelters are there due to behavioral problems. When cats start scratching furniture and dogs start barking incessantly, it's natural to say to ourselves: I didn't sign up for this. Sometimes, a pet's behavioral problems can be strictly health related. Other times, they can be a manifestation of our own shortcomings as owners. A fter all, who would want to use a litter box that hasn't been cleaned in weeks? Haven't you ever walked into a roadside gas station restroom only to walk right back out? |
Use Your Imagination
Before anything else, the first step to overcoming our pets' behavioral problems is to use our imaginations -- to jump into their brains and understand the world through their eyes. If we do this, we may see that we ask a lot of our pets. First off, we place them into a human-created environment and expect them to forget their wildness and behave in ways that suit and benefit us. Many of the things we teach our animals go against the very nature of who they are. We ask our cats to relieve themselves into small trays when its really natural for them to do so anywhere in their territory. We discourage our dogs from barking at our visitors when it's synonymous to preventing them from having a simple chat with strangers entering their habitat.
Got Issues?
When our pets start misbehaving, they may be demonstrating signs of a deeper issue that needs investigating. What we deem as "bad behavior" may very well be a manifestation of a health problem they're experiencing. For example, a cat with a urinary-tract problem may have a sense of urgency to urinate and does so wherever she is at the time. Once a cat starts urinating elsewhere, it's hard to coax her back to the litter box. When your pet starts acting strangely and the peculiar behavior persists, it's a good idea to make an appointment with your veterinarian for a checkup.
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