Tag Archives: animal behavior

Chimpanzee Testing to Resume?

A chimpanzee at work for NASA Animal testing is a tricky issue. Given my love for animals I’d normally think I’d come down firmly against it, but it’s not that easy. For a while I worked for a medical journal, specifically, an immunology journal. Immunologists are the ones who research and cure diseases. Although it was hard to read over the studies in which they used animals for testing, their findings were always applied to fighting terrible diseases. But none of that is the case here. The Huffington Post published an article on August 23 examining the plight of more … Continue reading →

Can Pets Sense Our Emotions?

I’ve always believed that animals are sensitive to emotions — in their owners, in new people they meet, maybe even in other animals. But if you try to go looking for proof, you get a whole lot of anecdotal evidence. I am pretty sure that my dogs recognize tone of voice — and that is often related to emotion. They know the difference between my play voice and my serious voice (the one that says “go in the house now, we’re done fooling around and trying to find cats in the landscaping!”) For the record, they listen better to the … Continue reading →

Four Pets, Four Reactions to Stress

Moving is stressful for humans AND pets. It’s been interesting to watch how the animals react as my roommates and I go through the moving process. I have two dogs: Moose (a shepherd mix) and Lally (a boxer mix). They have two cats: Kachiko (a snowshoe Siamese) and Shiro (a big grey fellow). Each of the animals has reacted differently to the disruption in the routine. Shiro has earned his nickname: “chicken boo”. The move has sent him into hiding — he spent his first day in the new apartment squished into the corner of the closet. Slowly he’s come … Continue reading →

Diary of a Cat Care B&B: Difficult Darlings

I’d like to say that I haven’t met a cat I haven’t liked in my work at the cats only boarding facility. Sure, I have my favorites. There are some cats I just bond with and some cats I don’t. Then there are the cats who like to mess with my head. We’ve got one guest at the boarding facility now who has been driving me crazy. She’s a striking Persian mix, with a calico coat. Perhaps the most amazing thing about her looks is her eyes: they are a dark amber/orange color. Quite a lovely little cat! When she … Continue reading →

Punishing Your Cat

Let me say right off the bat that I’m a big believer in positive reinforcement. We’d all much rather be praised than punished, right? This holds true for our pets, too. In short, positive reinforcement means praising and/or rewarding your pet immediately after a good behavior. This teaches them to do the good things you want them to do. Your praise or reward encourages them to repeat the behavior. Sometimes, we lash out when we see a negative behavior. This could be anything from a cry of dismay, yelling the cat’s name, or a tap on the nose. We do … Continue reading →

Why Does My Cat Play in his Water Bowl?

I’ve seen several of our guests at the cats only boarding facility playing in their water bowls. Some cats dunk their feet. Others drown their toys! We have one guest who “digs” at the floor around his bowl while he drinks. It’s all very cute. So why does a cat play with his water? There are lots of different reasons. Moving water is almost always more appealing than still water. Dipping a paw or a toy makes ripples. (You may have noticed that your cat also prefers to drink running water from the kitchen or bathroom sink! Moving water is … Continue reading →

How Do Dogs Learn?

There are some behaviors that dogs inherit from their wild relatives. Inherited behaviors are strongly influenced by breed; for example, a border collie tends to have strong herding instincts while a greyhound (and other sighthounds) will have a strong desire to chase moving objects. Some dogs have an innate calm; others are innately nervous. My Lally seems to be the nervous type — sudden noises and movements will startle her. Human behavior around animals can help tone down or key up these behaviors. Inherited behaviors can’t be unlearned but you can work around them. When Lally gets excited, she tends … Continue reading →

Why Does My Dog Roll In Things?

I remember a trip to the park one time with Lally (this was in the few months when I just had her, before we found Moose). After a fun walk with our human friend Joe and his Bassett hound Cassie, Lally decided to end the adventure by rolling in something. I don’t know what it was but it smelled AWFUL. I dragged her home (it was a long and stinky walk) and carried her into the shower with me, since the apartment didn’t have a bathtub. Lucky for me, Lally only weighs around fifty-five pounds, so I could pick her … Continue reading →

Paying Attention When Pets Act Weird

This morning there was an attempted break-in in our neighborhood and Murphy, Kitty, and Tabby alerted me to it. Murphy started it. He’s not much of a barker, but every once in a while he’ll let loose at someone walking by or at another dog strolling past. In fact, just a couple of minutes before he went nuts this morning he barked at this one woman out for her morning walk. (In her case, I told him it was okay to keep barking because she was the wife of a mean man who was nasty to us about keeping off … Continue reading →

Lally the Mighty Turkey Hunter

My stomach was rumbling the other night, so I grabbed a snack: turkey, cheese, and some crackers. As I often do with a late night snack, I settled down in front of the TV to nibble and veg out before bed. Then Mother Nature called. I left my snack plate on top of the nearest bookshelf — it’s one of those four shelf ones, so it stands only a little higher than my waist. One bathroom trip later, I came back to find an important part of my snack missing: the turkey. I also found one suspicious little girl dog … Continue reading →