- Give your pet a lot of love and attention to establish a bond between you.
- Give your pet plenty of exercise.
- Have your pet's health checked annually and be sure vaccinations are current.
- Have your pet spayed or neutered.
- Train your pet with patience and kindness to encourage good behavior.
- Teach your dog the basic "come-sit-stay-down" commands. Attend an obedience class, if possible.
- Do not punish your pet after misbehaving has occurred; she/he won't understand why you're upset. Remember that your pet cannot tell the difference between "their" old shoe and "your" new shoes. Never give a pet a shoe, piece of clothing, rag, sock or other such item as a toy. Give them toys clearly designed for pets and encourage them to use them.
- Do not use physical punishment; it creates fearful pets and is unnecessary in almost all cases.
- Consider crate-training your puppy or dog.
- Provide your cat with a scratching post and encourage the use of it.
- If your cat is causing problems with scratching, there are inexpensive nail caps (plastic tips that fit over the nails) available at vets and pet stores that dramatically reduce damage to your furniture, etc.
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Trim your cat's claws. If you start young, the cat learns to accept this as part of grooming. If your cat is older, you can still do this successfully. Ask your veterinarian for tips on trimming your cat's nails
Your pet will know he/she is doing the right thing if a reward is given at the time the desired behavior takes place. Treats and/or praise given when good behavior occurs will reinforce it. Use a low, calm voice to quiet a animals. Shrill sounds excite the animals and sometimes confuse them.
Other problems may be health-related:
- Many cats refuse to use the litter box when they have a urinary tract infection. Treat the infection and the problem usually disappears.
Soiling in the house may be a sign of gastric distress or urinary tract infection. Diarrhea may be caused by untreated worms. A simple stool or urine sample will reveal if this is the case and treatment usually solves the problem.
Many times, neutering of male dogs will eliminate indoor urination and neutering of male cats will help dramatically with "spraying".
There are many solutions to problems your pets, and you as their owners, encounter. Before you give up your pet to a shelter, please, work with them and see if you can't resolve the issues. It does take time and patience and understanding, but in the end, you will both be a lot happier.
"Dealing With Problems" was taken out of Hillside SPCA's Homepage
WHEN DOG IS SPELLED BACKWARDS, IT SPELLS "GOD".
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Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000 Jenna
Last Updated on October 13, 2000
I am acquiring a pet to love and enjoy
it is a privilege to own a pet.
I have a responsibility to care for my pet during its life expectancy.
I am not impulsively obtaining a pet.
I have consulted the other members of my household.
I have considered how it will change my lifestyle.
I know my responsibility in regard to food, water, housing, medical care, training, and expense.
I am aware of society's animal surplus problem and my part in it.
I will control my pet's ability to produce offspring by having it neutered.
I will obtain information on correct training of my pet.
I will have tattoos or identification tags on my pet at all times.
I will follow state and local laws pertaining to my pet and prevent it from infringing on the rights of others.
I will not abandon my pet.
If I cannot properly care for my pet, I will try to find it a good home.
If no other choice I will take it to an animal shelter for possible community placement, or
I will take the responsibility and have it humanely euthanized by a veterinarian.
There are many old wives' tales associated with pets, especially about whether to let your pet breed or not. Other myths about breeding pets stem from assuming that pets feel and act like humans - you wouldn't want to be neutered, so why do it to your beloved pet?
However, the fact is that your pet is nothing like you. So to clear up some of these myths associated with spraying and neutering (operations to remove the reprodutive organs), here are the facts.
MYTH: It's wrong to deprive an animal of the natural right to reproduce and mate.
FACT: Humans already changed the lifestyles of dogs and cats when we domesticated them and made them dependent on us thousands of years ago. The fact is, your domesticated pet breeds twice as often as her wild ancestors, resulting in a huge pet population and not enough humans to are for them.
Unlike humans, animals only mate because their bodies tell them to. Once a pet is neutered, he or she will no longer feel the urge to reproduce and will not feel deprived.
MYTH: Neutering will change my pet's personality.
FACT: You will benefit from any personality changes that might result from neutering because your pet is apt to become calmer, more content, and more dependable. Neutering removes the undeniable urge to roam, fight for a mate, and reproduce.
MYTH: Neutering my pet will make him fat and lazy.
FACT: Your pet will only become overweight from too much food and too little excercise. It's possible that after your pet is altered his metabolism may slow down a bit, but this just means that your pet may need less to eat.
MYTH: My female should have at least one heat or one litter so she'll become calmer.
FACT: Going into heat or letting your pet give birth will not make her a better pet. Spraying your female pet is in fact healthier because she will never develop uterine infections, ovarian cancer or breast tumors (even more common in dogs then women).
MYTH: if I neuter my male, he'll become submissive; he won't be one of the boys.
FACT: The only thing your male will lose is the ability to produce a litter, his chance of getting testicular cancer, his interest (hopefully) in marking everything, and his chances of being killed or lost while searching for a female in heat. He will definitely remain as territorial and protective as ever.
It Doesn't Have To Be This Way
Killing friendly, healthy animals
is tragic and unnecessary.
Ensure you don't contribute to
this needless killing.
Your Pet Should Be Neutered.
Sometimes natural animal behaviors such as barking, digging, scratching, chewing, spraying, soiling and biting can become problems for the owner. Most of these behaviors can be changed or modified to make the situation bearable for all involved. Unfortunately, many pet owners just muddle through. Some would ask for help if they knew where to find it, and others simply surrender the animals to a shelter or pound and hope that they'll find a new home.
Many pet's lives end simply because behavior problems lead the owners to "put the animal to sleep". This is a tragedy of huge proportions. Nationwide, 70% of these pets surrendered to animal shelters are euthanised, making this problem the leading cause of pet mortality, ahead of trauma and disease.
The bottom line is that most behavior "problems" are simply something that is an inconvenience to us humans, like cats stratching the furniture or dogs marking in the home. We must realize that these are natural behaviors for the animals. And we must learn how to react to these behaviors in the correct way. A veterinarian or shelter worker can help you with the situations you are experiencing with you pet. Most "problems" can be overcome with patience and the accurate knowledge of animal behavior and how to react to it.
Many behavior problems are caused by boredom, fear of abandonment (especially if your pet has come from a shelter after being left by it's original owners), lack of attention, stress and loneliness, medical problems and over-abundance of energy.
Dogs are pack animal and suffer seperation anxiety when apart from their owners and/or other pets. Some breeds of dogs are "diggers" (Siberian Huskies are notorious for wanting to change the "landscape" of their yards...) and providing them with a place to dig (sandbox for example) and encouraging the use of it can be very effective.
Many problems can be solved through understanding, patience and praise using proven behavior techniques: