Day 28: Go for a Walk

by lennearbNo Comments
Nice weather? Take the opportunity to get out of the house. Undesirable behavior can be a result of excess energy. When bad weather—cold, dark, snow, etc.—reduces outside exercise time, these problems can become more pronounced. When you get a chance to enjoy nice weather in the winter, take the opportunity to burn extra energy through outside exercise. ...
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Trouble on Easy Street

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This post briefly sets the stage for why we should take time to train our cats. It is the first in our cat-training focused series. I don't know anyone who would argue with the statement that cats love sunbeam. Yesterday morning, I found my cat, Nefertiti, lounging on the bathroom rug right in the path of a morning sunbeam. However, most cats are looking for a lot more out of life than 20 years or so of moving from sunbeam to sunbeam - unfortunately, that is all that is expected of many of them. While there is not a lot of detailed evidence about the exact evolution of cats, most scientists seem to agree that cats evolved to live with people primarily as vermin hunters with a side of companionship. This is in distinct contrast to dogs, who evolved as co-hunters and protectors as well as companions and were subsequently selectively bred for a variety of tasks, including herding, tracking, retrieving, as...
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“Are we there yet?”

by lennearbNo Comments
"I'm bored." "There's nothing to do." You don't have to be a parent to be able to conjure up the sound of that childish whine. In fact, if you cast your mind back, you might even be guilty of having said something similar in your childhood - or more recently. Unfortunately, boredom often leads to trouble-making, in both both kids and pets. It's not that anyone intends harm, its simply that your pet's idea of a good way to pass the time may not closely match yours. When the weather gets nice in springtime, there is nothing I would like more than to spend all my time walking my dog and playing with my cat. Unfortunately, springtime also means finals time, which eats up a lot of that theoretical pet exercise time. It doesn't help that days that I do have time always seem to be the springtime shower days. However, just because your short on time doesn't mean you can...
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