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Pet Wellness Advocate
PRAISE NOT PUNISH The Basic Winning Philosophy for Dog Training Accentuate the Positive Training a dog is pretty simple, once you grasp the basic concepts and are consistent in applying them. What scientists, trainers and teachers have discovered is that all creatures --- including humans, dolphins or dogs --- learn from positive reinforcement, not from... Read more »
Saving Kitty Sparkles Bridget, a listener from Florida, is losing sleep over a neighborhood vagabond named Sparkles, a small Rag Doll mix who began visiting her porch soon after she moved to the area. As a fan of Cat Chat, Bridget kindly sent me an email, thanking me for the show and asking my advice... Read more »
Like Presidents, Dogs May Go Gray When Stressed A new study, co-authored by author and scientist Temple Grandin and published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science explores whether anxiety and impulsiveness may contribute to premature graying in dogs. The research focused on a sample of 400 dogs, age 1 to 4 years old, found... Read more »
CATS IN QUARANTINE Scary avian flu infects shelter cats in NYC After a mysterious outbreak of bird flu swept through New York City shelters earlier this month, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) opened an emergency quarantine center to house the entire cat population in the city’s shelter system, according... Read more »
Training Your Dog with a New Homemade Toy Dog toys can cost big bucks, reason enough to make your own. In my house, the favorite toy for chasing, tugging, gnawing---and even to cart around as a security blanket---is the Towel Burrito. These are my own invention, and I got the idea when I was reading... Read more »
6 Ways to Protect Your cats & Yourself from Cat Scratch Disease You can forgive the new kitten in your life for the bright red tracks her little claws painted down your arm, but keep an eye on those scratches --- they can lead to terribly serious health consequences. Cat scratch disease can actually put... Read more »
Gone to the Dogs (And Cats!) A Tennessee woman left her estate to homeless pets. Glenda Taylor DeLawder, a citizen of Carter County, Tennessee, bequeathed her $1.2 million estate to help care for the county’s shelter animals. DeLawder, who had worked as a telephone operator for AT&T in Washington D.C., passed away at age 72.... Read more »
In an article published January 1 in The New York Times, the columnist pointed out that by law city shelters and pet stores are required to microchip animals before selling them or releasing them for adoption. The author mentioned that the chip should be registered, but the “rest of that story” is where the slippery... Read more »
Calling All Cat People To “Translate” For Their Kitties Researchers need the help of people who share their lives with cats to better understand why cats do what they do. Since cats are enigmas wrapped in a mystery, the veterinarians doing this study need the human companions of indoor cats to help make sense of... Read more »
Dogs, the Christmas spirit and Tracy of Batavia, Ohio – an “Ordinary Hero” Look out, St. Francis: we’ve got a new contender for the “patron saint of animals!” For a very special holiday episode of Dog Talk I interviewed Tracy, a listener from Batavia, Ohio. Her story exemplifies the very best of the holiday spirit... Read more »