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If you’re thinking about adding a new pet to your family, or if you have a foster or friend’s pet visiting for a while, there are ways to make the introductions and transitions smoother for all. All animals respond to new animals and certain triggers differently, so please remember this is only a guide. What works for one pet might not work for another, so if you have a multi-pet household, you might need to take it slow and introduce each pair separately in a different way. First, what to avoid. Simply bringing a new animal into your house with no warning for the existing pets – or sticking two stranger dogs in the backyard together – is usually asking for trouble. Being suddenly thrust into an unfamiliar situation often makes the new pet and the existing ones overwhelmed and feel they have something to defend or flee from because the expectations haven’t been laid out for them. Also, dogs who are spayed or neutered are usually going to have an easier time acclimating to eac...

Whether your pet has severe separation anxiety or could just use a little extra help calming down sometimes, there are a number of ways to help reduce stress for your pets. Here is a general guide to help you get started. Stress in dogs might come out in destructive behaviors like scratching up doorframes, excess barking, fighting with other dogs in the household, or chewing up your stuff. Stress for cats might come out (literally) in eliminating around the house in places besides the litterbox or leaving you bloody with each interaction. In both cases, there might even be excessive licking on parts of their bodies (first rule out allergies and intolerances, fleas, etc.). Some Dogs Need a Job It’s important to distinguish whether your pet is reacting from stress or boredom; the two can often manifest in similar ways. Sometimes dogs , especially younger dogs, are just plain bored. Either way, some of the same solutions can apply. Regular exercise (ahem…hiring a dog wal...

Pet owners have a strong emotional response when it comes to animals. Unfortunately, scammers prey on these emotions to get money. When you know the warning signs of typical pet scams, you’ll be less likely to fall victim to one. Educate your friends and family to keep them protected as well. On their own, some of these red flags may not indicate much. For example, just because something is on the internet, that doesn’t automatically make it a scam. However, if an internet ad is promising free, purebred puppies that can be shipped from Africa, then you have triple red flags and a probable scam. Red Flag #1: Internet postings Scammers are out to make a profit. They do this by putting forward as little money as possible in order to lure victims in. The Internet is a perfect place for spreading information without putting down a cent. Online classifieds, email blasts, Facebook, and other social media are all cheap or free ways to put out an advertisement. Of course, these p...

As I’ve spent more and more time researching and learning about pet care and behaviors, I’ve become interested in the various methods and camps for pet training. What methods work best? How do they work in shaping a pet’s behaviors and actions? How are they taught? Today I’d like to focus on clicker training, which can be used to train a wide variety of animals. Most often we see it used for training dogs but it can also be used for horses, cats , birds, and plenty of other animals. Clicker as a tool vs. Clicker as training First, let’s make a distinction. There’s the actual clicker tool. Then there’s clicker training, which is the overall method for marking and reinforcing positive behaviors. You can do clicker, or marker, training without the actual clicker. On the flip side, simply having a clicker doesn’t mean that you’re automatically doing clicker training. The idea behind the method Next, let’s talk method. The basic idea behind clicker training is to mar...