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The Pets Blog Week in Review for May 21-27

Delivered for your reading pleasure is another installment of the Pets Blog Week in Review. Below you’ll find all the topics Aimee and I covered the previous week. Monday, May 21 Poor Aimee, Moose and Lally! They just arrive in their new town, find a great dog park, and what happens? Poor Moose gets attacked! Aimee tells all about it in You Should Have Seen the Other Guy? This incident also sparked her to write about dog aggression in general. The days of aggression in my household (except mine is cat-based) might be nearing an end as there have been … Continue reading →

Recognizing Signs of Aggression

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You may not want to believe that your dog can be aggressive. It can be a hard thing to recognize — we often try to assign human motivations to animal behaviors. We try to reason with our pets: “It’s only the mailman; you don’t have to bark at him.” But our dogs don’t think like people. They think like dogs. Aggression is not a breed problem. It can exist in any dog, any breed, at any time. Signs of aggression can include: Growling Snarling Baring teeth/curling lips Mounting people or other animals Lunging Snapping Blocking your path Aggressive barking Biting … Continue reading →

Dogs and Cats Living Together: Not What We Expected

Before my dogs met my roommates’ cats, we had lots of talks about how we thought it would go. We discussed the best ways to introduce them, what to do if things went wrong, and our dreams of animal harmony. I thought Lally, my boxer/shar-pei mix, would be the problem child. When we’re out walking, she can be quite a cat chaser. If she saw cats inside the apartment, I figured she’d be trying to run them down. (I’m not sure what she’d do with a cat if she ever caught one, but that doesn’t stop her from trying.) My … Continue reading →

How Not to Approach a Strange Dog

My two dogs have very different personalities. Moose (my eight year old shepherd mix) is very easygoing. He loves just about everyone, and would happily follow a stranger home if he thought there would be snacks or petting or both. Lally (my seven year old boxer/shar-pei mix) is far more skittish. She’s easily startled by things like sudden noises and quick movement. When we’re out walking, I have to keep a careful eye out for things that might frighten Lally. When she gets scared, she can exhibit signs of fear aggression, including growling, barking, and lunging. I saw trouble coming … Continue reading →

Bringing Your Dog to Work: Keeping the Office Safe

If your dog will be joining you at the workplace, you need to take steps to make sure your office is pup-safe and pup-friendly. Make sure your personal workspace can comfortably accommodate a dog. When I used to bring Miko to the radio station, he would curl up and sleep underneath the counter while I was on the air. It was perfectly Miko-sized! (I wish I had pictures of this, too!) Keep all power cords and wires out of range — you don’t want your pup nibbling on any electrical cords. I caught my dog Lally chewing on the cord … Continue reading →

Is Your Cat Stressed?

A big change in the routine — like moving, or going away on vacation and boarding your cat — can lead to stress. Even something that seems like a small change — using a new type of litter or switching to a new style of litter box — can lead to stress. Cats handle stress in different ways depending on their personalities. An outgoing, friendly cat may experience phobias or obsessive symptoms when they are stressed. A shy, quiet cat may experience hysterical, antisocial, or self-destructive behavior. In the case of extreme stress, humans and cats may experience similar symptoms … Continue reading →

Dogs Detecting Cancer: Does It Provoke Attacks?

As I wrote last week in National Pet Cancer Awareness: What You Should Know, November is Pet Cancer Awareness Month. As I also wrote in that article, pet cancer reminds me of Budly because that’s why we had to put him to sleep. But the week before Budly’s health took such a nose dive that we had to rush him to the animal ER, he got attacked. The Attack We were out for our usual morning walk and had stopped to talk with a neighbor who had just gotten a chocolate lab puppy. All of a sudden this huge dog … Continue reading →

The Barkathon

Last night was a baaaaaaaad night. The dogs barked me awake at 12:10. Again at 12:30. At 1:00. At that point, I got up to let them out, thinking they really had to go. But alas, the barkathon began anew at 4:50. And 6:00. And 6:20. And so on. Why all the barking? As far as I could tell, someone in the complex was having a party. Unusual noises, music, and louder voices that usual had Moose and Lally in a bit of a frenzy! At least for the first part of the night. What they heard in the very … Continue reading →

Who’s The Boss Now?

Dogs are pack animals; pack behavior has been genetically handed down to our domesticated little pups. In the wild, a pack has one alpha male and one alpha female who lead the bunch and a distinct hierarchy for everyone else. A canine can move up or down the ladder, often by fighting the next dog up the line and winning. In the home, things are slightly different. I’ve noticed over the past three years plus with Lally and Moose that the hierarchy is slowly changing. At first, Lally was ultra-submissive; I used to see a lot of omega dog characteristics … Continue reading →

Jayzee’s Story: Murph’s First Encounter with a Disabled Dog

Last week I took Murph to Crockett Park like I often do to enjoy an evening stroll. As we were heading back to the car, we encountered a first for the both of us: a disabled dog. Her back legs were suspended in a harness that was attached to wheels. Before I approached the dog, I asked the owner if Murph would bother her. She admitted maybe, because he was a bit larger than her Jayzee and sometimes Jayzee could be aggressive to bigger dogs. She also said, “But mostly other dogs are intimidated by her wheels.” Not Murph. He … Continue reading →