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Top Ten Pet Behavior Questions

 Submitted by Michael Adams on December 3, 2009


Pet Behavior:

There are a variety of questions raised when a new pet is brought into the household and a lot would depend on the species and breed. Purebreds come with certain breed characteristics, so while there are variations, some features remain the same and can be worked on. The following are a series of pet behavior questions that most pet owners face at some point or other and answers to the most common:

  • The dog keeps barking when you’re away and disturbs the neighborhood.


  • Housetraining the dog or cat.
  • Car sickness.
  • Eating poop.


  • Digging holes.
  • Aggression and dominance of other smaller or older dogs
  • An aversion to nail trimming.
  • Mounting aggression
  • Anxiety during thunderstorms
  • Separation anxiety when you leave for work or a trip.
It is important to understand why your dog is barking and the only way you can prevent this is by investigating the reason for it. In all probability your dog may be responding to taunts from children in the neighborhood and this can be remedied through a couple of phone calls to their parents or by simply keeping the dog away from them. If this is not the reason you may have to channelize the dog’s energy elsewhere allowing for long bouts of exercise and play. As regards housetraining, cats are usually attracted to private clean places to defecate and this includes your house a well. Try to keep a few litter boxes ready in semi private spaces and if there are areas you do not want it to use, then lay aluminum foil on the ground till the cat gets used to its designated area. With dogs, you can use a crate and take the dog out of the crate every time it wishes to defecate and reward it accordingly. It is better to reward a pet than punish it for inappropriate behavior. Pets as a rule do not suffer from motion sickness and are just scared of the vehicle and movement. What you could do is to sit in the stationary car for short periods of time and make short trips to your drive way. Reward your pet if it has not drooled or vomited in the vehicle. Some dogs and cats eat their waste and that of other pets around and there is no known reason for this. It has to be remedied as the feces or vomit may contain worms which will then get into your pet’s body. Try cleaning the area immediately. Commercial deterrents are also available in the market and these can be used as well.  Aggression and dominance is sometimes a breed characteristic which can only be remedied by training your pet, and as for the other problems, the bottom line is that you need to spend time with your pet and know it to train it.  
 
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