Posts Tagged: Pet Behavior

When you think about bringing home a new pet, you may worry about how your resident pet might react. It is totally possible they’ll welcome a newcomer, but what if they don’t? You could be creating a stressful situation for at least one animal, if not both. The good news is that there are tactics that take everyone’s feelings into account in order to safely introduce a new pet to your existing one. 

Establishing and maintaining a pet’s daily routine is one of the best things you can do for their mental and physical health. The ability to anticipate the timing of certain events like bathroom breaks, meals, or walks gives them stability and confidence, and helps to build trust at home. Sometimes a pet’s profound attachment to their owner, combined with unsettling solitude, can lead to separation anxiety. Dealing with separation anxiety in pets can be challenging, but there are special strategies to soothe a pet’s symptoms.

When faced with caring for a blind pet, many myths are likely to surface. Things like “The pet will be harder to provide for” or “they won’t have a high quality of life.” Other thoughts such as, “will it be harder to prevent vision-related injuries” or the inability to play or exercise might also come up.

The truth is, blind pets are just like other animals who have their sight. They are equally deserving of love (perhaps even more so), absolutely up for any kind of fun, and show grit in the face of this potential challenge.

Senior pets are amazing companions. Whether you’ve had them since they were young or they came to you in adulthood, there’s just nothing like the calm, quiet, reassuring presence of an older cat or dog.

Aging pets are familiar with your ways and the rhythms of the household. They no longer have urges to hop fences, wander the neighborhood or jump on strangers. They are just as content to snuggle with you as they are to sniff around in the backyard. In a sense, they finally become the pets you always hoped for.

But there are certain senior pet behaviors that can cause owners to worry.

Does your pet seem sad? Pets can experience depression similar to the kind we as humans experience. But unlike us, our pets don’t have the option to tell us when they feel sad or depressed. Although there is much less research in the area of pet depression (of course) than there is in human depression, we have plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that pets can and do get depressed. 

So how do you know if your pet is experiencing depression? And what should you do about it? Keep reading for some information and ideas from your team at Oakhurst Veterinary Hospital. 

Pet owners of this modern age are not only allowed to bring their pets to public places, they’re heartily encouraged to share experiences with their best buddies. Big box stores, hotels, and office buildings often roll out the welcome mat for pets, and owners are likely to travel with their pets than without them. 

Despite our preferences to spend every moment with them, there are some times we have to leave a pet home alone. This begs the question: how long is too long to leave them?

Nobody likes to wait. Even if we’re prepared for long lines at places like the DMV, even the most patient people among us can become pretty irate. 

Imagine, then, how some pets feel when they are taken to their vet appointments. Would the possible wait be worse for them because of the heightened anticipation, or might the time be filled with curiosity and exploration?

Wherever pets sit on this spectrum, the bottom line is that there are many ways to safely get through the time spent in a pet hospital lobby. 

As a pet owner, you’re familiar with your pet’s unique personality traits. Through their body language and vocalizations, it’s easy to tell when they’re happy, annoyed, excited, angry, fearful, curious, etc. In fact, many of these communication styles can seem almost human-like.

The way a pet expresses themselves can be extremely nuanced, such as in the case of pet facial expressions. What do they mean, and how can they help us gain a better understanding of what our furry family members are trying to tell us?