Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Cat - Common Cat Behavior - What Is Your Cat Trying To Tell You?

Just like you get to know when a baby is tired, hungry, or needs their diaper changed, cats give off signals and display common behaviors that lets you know where they are coming from. Spending a little quality time with your feline is just the thing to familiarize yourself with what makes your ball of fur tick. Below you will find a few characteristics associated with common behaviors your cat may display:

Head and Tail Positioning

Many cats express their happiness by walking about with an upright tail that resembles the same angle as a question mark. Their head will remain up with bright and alert eyes. When a cat walks with their head and tail down, it is suggested that you approach the feline with caution. The exception to this rule is with cats of the Bengal breed, which normally display this type of posture. An unhappy cat often slinks about the house, making very little contact with humans.

Eye Contact

The majority of cats do not look humans directly in the eye. This is because cats view this sort of behavior as a challenge. If you are ever faced in a "stare down," it is important to take the stance of aggressor so that your cat is made aware of whom the boss is within the household.

Cat Talk

When cats vocalize their intentions, there is a wide range of possibilities to consider. If you have spent a good amount of time watching and listening to your pet, you should be able to tell when your cat is feeling stressed, is in pain, wants attention, or is simply trying to have one-on-one time with you.

Aggression

When a cat acts in an intense or aggressive manner, he is attempting to display dominance over you. They are essentially challenging your authority as leader of the pack. Some of the ways they may showcase their disobedience includes nipping, scratching, spraying, as well as ignoring your presence. While approaching the situation with caution, it is important to reassert your position within the household by showing them whose boss. After all, you are the person setting down the food and changing the kitty litter.

Interaction

Cats who respect their owner as the boss of the house usually feel the need to be around them. They express this admiration by greeting their masters at the door when they come home from a hard day of work. Cats will also feel the need to sit beside their owner, lounge over their shoulder, or cuddle in their lap. At night, they may gravitate to them while they sleep.

Struggling with a cat behavior problem and don't know how to fix it? I suggest visiting http://www.secretsofcats.com to learn about cat training solutions that will quickly solve your cat's bad behavior.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Julia_Camden

Cat - Aggression in Cats

Cats are naturally territorial animals. Therefore, it is common for a cat to have aggressive tendencies toward other cats in the house. This behavior can suddenly happen for no apparent reason. When your cat first shows aggression toward other cats it is important to take corrective action.

Often times aggression is the result of sexual maturity which leads to territorial behavior in cats. In most cases, a cat's sexual and territorial urges will be minimized once they are spayed or neutered. If both cats have had this procedure and you are still having a problem, then consider some other options.

If you have several cats in your household, a single aggressive cat will often want to dominate the pack. Many times a single cat or pair of cats will be the problem. One will be the aggressor, and the other cat will be on the defensive. One method is to single out and focus on the aggressor.

If you can catch the aggressive cat in the act, try and spray him with a squirt bottle. Make sure the spray is directed only toward the aggressive cat. The defensive cat will be under enough stress and should not be provoked with water or noise. Noise making devices such as air-cans, will essentially scare both cats which is what you want to avoid by using a squirt bottle.

Unfortunately it is not always possible to catch an aggressive cat in the act. This is a must if your discipline is to be effective. Luckily, there are other effective solutions such as setting up your own conditions for the behavior to occur.

Try moving the two problem cats away from one another by putting each of them in a separate area of the house. Try this for a full day and make sure they do not have any contact with each other. The following day, allow them to trade places. This allows each cat to get familiar with the others scent yet does not allow for direct contact.

Continue with the cat's separation for several days, switching their quarters regularly. When you think the cats are ready, allow them to be together for several minutes under close supervision. Have the squirt bottle ready in case the aggressive cat attacks. Then proceed to separate and reintroduce the cats several more times.

Upon reintroduction, try an activity together such as eating or playing. Create a stress free environment for the cats to re-associate with one another. Give them praise and speak to them in a soothing voice. If the aggressive behavior occurs, make sure you are ready for it!

You may have to continue with the separation and reintroduction process for several days or even weeks. Your cat's aggression toward other cats is a problem that you must be patient to solve. The time it takes to overcome the problem will depend on the personality of both cats.

Friday, October 26, 2007

Cat - How Does Your Pet Speak to You

I'll bet that every single one of us who has a pet, has carried on a conversation with our animal at one time or another.

The question here, however, is how many of us understand what our pets are saying?

Granted some of our pet's requests are fairly obvious and we understand them, but many times we do not have a clue, and this is where the trouble starts,

Cats and dogs have been around as pets for hundreds of years.

In days gone by the household pets worked for their keep. The cat's job was catching the small rodents and the dog had many chores from helping herd the sheep or cows to hunting with the farmer.

The pet of today has an easy life, or does it?

Why do I say that?

In yesteryear, animals spent most of their days out in the open, doing whatever it was they did best.

Today, animals spend most of their time cooped up in a house or apartment waiting patiently for their person to come home from work.

They are unemployed; most pets were specifically bred to do certain jobs and now most of those jobs are gone.

Unfortunately many owners do not even know what kind of work their dogs were bred for and that opens another can of worms.

Our pets want to please us and in subtle ways, they try to tell us what they need or want.

You may not realize this, but our pets watch our every move and try to determine what we want from them.

They are aware of our mood by the tone of our voice; they can determine how we feel by our footsteps, the expression on our face and even by the odor our body emits.

They know if we are happy, sad or mad.

Surprising, huh!

Dogs and cats can understand more of our words than we give them credit for, some can even understand when we spell a word.

Sometimes though, they do not understand our actions.

Consider this: your dog is doing something you do not want it to do, so you start yelling and throwing your arms about.

What does your dog think?

You look like you want to play.

You do the same kind of act when Miss Kitty is on the table or counter and she thinks, "well, I won't do this again, when she is around."

There are so many things we humans do that baffle our pets, and because they do not understand our actions, the signals get crossed and misbehavior happens.

Pets communicate to us through body language and some sounds. Every flick of the tail or blink of an eye means something in dog or cat language.

This is why I have said many times before and will say it many times again in the future, "it is very important to take time to bond and know your pet."

A dog's language is very different from a cat's.

Their understanding of our language and actions depends a good bit on the breed, especially with dogs.

A dog bred to be a guard dog and one that is best suited as a lapdog, do not speak the same language.

A dog (not a puppy) that chews your favorite shoes is not doing it for spite, but may be trying to tell you that it is afraid of being alone and chewing something that belongs to you, helps it to feel closer to you.

A dog that barks excessively may be telling you that it is lonesome, anxious or needs some exercise.

Dogs have needs that need to be fulfilled, if their needs are not met, they will try to tell you.

Sudden acts of misbehavior are usually signs of a need not being fulfilled.

Dogs have a need for socialization, companionship with their owners and exercise. Boredom is a great cause of misbehavior. All dogs need stimulation of one sort or another. It is up to you, as the pet parent, to recognize and fill that need.

Cats on the other hand have a different way of communicating.

Most cats like a few scratches, but when they are tired of being scratched, a sure fire way to let you know, is with a little nip on the hand.

A rapid flicking of a tail is another sign that Miss Kitty is annoyed, along with a quiet growl or even a louder than usual purr.

If your cat is scratching your prize possessions, it is really telling to get it some scratching posts.

Pets do not do anything for spite. They do not know what the word means.

What may seem destructive to you, may be normal behavior for them.

Nature intended for cats to scratch, just as it created certain breeds of dogs to dig.

The important thing here is awareness and knowledge. Take time to learn about your dog's breed. Even a "Heinz 57" variety of dog has certain breed characteristics. Learn what they are, become familiar with them and know what to expect from your dog.

Pay attention to your pet; every dog and cat is different. Humans have different personality traits special to them and pets are no different.

Our pets are not furry children as we sometimes like to think they are. They are animals, behaving as animals should. They did not go to school to learn English, just as we did not learn animal talk

However, they understand us far more that we understand them.

Why?

Simply because they have taken the time to observe our behaviors and have somewhat of an idea what to expect from us.

Do you not think, that we, the more intelligent of the two species, should take the time to observe and learn about what they need and expect.

Since I, Audrey Frederick, was a small child, words have always been an important part of my life. I have always loved to write. Animals also are an important part of my life and thus was born my web site http://www.cats-and-dogs-on-the-web.com if you have enjoyed this article come and visit my site and blog, you might be glad you did.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Audrey_Frederick

Cat - Do We Enjoy Sickness?

Its starting to get cold outside. I have noticed recently that very few people in the last few years have done anything to prevent those little colds that you always come down with at the beginning of the chilly season. Why is that? I remember being a youngster... wanting to go outside and play in the snow even though i had the sniffles. Mom wouldn't let me. "Your going to get sick!" she would holler. So i wasn't ever sick!

Nowadays, no one is really concerned with PREVENTING sickness. We all believe that there is enough medicine out there to cure whatever it is we come down with. Well, that's mostly true. In fact, a good friend of mine came down with Winter Vomiting Disease last year. It sounds like a scary illness, and we all feared for him, until we read up on it and realized that it goes away in 24-36 hours. You just vomit alot and have diarrhea. Not so bad.

But why do we let things get that far every year? Granted there is usually a cure, but we continue to suffer through the times when we DO have a virus. Is it that we enjoy it? Ya right! I think it's more like we forget how much it sucks, because it was a year ago.

This year, lets all try and stay healthy through the cold season. Keep up on our vegetables and our rest. The problem today is, we all think that we have so much to do. RELAX! Running yourselves down until your are bed ridden is not exactly time efficient. Enjoy the winter and stay cold free!

Cat - Do We Enjoy Sickness?

Its starting to get cold outside. I have noticed recently that very few people in the last few years have done anything to prevent those little colds that you always come down with at the beginning of the chilly season. Why is that? I remember being a youngster... wanting to go outside and play in the snow even though i had the sniffles. Mom wouldn't let me. "Your going to get sick!" she would holler. So i wasn't ever sick!

Nowadays, no one is really concerned with PREVENTING sickness. We all believe that there is enough medicine out there to cure whatever it is we come down with. Well, that's mostly true. In fact, a good friend of mine came down with Winter Vomiting Disease last year. It sounds like a scary illness, and we all feared for him, until we read up on it and realized that it goes away in 24-36 hours. You just vomit alot and have diarrhea. Not so bad.

But why do we let things get that far every year? Granted there is usually a cure, but we continue to suffer through the times when we DO have a virus. Is it that we enjoy it? Ya right! I think it's more like we forget how much it sucks, because it was a year ago.

This year, lets all try and stay healthy through the cold season. Keep up on our vegetables and our rest. The problem today is, we all think that we have so much to do. RELAX! Running yourselves down until your are bed ridden is not exactly time efficient. Enjoy the winter and stay cold free!

Feel free to reprint this article as long as you keep the article, this caption and author biography in tact with all hyperlinks.

Tyler Brooker is the owner and operator of Winter Vomiting Disease - http://www.winter-vomiting-disease.com, which is the best site on the internet for all Vomiting related information.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tyler_Brooker

Cat - How To Get Rid Of Cat Urine Odor

Cats are smart animals amongst other traits. However when your feline discovers the floors are good for their toileting it grows increasingly hard to eliminate the urine odor from your house as well as removing the stain. Constant revisiting to the area can damage your carpet or flooring and create a nasty unwanted smell in your home. Stopping cats from urinating on these spots will take a little training but discovering a way to get rid of the odour and stain is a lot harder than one can imagine.

Choosing the right product is another obstacle to overcome and as with a lot of cleaners they have a variety of uses. Basically, the stain is made up of three parts. The Urea is the sticky, tacky part which you find on top. The Urochrome is the pigment or color part and the Uric Acid and Salts is the third part. Most products will work on the first two parts which removes the stain and odor but the odor is not completely gone, the crystals are just dormant. When it rains or gets humid outside the odor comes back and in some cases when the carpet is shampooed the wetness will increase the smell again. It takes a very special product to remove it completely. A good idea will be to buy a bacteria/enzyme remover cleaner. However I will give you 9 steps that will help remove the urine odor

1. Blot new stains with paper towels

2. Lay a large amount of paper towels on the stain.

3. Apply gentle pressure by carefully stepping on towels

4. Replace paper towels with fresh ones

5. Stand on paper towels to increase pressure.

6. Remove towels

7. Apply a specialized stain - and odor - removing bacteria/enzyme cleaner

8. Apply carpet shampoo

9. Rinse with warm water Cat urine odor it the most repulsive odor out there. Hopefully with these tips you are on your way to eliminating the smell for good.

Cat - How To Get Rid Of Cat Urine Odor

Cats are smart animals amongst other traits. However when your feline discovers the floors are good for their toileting it grows increasingly hard to eliminate the urine odor from your house as well as removing the stain. Constant revisiting to the area can damage your carpet or flooring and create a nasty unwanted smell in your home. Stopping cats from urinating on these spots will take a little training but discovering a way to get rid of the odour and stain is a lot harder than one can imagine.

Choosing the right product is another obstacle to overcome and as with a lot of cleaners they have a variety of uses. Basically, the stain is made up of three parts. The Urea is the sticky, tacky part which you find on top. The Urochrome is the pigment or color part and the Uric Acid and Salts is the third part. Most products will work on the first two parts which removes the stain and odor but the odor is not completely gone, the crystals are just dormant. When it rains or gets humid outside the odor comes back and in some cases when the carpet is shampooed the wetness will increase the smell again. It takes a very special product to remove it completely. A good idea will be to buy a bacteria/enzyme remover cleaner. However I will give you 9 steps that will help remove the urine odor

1. Blot new stains with paper towels

2. Lay a large amount of paper towels on the stain.

3. Apply gentle pressure by carefully stepping on towels

4. Replace paper towels with fresh ones

5. Stand on paper towels to increase pressure.

6. Remove towels

7. Apply a specialized stain - and odor - removing bacteria/enzyme cleaner

8. Apply carpet shampoo

9. Rinse with warm water Cat urine odor it the most repulsive odor out there. Hopefully with these tips you are on your way to eliminating the smell for good.

Did you think these tips were helpful? You may enjoy another read especially if it will eliminate cat urine odors for good. Check out my site for more useful tips on the removal of cat urine odors. http://www.articlewatch.info/caturineodor.htm

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nicola_Tewhare

Cat - How To Get Rid Of Cat Urine Odor

Cats are smart animals amongst other traits. However when your feline discovers the floors are good for their toileting it grows increasingly hard to eliminate the urine odor from your house as well as removing the stain. Constant revisiting to the area can damage your carpet or flooring and create a nasty unwanted smell in your home. Stopping cats from urinating on these spots will take a little training but discovering a way to get rid of the odour and stain is a lot harder than one can imagine.

Choosing the right product is another obstacle to overcome and as with a lot of cleaners they have a variety of uses. Basically, the stain is made up of three parts. The Urea is the sticky, tacky part which you find on top. The Urochrome is the pigment or color part and the Uric Acid and Salts is the third part. Most products will work on the first two parts which removes the stain and odor but the odor is not completely gone, the crystals are just dormant. When it rains or gets humid outside the odor comes back and in some cases when the carpet is shampooed the wetness will increase the smell again. It takes a very special product to remove it completely. A good idea will be to buy a bacteria/enzyme remover cleaner. However I will give you 9 steps that will help remove the urine odor

1. Blot new stains with paper towels

2. Lay a large amount of paper towels on the stain.

3. Apply gentle pressure by carefully stepping on towels

4. Replace paper towels with fresh ones

5. Stand on paper towels to increase pressure.

6. Remove towels

7. Apply a specialized stain - and odor - removing bacteria/enzyme cleaner

8. Apply carpet shampoo

9. Rinse with warm water Cat urine odor it the most repulsive odor out there. Hopefully with these tips you are on your way to eliminating the smell for good.