Wednesday, April 16, 2008, 09:48 AM
Posted by Cyndi Lenz
Behavior Myths
1. My cat urinates on the bed because he is mad at me.
Actually, animals don’t feel spite or anger. Instead, the cat may be stressed, unable to get to the litter box because of another pet, have separation anxiety, or may have just learned that the owner’s bed is clean and soft and the litter box isn’t.
2. My dog jumps on me. He must want to be the pack leader.
Actually, most dogs misbehave due to a lack of training, intermittent reinforcement by the owner and limited other ways to dissipate excess energy not because they want to lead the pack. Most dogs jump for attention and continue to jump because owners reinforce the dogs by petting them, pushing on them or yelling at them.
3. Most behavior problems can be solved with a medication.
Medications can be an essential part of a treatment plan for many pets with behavior problems, however they rarely solve pet behavior problems without behavior modification and environmental changes.
3. Puppies should not go anywhere except the owner’s yard and the veterinary hospital until they are 16 weeks of age.
Puppies should begin socialization to the people and animals in their environment as soon as they are adopted. The sensitive period for socialization in dogs is 3-12 weeks. During this time, a small amount of effort results in a large impact on the puppy’s adult behavior. More importantly, lack of exposure often leads to fear of stimuli to which the puppy has never been exposed. If owners wait until 16 weeks of age to begin socializing puppies to stimuli in the environment, there is a higher likelihood that those pups will exhibit fearful behavior resulting in serious behavior problems.
4. Cats can’t be trained.
While it is true that cats are harder to train than most dogs, they are trainable. Owners see the results of training each day when their cat comes running at the sound of the food bag or can opener. Most of the challenges encountered when training cats result from the cat’s lack of motivation and the owner’s unrealistic expectations. To be successful, the cat should be trained when he is hungry and when he has not seen the owner for a while. In addition, training sessions should be limited to 5 minutes. The owner will fare best by starting with something that the cat already does such as using his natural desire to swat things to teach him to “high-five.”
Lisa Radosta DVM, DACVB
www.flvetbehavior.com 561-795-9398
Florida Veterinary Behavior Service
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