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Cat Training Problems? Train A Better Kitty Through Feline Communication
by M Porteous
Cats are amazing, unique and intelligent animals. Any cat lover knows this instinctually and believes they have a wonderful connection and understanding of their kitty. It comes as a surprise to many when their adorable cat misbehaves by clawing furniture, being antisocial, refusing to use the kitty litter and so on. We ask ourselves why and wonder why normal animal training techniques do not work. While there are many reasons of all of these things one of the core concepts you need to know when you have cat training problems is how to really communicate with your feline.
Cats communicate in four ways:
Visual
The first and easiest way to communicate with you cat is to understand their visual cues. While there are more obvious cues like wagging tail when annoyed and the ears going back when scared or angry there are other more subtle cues. For instance did you know that when you make eye contact with a cat if you lower your eyes and squint slightly it is a sign of acknowledgement and affection to a cat? Or that if their whiskers are flared it means they are alert. There are many cues a cat gives to use that we need to learn and can replicate back at them and they will understand.
Vocal
The noises a cat makes also give us clues to know what they are thinking. The obvious signs are purring when happy and hissing or growling when annoyed. There are many other sounds cats make that we can learn however like the loud meow which is usually for attention, the sigh (much like a humans) when contented and the chatter which is issued usually when a cat is stalking prey they cannot get ( a bird on the other side of a window). The tone and pitch of these various sounds mean different things and being clued up to the nuances can tell you if a cat just wants attention or if it is stressed or many other things.
Touch
Cats love to be touched and petted as long as it does not become painful and petting an affectionate cat has been proven to lower blood pressure and be good for us. How a cat touches you can mean things too; when rubbing the sides of its face against you it is marking you with a scent claiming you as their own, this is a true sign of affection. If a cat lets you rub their belly it is also a sign of trust as it is their most exposed weakest area when in a fight so letting you near it is very intimate. Cats also use their bodies to trip you which may be annoying but it is an attention getting device more than a pure show of affection. Knowing how your cat uses their body to communicate and how you should hold, pet and touch your pet is of vital importance to training them.
Smell
This is something we as humans cannot really tap into. Cats have a heightened sense of smell that allows them to see more than we can in that realm. They can sense things by smell we cannot and may react to something they smell when we cannot making them seem erratic. They can also smell when we are stressed or angry by our smell (along with body language and so on) so it can work both ways. Be aware your cat can smell better than you and that this may trigger something you cannot see.
All in all if you have cat training problems you must go back to square one with cat understanding before you can move on to more complex problems like getting them to use the kitty litter or stop scratching furniture. Once you have this understanding you will see many mistakes before you make them and adjust your action for a better behaved and happier cat!
http://ezinearticles.com/?Cat-Training-Problems?-Train-A-Better-Kitty-Through-Feline-Communication&id=977170
Care For Eyes, Ears And Nails Of Dog
by Jack Vallieres
No matter you are having your dog showered or only coming hair, you should care for his eyes, ears, teeth and anal. Dog eyes are considered healthy if their eyes are bright and clear with large open eyelids. If he has little irritated eyes, use eyes lotion which can be found all over. Slowly clean out any dirty at his head and end of eyes. If yellowish or greenish stain is found, consult with your dog's veterinarian. It is important sign for red eyes. If he has excessive tear, you also should consult your veterinarian to check tear gland function because if he has excessive tear, he will have brownish stain between eyes and mouth. Veterinarian can tell you if the tear gland functions normally, so that you do not have to be worried about that brownish stain more.
Clean your dog's ears regularly once a week. The cleaning is very important especially for dog with falling ears which causes humidity in ears and non-ventilation. The falling ears normally become source of germs and fungi leading to ears infection in dogs.
Use cotton bud soaked by baby oil to clean dog's ears. The ear holes are in L shape. It goes directly and turning to head. The end of L shape is eardrum. The cleaning method can be performed by holding earlobe above the head, slowly insert cotton bud inside vertically. It prevents damages of eardrum from using cotton buds.
Some breeds of dogs such as Pudle have hair in their ears. If no treatment, it may causes infection. The external hair can be eliminated by hand and for internal hair it has to be eliminated by veterinarian, including hair in reddish area in ears or any irritation. If their ears have foul smell, they scratch their ears, or turn lean their head to one side, consult with veterinarian.
For domestic over-sized dog that regularly go outdoor for exercise, his nails will be shorten naturally. For a small dog that mostly live in house, you need to have them nail cut. For a dog with long hair at his feet such as Cocker spaniel, it is probably difficult to see his length of nail, check his nails regularly.
The nail cutting is probably not easy as expected. The process is very easy but dog's reaction makes it difficult. They are usually frustrated and noisy.
Before nail cutting, make sure what you have to do because the nails contain vessel and nerve which is fresh under nails. If it is cut, the dog will get hurt and bleeding. If he has pale nails, you can see his fresh under nails as pinkish fresh under nails. Use nail cuter especially for dogs to cut his nails little under fresh line. If he has black color nails, the nail cutting will be even more difficult. You have to slowly and slightly cut them to prevent the fresh to be cut. The safe method is to cut under curve of nails.
If you accentually cut the fresh, do not be alarmed from his crying. Use medicated power to stop bleeding, apply or press on the wound for five minutes.
For every nail cutting, do not forget to cut inside nail which does not touch the ground while walking. It is compared to our thumb. Dogs in some breed have such nails at both front and behind feet and it does not found in some other breed as it has been pulled out since dogs are too young. Since the nails do not touch ground at all, they cannot become shorten naturally like other nails.
About the Author:
Jack Vallieres is the professional freelance writer. He's also the webmaster of Hellomydog.com
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