blmartin

I recently had my roof replaced and found myself having to follow my own advice on how to minimize stress during loud and chaotic events. And loud it was! Wow. [Read more…] about Finding Calm in the Chaos

Elimination outside of the litter box is the most common reason clients seek out my services. While there is often a behavioral, environmental or husbandry problem contributing to this behavior, there is often a medical component as well. If the litter box protocol is well managed, and I am suspicious that the cat is experiencing urinary discomfort, then a list of questions is generated to further investigate the primary cause of the elimination problem.
[Read more…] about Urination Outside the Litter Box: Why Medical Evaluations Are An Important Part to Solving the Problem!

Cats have a very short window in just the first few weeks of life where they learn the majority of their social behavior and the ability to interact with other cats. In other words, they learn to “speak cat”, by about 9-12 weeks of age. If they are not around other cats during these formative weeks they are typically defensively aggressive when confronted with their own species. [Read more…] about Tarzan Syndrome: should you adopt one or two cats?

Redirected aggression is one of the most common forms of aggression among cats living in the same household and can be a challenging problem to resolve. Redirected aggression is when one cat experiences something that instills fear, is over-stimulating or highly arousing and they redirect their frustration, aggression or fear onto whoever is closest. This could be the family dog, another cat or even a human. Redirected aggression is most common in households with five or fewer cats. It rarely occurs in homes that are very saturated in cats. [Read more…] about Redirected Aggression in Cats: Recognition and Treatment Strategies

Petting induced aggression, over-stimulation, petting intolerance, hypersensitivity to touch, short fused personality-call it what you will all of these terms mean your cat is not so touchy-feely! [Read more…] about The Not So Touchy-Feely Feline!

Welcome to Part Three of an informative series on the fantastic feline senses and how these innate behaviors can present as behavior challenges in the home environment. If you are just joining the discussion please refer to Parts One and Two of the series. [Read more…] about Species Specific Behaviors and How They Present as Behavior Challenges in the Home: Part Three