Behavior can be a huge iisue with our pets. If each dog and cat owner in the United States took the time to understand the root of their animals' behavioral issues, our animal shelters would be substantially less populated with strays. Around sixty percent of animals in shelters are there simply because of various behavioral problems. When cats start scratching furniture and dogs begin barking continually, it is quite natural to say to ourselves: I didn't sign up for this. In some cases a pet's behavioral problems can be entirely or almost entirely health related. In some other cases they can simply be a product of our own mistakes as owners. When all is said and done, who would really want to use a litter box that has not been cleaned in several weeks? Before you do anything else you must overcoming our pets' behavioral problems by using our imaginations...... to get into their minds and to try to understand the world through their eyes. Then we may actually see that we ask an awful from our pets. First of all, we put them into a human-created environment and then expect them to simply forget their wildness and behave in ways that suit only us. Many of the things that we teach our animals go against their nature. We sometimes ask our cats to relieve themselves into small trays when it is only natural for them to do so anywhere in their territory. And we discourage our dogs from barking at our guests or passerby when it is they are just trying to communicate with strangers who are entering their environment. If it is not stress or some kind of illness, then we should look at ourselves as owners: are we asking our dogs and cats to behave in ways which are totally impossible under the circumstances that we have provided for them? For example, are we asking our cats to use litter boxes that we rarely even clean? Or are we asking them to keep their paws off the couch when we have provided nothing else for them to scratch for the long hours in which we are gone? Are we asking our dogs to defer their whole worlds to us, while all we offer in return is a few hours a day of our aloof presence sprinkled with paltry playtime and affection? |
