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• Dogs: Firework Phobias

  Don't just ignore the problem because it only happens a few times each year. You should instigate a desensitisation and counter conditioning programme.

• Dogs: House Soiling - Elimination Problems

  There are numerous reasons why a dog might soil the house with urine and/or faeces. Determining the specific reason is essential for developing an effective treatment programme.

• Dogs: Punishment

  Punishment is defined as the application of a stimulus that decreases the chances that a behaviour will be repeated. In practical terms when dealing with dogs, we aim to associate an unpleasant consequence with an undesirable behaviour to reduce the occurrence of the behaviour.

• Excess Thirst and Urination

  These are non-specific clinical signs and can be caused by many different conditions and diseases.

• Getting Your Dog Used to Ear Cleaning

  Most dogs' ears are a lot larger than ours and certainly a lot more sensitive. We usually only clean them when there is a problem and they are already sore, so the dog learns that handling around the ears is painful and tries to avoid it.

• Guidelines for Taking Your Cat to the Vet

  Cats are very strongly bonded to their environment and any change is likely to result in significant stress. If we consider the changes that we are enforcing on a cat when we take it to the vet, it is hardly surprising that many cats are very stressed by the time they arrive at the veterinary practice.

• House-Safety: Confinement and Crate Training

  Dogs are highly social animals that make wonderful pets. However, with the lifestyle and schedule of the majority of families, dogs must learn to spend a portion of the day at home alone, while their human family is away at school, work, shopping or recreational activities.

• Indoor Spraying in Cats

  Urine spraying is part of the cat's normal scent-marking behavioural repertoire which also includes scratching, rubbing, chinning, bunting (depositing secretions from head glands on twigs etc., and middening (leaving faeces uncovered).

• Indoor Toileting Problems in Cats

  Indoor marking behaviour can be confused with a breakdown in toileting behaviour.

• Kitten Socialisation and Habituation

  Socialisation is the process by which the kitten learns about its own identity, the identity of its own species and the identity of the other species with which it will share its life. Appropriate socialisation enables the kitten to go on to develop relationships with other living beings in its environment.