Albuquerque Journal Articles
Breed-Specific Work is Necessary Question: How can you stop heelers from eating their feces (and that of turkeys, geese, plus dirt, plants, etc.)? My friend’s 7 month old heeler is a planet eater! She’s also super hyper and uncontrollable to the point of not being an enjoyable dog. Dr. Nichol: Coprophagia (stool eating) is certainly disgusting but in most cases it isn’t a genuine behavior problem, at least not in dogs. That’s because consuming feces seldom reflects an abnormal behavioral motivation. Exceptions are those who eat stool because they have an internal disorder that increases their appetites. Severely compulsive dogs…
Moving is Painful & Stressful Question: My fiancé and I are having a house built. I have an enormous 20# tabby male cat named Tortellini. Should I kennel him for a couple of days? He hates going into his carrier; I have never kenneled him. Tortellini has peed on me in my bed and on my futon. How do I best help him adjust to the new house and the new furniture without him peeing on it? He rarely plays with toys and hardly ever climbs his cat tree. Dr. Nichol: Tortellini, like his namesake pasta, is round and stuffed.…
Improve Life to End Complaining Question: Do you do debarking or bark softening? I have about a 20# Sheltie. Dr. Nichol: I’ve considered debarking a few people (politicians, mostly) but for noisy dogs, there are better ways. Barking is actually a normal canine communication. Punishments, like verbal reprimands and electric or citronella collars seem simple but they often create worse behaviors because they fail to address the cause. Surgery would be just another symptomatic treatment. Improving a dog’s quality of life is the best route to peace and quiet. Your dog has stressors that his free-living brethren don’t. Like any…
Question: I recently moved to Albuquerque from Colorado. I have two yellow Labs. They have always shed hair, but it seems to have gotten worse since the move. I brush them daily. Do the supplements advertised in pet supply catalogs actually work to minimize shedding? Dr. Nichol: Naw. A supplement would help if you fed a poor quality diet (sawdust, dirt, cheap food, generic). The shedding is more likely due to stress from the move. Give your two good Labs lots of love, exercise, and extra brushing. As working dogs they will do best with scheduled activities every day. Obedience…
Set Tiger up to Choose to Snuggle Question: We adopted Tiger as a kitten 3 months ago. At first he was very affectionate with me and my husband. Suddenly, when he was 18 weeks he became terrified of my husband. We have 3 other cats, no problems. Tiger jumps up and runs when he even hears my husband coming. He is very affectionate with me. My husband is upset that Tiger is afraid of him. Dr. Nichol: It’s possible that your good man is the victim of a feline smear campaign. Actually, it’s more likely to have started with him…
Food & Airborne Allergens take their Toll Question: Pippi, my 4 year old Maine Coon cat first suffered with indolent ulcers at six months of age that has been controlled with z/d diet. Since January Pippi has formed stools for weeks and then reverts to “little cow pies”. Lately, she startles with itching and then frantically grooms her lower abdomen and the insides of her legs and arms. I know the excessive grooming and diarrhea can have an emotional component. We love this girl and want her to be comfortable. Dr. Nichol: Emotional component? I can only imagine the horror.…
During Luna’s earliest weeks of life, long before being left at the shelter, she missed out on gentle social exposures, causing her to be afraid when approached by anyone. Well-meaning human attempts to make friends triggered defensive lunging and snapping. She got lucky with her second family; they were committed to teaching her a better way. Luna is a calmer dog now; her fear-driven aggressive reactions rare. There were gifts in this come-from-behind story. Luna’s people, Hope and Brian, grew closer from their shared mission of investing themselves in another creature. They knew they were Luna’s last chance. In the…
Remember Luna from last week? She actually liked people, despite her panic and potentially dangerous freak-outs. She desperately wanted to be free of feeling trapped, ample reason to repeat her reactive lunging and snapping. These aggressive displays had chased off so many “scary monsters” that they became her default reaction. Setting Luna up for success would mean avoiding her fear triggers. Abandoning these situations would be essential because every time her arousal ramped-up the responsible neural circuits in her brain became stronger and more thickly networked. With more repetition she would react even faster and inch closer to her threshold…
Luna’s life with Hope and Brian began with great promise. They weren’t ready to start a human family but they loved pets. They’re socially conscious people who wanted to make a difference so off they went to the local shelter in search of a canine companion. That’s where a 6 month old Papillion-looking waif stole their hearts. Luna seemed perfect until she started reacting to well-meaning dog lovers who approached or reached to pet her, causing her to tremble, growl, and dribble urine. Hope and Brian believed that exposure to more people would help bring out her best so…
Basic Obedience Skills will make a Difference Question: How do you improve the quality of life for a blind cat? Dr. Nichol: Caring for this special needs cat can be rewarding. Instead of adopting a Seeing Eye dog for her you can motivate her with food and guide her with your voice. Start with the highest value cat treat, held just a few inches in front of your kitty’s nose. Slowly make a front-to-back arc over her head toward her shoulders. As her nose follows the scent of beluga caviar her neck will arch back as her rear end begins…