A cat door not only benefits the cat, it brings peace of mind to the cat owner.
The hole should be cut in the bottom of the door on the lock- side so any framing will not interfere with the normal door operation. The door needs to be approximately 250x 250 mm or smaller, depending on the size of your cat. (more…)
House-training should prove no problem if you’re quick and alert to your puppy’s needs. He will need to pay frequent visits to his spot in the garden: after each meal, after a sleep and any time you think about it in between. Always pick him up and carry him to the spot. Give him a command. I use the words ‘busy dog‘. Don’t dump him and retreat back to the house and close the door. He hasn’t a clue what he’s been put in the garden for. You must stay with him, repeating your commands over and over again. Whether it’s hailing, blowing a gale or a snowstorm’s on, you must persevere. As soon as he’s been a ‘busy dog‘, give him lots of praise, tell him how clever he is, pick him up and return him to the house. If you are diligent and watch your puppy closely, you will know when he needs to go out. A sure sign will be when he puts his nose to the ground, his tail up in the air and runs round in circles. That is your cue to move speedily with him into the garden. (more…)
The worst thing you can possibly do is introduce your puppy to the car on his first journey to the vet for his inoculations. A sensitive puppy will remember this traumatic experience and link the car journey with the vet. Stop problems before they begin and you’ll never have any. Don’t be tempted to rush any part of your puppy’s training. It would be so easy to put puppy in the car and go, and you could be lucky and have a dog who enjoyed car riding. But if the puppy you have has any qualms whatsoever about the car, you may be instilling a fear of the vehicle in him that will take years to cure. (more…)
Chewing in the older dog can be a big problem, as the born chewer will set about his task of destruction when you’re not around to correct him. Apart from the things that I have described with puppy chewing (leaving lots of things to amuse him if you’re not around) you can take more defensive measures. For example, if he has a habit of chewing the wallpaper, coat the wall with mustard. This can often work, although I own up to the fact that I did this myself when Teak began to chew holes in the wood panelling. Far from deterring her, she was delighted the walls were coated with mustard and spent hours licking it off before proceeding to chew more holes. But you can experiment by sprinkling pepper or buying sprays for this purpose from your local pet shop. (more…)
The cat is normally a hunting carnivore, but even wild cats will happily take carrion — such as a rabbit killed on a road — or other food unintentionally provided by man. This means that no cat has to be trained to accept dead meat, which is not the case with some other pets, and fortunately the easy availability of food has a marked effect on a cat’s territorial needs, making it less likely to wander.
However, there is no doubt that some cats can be difficult about accepting food if they suspect something tastier might be available. (more…)
