Turn scary things into fun, positive experiences! Scary things from your dog’s point of view can include nail trimming, getting brushed, bathed or groomed, when you vaccuum or sweep, strangers wearing hats or glasses… and often times totally odd “normal” things like the washing machine running or a certain part of the street on your walking route! Whatever the scary thing is to your dog, you can follow the simple, clearly illustrated steps on this great poster created by the world-famous canine behavior specialist Jez Rose. You can download his great poster for free right here: 6 Top Tips for Desensitization poster PDF. The Jez Rose website has a whole section of free training resources available here and we really appreciate their allowing Adopt-a-Pet.com to feature their poster downloads to help adopted pets!
Pet Heroes: Kandu can do it!
So what is there than Kandu can do? Go skiing? Yep! Race around in his custom cart outfitted with three rollerblade wheels? Yep! Enjoy his life to the fullest! Yep – thanks to his amazing adoptive home, an inventive mechanic and a plastic product company, Kandu can do just about anything a four-legged dog can do, and he does it with a big doggie smile too! This awesome little Jack Russell terrier born with missing his two front legs doesn’t stop there either, he’s a certified therapy dog with Heeling Friends (a Delta Society Pet Partner affiliate) and visits patients in hospitals. Nothing like a happy super-optimistic dog who doesn’t let his physical challenges get in the way of having fun and being loved. Kandu has his own website http://www.kandu.us where you can read more about his incredible journey, and check out his “stuff” for sale where all proceeds benefit the Evergreen Animal Protective League (who first rescued him) and Heeling Friends. Kandu and his adopters are truly Pet Heroes! Click to see his videos and news stories below.
CBS News story: http://youtu.be/J1w1XDrhrVE
Using his mono-ski to run in the snow: http://youtu.be/AdBxIPv6w5A
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How to keep a door-dashing cat safe
If you have ever witnessed a door-dashing cat or kitten, you know the challenges of stopping one! I owned a door-dashing cat. I adopted him as an 8-week-old kitten from a rescue who said he’d been living in a Chinatown alley. This little guy had some serious street smarts! When I first adopted him, I lived in an apartment building. I thought it was adorable how he’d hear the “bing” of the elevator door down the hall and would run to my front door. When I opened the door, instead of happily greeting anyone who came inside, he’d dart like a lightning bolt into the hallway. Then the game of chase was on! I learned to keep a fishing-pole toy in the umbrella rack by the front door to lure him back inside. My hallway was relatively safe (he did end up in the elevator once!)… but then, I moved to a house. A house in the hills filled with coyotes! Not to mention cars, dogs, raccoons, and all the dangers that await a cat outside. His door-dashing was no longer cute. It was a huge threat to his life. Determined, and though trial and error, I figured out what worked to keep one door-dashing cat inside. Read on to find out what I tried, and what may help you with your door-dashing feline!
– Block front door access: If you can close a door to keep kitty out of the room or hallway that accesses the door, this is the easiest method. Many homes simply don’t have this option.
– Alternate entrances: If you have more than one doorway into your home, sometimes alternating randomly which door you go in and out of will avoid “kitty lying in wait to dash” and allow you to safely get in and out.
– Treat toss: You can train a food-motivated cat to run the other way when the door opens. Keep cat treats next to all your outside doors. When you’re getting ready to go outside, grab a handful of treats, get your cat’s attention (like shake the treat bag or if you’ve clicker- or word-trained your cat, use that) and show him that you’re going to toss the treats before you open the door. Then scatter toss treats as far away from the front door as you can, then as quickly as possible get yourself/other people/dogs outside or inside. You can use this for coming inside too, if you can keep a jar of treats outside your door. My cat now waits by the corner of couch which is usually where most of my tossed treats end up.
– Add a “kitty-lock” door: Like a bank door air-lock, but for you cat. If you’re lucky your home may already have a hallway or entrance with doors you can keep closed, but you can also build one. How you create your kitty-lock depends on your home. Some front doors have a small porch that can be screened in. Or, if you have an interior entrance vestibule or hallway, you could install an additional interior door. This solution can be expensive, but it works 100% as long as you close one door before opening the next.
– Create a “kitty-lock” barricade: Like the above built-in door, a kitty-lock barricade can be inside your home or outside — or both! A kitty barricade needs to be something a cat can’t easily jump over or slip through, giving you time to safely get in or out. Try 36″ or higher folding wire dog exercise pens or extra-tall baby gates like the walk-through kind designed for stairs. If you a renter or can’t permanently attach them, arrange the end panels of a wire pen tight up against walls on either side of the door, with something heavy to hold them in place.
– Give kitty safe outdoor time: Create a safe outdoor cat enclosure like a catio or purchase a “cat walk”. Sometimes just a closed window (or open with a secure strong screen) with a window sill cat bed, or with a same-height table or bookshelf lounging spot, can give your outdoor-craving cat the experience she desires in total safety. If you have a fenced-in yard and are considering training your cat to walk on a harness & leash <– be sure to read that article first.
– Spray training: Please use this as a last resort, after trying the above. To avoid kitty associating you with the adverse spray, it’s best to use motion-detection cat deterrent spray cans like these. If kitty knows you are the source of the spray, that will likely happen. This is safest in conjunction with a kitty barricade, and if you can enlist a helper, all the better. The cans can take a little practice to get the aim right, so practice with yourself first. If you can’t get the cans, if your helper can hide outside around a corner (so cat will not see him) you can use a sprayer hose. Be sure to set up the kitty barricade on the outside side of the closed door, creating a safer area if kitty dashes out. Rarely cats don’t mind being sprayed , so this only works if your cat doesn’t like it. (Often the “stream” setting is more disliked.) Open the door, and when kitty dashes or even steps one paw outside, the automatic spray goes off in front of them and most cats will dash back inside! Close door. Repeat. It may take a few days and few sessions. If you cat keeps dashing after 3 days of 3 sessions, this training will not work for your cat.
Our foster cat Solace posed for these photos for us — he’s not actually a doordasher, and this door opens onto his catio, so please don’t worry, he’s safe!
How have you kept your door-dashing kitty safe inside? Share your solutions on the Adopt-a-Pet.com Facebook page, and share this article with your friends who are adopting a new cat, or are having difficulties with a door-dasher of her own!
Share This Map & Help St. Louis Dogs & Cats!
We are proud to announce that our Google Maps now covers St. Louis! Our Google Maps make it easy to realize how many shelters and rescues work in the greater St. Louis area. Click on the pins and find out what shelters and rescues operate in that area. Then follow the links to see the pets available. It’s easy to use and easy to share.
St. Louis Dog & Puppies Rescues & Shelters
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St. Louis Cat & Kitten Rescues & Shelters
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Happy Beginnings: Thanks to "Search Saver" Emails, Lolah Gets Lucky
We love hearing from happy adopters like these! We received an email with this lovely letter: “Dear Adopt-a-Pet.com, I have just unsubscribed to Search Saver emails from Adopt-a-Pet.com, but wanted to take a moment to THANK YOU for finding us the absolutely perfect dog to adopt. You sent us a notification about Lolah in Powell River and a few days later (and two days of driving) she was part of our home. We have had Lolah for a week now and she is bringing so much joy to our lives. My daughter has wanted a corgi for several years but we had made the decision that it must be an adopted dog, and after a long search you found us Lolah. Thank you so much and Happy Holidays to all your staff. – Nora, Mireya and Lolah”
Did you find your best friend on Adopt-a-Pet.com? Let us know by sending an email with a photo to info@cms.adoptapet.com! We’d love to use your story in an upcoming edition of “The Scoop” the Adopt-a-Pet.com monthly email newsletter, and share it here on our blog.
Will you be Jackson's Valentine?
We love that PeoplePets.com helps pets get adopted by featuring them on their uber-popular website! Today, they’d like you to meet Jackson, a Lhaso Apso mix who’s looking for an adoptive home to love — a very special dog-experienced Valentine! The 5-year-old pooch has traveled far from the Los Angeles park where he was found wandering in 2009. Thanks to a network of animal rescuers, he’s currently in Vancouver, Canada awaiting his forever home. It’s taken some time, but the anxious pooch, who is believed to have had a traumatic past, has made great strides building his confidence with anti-anxiety medication and training. His foster mom, Alexis Adams, founder of the Penny Foundation Dog Rescue Society, is looking for someone familiar with his breed to adopt him. Blind in one eye, apparently due to trauma to his head, Jackson has been known to bare his teeth and growl when he feels threatened. He needs a patient owner who will make him feel safe and accept his idiosyncrasies. You can read all about Jackson and see his story on PeoplePets.com right here!
Pay Attention to What You Want – Not What You Don't!
Too often, we pay attention to our pets when they’re exhibiting the behavior we don’t want them to do. It’s important to keep in mind that any time you look at, talk to, or touch your pet — meaning any time you pay attention! — you are reinforcing the behavior they’re participating in at that very moment. So do you let your pet know when he or she is doing what you do want? It is more common for us to interact when our pets are bugging us. For example, when your dog is jumping up on you like the pups in the photo — a behavior most of us don’t condone — by saying “no” or pushing her down, you are only giving your pup words, eye contact, and attention when she’s jumping! So you’re actually reinforcing the jumping.
Try instead to remove all interaction with her when the jumping is taking place. Turn your back and ignore the behavior. The moment your pooch sits down and stops jumping on you, that’s the moment to give her attention and let her know that is the behavior you like. Otherwise, you’ll just be teaching her that by jumping up on you she gets you to focus on her.
It’s easy for us to blame our pets; they don’t speak our language and it can get frustrating! But in truth, any behavior your pet exhibits, even the ones you don’t like, are likely present because they have been reinforced unknowingly by you. This new year, let’s try to be more mindful of how we communicate with our animals and what behavior we’re reinforcing. Catch your pets doing the right thing! When your furry friends are resting calmly on their dog beds, remember to give them praise and let them know that is exactly the behavior you enjoy.
In short: focus on what you want, not on what you don’t. In the end our relationship with our animals will only get better for it, and you’ll both enjoy each other’s company a little more!
Share This Map & Help Baltimore Dogs & Cats!
We are proud to announce that our Google Maps now covers Baltimore! Our Google Maps make it easy to realize how many shelters and rescues work in the greater Baltimore area. Click on the pins and find out what shelters and rescues operate in that area. Then follow the links to see the pets available. It’s easy to use and easy to share.
Baltimore Dog & Puppies Rescues & Shelters
Place This Map On Your Website
Baltimore Cat & Kitten Rescues & Shelters
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Do you speak dog? Free poster!
Do you speak dog? Dogs communicate using body language more than they do vocally, says the informative poster “Talking Dog” from world-famous canine behavior specialist Jez Rose. While you can learn a lot from reading about dog behavior, there’s nothing like a clear visual guide to help further your understanding of what your dog is telling you with their face, ears, body and tail. Jez Rose has made a wonderful free poster available that does just that. You can download this printable “Talking Dog” poster from Jez Rose right here: Jez Rose Talking Dog Poster PDF. It is illustrated so easy to comprehend for both children and adults to learn to identify the signs of a dog that it is not good to approach (fearful, anxious, stressed) and signs of a dog that is not an immediate thread (content, happy, social). Good communication is such an important part of any relationship, including the ones between people and dogs. Being able to better understand our canine friends helps minimize conflicts that could lead to a pet loosing their home, and can help you as a pet owner enjoy many conversations, instead of frustrations!
The Jez Rose website has a whole section of free training resources available here and we really appreciate their allowing Adopt-a-Pet.com to feature their poster downloads to help adopted pets!
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If you are expecting a baby… what about your cat?
You may have heard of a friend or family member who was told by their doctor that they had to give up their cat because of a disease risk to their unborn baby. Or maybe it even happened to you! Is that a wives tale, or is there some truth to that concern? Our wonderful friend Franny , the Guide of the Cats section at About.com, gives the scoop on the real story: “You do NOT have to get rid of your cat! Now that I have your attention: Pregnancy when you have a cat presents some challenges, but don’t worry, none of them are even remotely insurmountable. You just need a little planning and know-how. Cats and babies have coexisted peacefully for thousands of years. This article deals with preparing for a new baby.” Thank you Franny, for laying that myth to rest! The article goes on to point out that, “many people naturally acquire an immunity to toxoplasmosis, and will not pass it on to their unborn child. In fact, the chances are that you have already been exposed to toxoplasmosis by handling raw meat or gardening without gloves.” Or possibly by volunteering at an animal shelter or rescue where you’ve been socializing cats or helping clean litterboxes or their kennels too. So now you know and share this truth with any of your pregnant friends and family too!