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Do cats dream?

Posted on: February 9th, 2011 by

Arden Moore's book cover.

Oh Behave!
Q&A with Pet Expert Arden Moore

Q. I love watching my cat sleep. He moves a lot and even makes little squeaking sounds at times. His legs quiver and his whiskers move. Is he dreaming?

A. Cats do dream, but we can only speculate on the subject matter. It might be that your cat is reliving the brilliant capture of a wayward fly buzzing near a sunny window or a particularly speedy spring down the hallway. Perhaps he is recalling with amusement how he charmed that final piece of broiled tuna off your dinner plate and into his own bowl.

We do have scientific evidence that cats dream. As with humans, feline sleep falls into two types – REM (rapid eye movement, which is when dreams happen), and non-REM (deep sleep). You will know your cat is in REM sleep because he is apt to twitch his legs, wiggle his whiskers, and subtly move his eyes behind his closed eyelids.

Studies using electroencephalograms (EEGs) to read brain activity in sleeping cats have indicated that cats are in the REM sleep stage for about 30 percent of their sleeping time and that their brain wave patterns during REM are similar to ours. In comparison, we spend about 20 percent of our sleep time in the REM stage (although human babies spend up to 80 percent in REM).

When cats are not dreaming, they are in the deep sleep phase. This is the time when the body goes to work repairing and regenerating bones and muscles and bolstering the immune system to fend off disease. The only movement you can detect during this sleep stage is the quiet up and down of breathing.

Confounded by your canine? Frustrated by your feline? Relax. Pet expert Arden Moore is here to deliver the real truth about cats, dogs…and you with her column appropriately called, “Oh Behave!”

Pet expert Arden Moore spends time with her pets.

On a regular basis, Arden will unleash excerpts from her two award-winning books, The Dog Behavior Answer Book (named the top training and behavior book by the Dog Writers Association of America) and The Cat Behavior Answer Book (named the top training and behavior book by the Cat Writers Association). Learn more about Arden Moore, who also hosts a weekly radio show called “Oh Behave!” on Pet Life Radio (www.petliferadio.com) by visiting her Four Legged Life website (www.fourleggedlife.com).

Book review– It’s Me Or The Dog

Posted on: December 24th, 2010 by

Posted by: H.R.
For Pets Best Insurance

A family sits with their trained dog.

It’s Me Or The Dog: How To Have The Perfect Pet is written by dog trainer and host of the television show It’s Me Or The Dog, Victoria Stillwell. The focus of the dog training book is teaching dog owners how to give their dogs tools they need to live in the human world.

The beginning of the book focuses on teaching the reader how to understand their dog. This must occur in order for the dog training to become effective. An important concept of the book is teaching dogs that their owners are the pack leader.

The book is broken down into eight chapters:

1. Thinking Dog: Understanding your dog
2. Talk Dog: Communicating with your dog
3. Dog School: basic dog obedience training
4. Dog’s Dinner: Feeding your dog the right diet
5. Accidents Will Happen: How to house-train your dog
6. You’ll Never Walk Alone: How to exercise your dog
7. Ain’t Misbehaving: Teaching your dog how to live in your world
8. Worker’s Playtime: How to have fun with your dog

While this book is ideal for new dog owners, seasoned dog owners will appreciate the dog training advice relating to dog behavior problems.

Overview of 101 Dog Tricks: Step By Step Activities To Engage, Challenge And Bond With Your Dog

Posted on: December 21st, 2010 by

A girl teaches a dog how to do a trick.
Posted by: H.R.
For Pets Best Insurance

The book 101 Dog Tricks: Step By Step Activities To Engage, Challenge, and Bond With Your Dog is one of the largest pet books targeted at teaching dog tricks.

The book offers step-by-step instructions with a difficulty rating for each trick. Along with detailed instructions, the book offers beautiful full-color photos of each trick. Learning new tricks will mentally stimulate your dog and at the same time strengthen your bond with your dog. This is a book every pet owner should have!

Each trick has trouble-shooting advice as well as dog training tips to help your dog learn. The book also offers “build-on” ideas which allow you to teach more complicated tricks using the simple skills your dog has already acquired.

The tricks are broken down and categorized by their skill level. The levels include easy, intermediate, advanced, and expert. The tricks taught in the book range from sit and stay to bring me the newspaper.

If you are looking for a book to help you teach your new puppy basic commands, this is probably not the book for you. However, if you are looking for a book that builds on your dog’s basic knowledge and can help you teach them to do more advanced tricks, this is definitely the book for you. The tricks are easy to teach and can be taught to a dog no matter what previous dog training techniques have been used.

How to introduce your pet to a new baby

Posted on: December 20th, 2010 by

A baby sits with a large black dog.

By: Dr. Fiona Caldwell
For Pets Best Insurance

By taking the right steps in the beginning, the relationship between pets and children can become a lifelong bond. Pets can be an important part of childhood, but introducing a new baby into a household that already has pets can require a little planning and foresight. Planning prior to your new arrival can ensure the smoothest possible transition to a larger family.

It is best to start preparing your dog before the new baby comes home. Make sure your dog is comfortable being independent, as you will have your hands full. If you have a dog that is used to following you from room to room, you might start placing baby gates to confine the dog to the areas of the house that will be separate from the baby.

You should also ensure your dog is used to sleeping on its own, either in a crate or a separate bedroom, and not in your bed or your children’s bed. You’ll also want to ensure you have a way to separate your pet from the baby in the car, either by purchasing a barrier, considering a harness and seatbelt, or confining a smaller dog to a crate. Start using these prior to having a baby in the car seat.

You might see how your dog reacts to a stroller. Some dogs might be scared of the wheels, or try to jump on it. Getting used to walks with a stroller before there is a baby in it will be easier. You might try walking with another adult, someone to push the stroller and another adult to manage the dog. Be sure to make this fun, and reward with treats for well mannered leash walks with a stroller!

Some dogs are very sensitive to or scared of loud sounds. It sounds silly, but playing a recording of crying might help you to see how your dog will react. If s/he is scared or anxious of the sounds, you can start the recording low at first, and then slowly increase to volume over time, all while playing, grooming or petting him/her to desensitize from the sound. Reward for good behavior. Shorter noise sessions frequently will be more successful.

For the baby’s actual homecoming, make sure you have at least two adults available, one that can tend to the dog and another that can tend to the baby. Put your dog on a leash, even if the leash is just dragging on the ground, this will make it easier control, especially a larger dog, if needed. Don’t force the introduction; just allow the pet to be around the new baby. Allow your pet to politely sniff the baby, but if s/he becomes overly interested, or wants to lick, distract with a squeaky toy and divert their attention. If the pet becomes fearful, tucks its tail, or snarls, have the extra adult calmly pick up the leash without scolding and walk the dog away from the baby. It is extremely important that pets that exhibit untrustworthy signs be kept separately from young children.

Having animals in the family while kids are young can be very rewarding, and help teach many life lessons, in addition to providing friendship. Contact your veterinarian with additional or specific questions.

Food for Thought

Posted on: December 14th, 2010 by

The cover of Arden Moore's The Cat Behavior Book.
Oh Behave!
Q & A With Pet Expert Arden Moore

Q. I’m about to adopt a pair of young cats from the local shelter. They are just a year or two old and are littermates. I don’t want my cats to get fat from overeating. Should I just keep a big bowl of kibble available to them all the time or feed them twice a day?

A. Welcome to the Great Feline Food Debate. There are pros and cons to both free feeding and scheduling specific mealtimes. Many cats, whether they live as solo cats or part of a multi-cat household, seem to fare well with free feeding. They eat what they need and stop before becoming obese. Unlike dogs, who tend to bolt down whatever food is put in front of them, cats are more comfortable nibbling 10 to 20 times a day.

In your situation, I would first check with the animal shelter officials as to how these sibling felines were fed. Ask if they ate twice a day or had food available all day long, and inquire whether there were any incidents of one cat bullying or nudging the other from food bowls.

Keep tabs on your new cats’ eating habits and weigh them regularly. If they seem to maintain their weight, then free feeding is a good option. Just be sure to clean the bowls regularly – daily if you feed canned food.

Some cats, however, view free feeding as a 24-hour all-you-can-eat buffet and stuff themselves with kibble until their bellies drag on the floor. They just can’t say no to chow. Consider this startling fact: an extra three pounds on a nine-pound cat is the equivalent of adding a whopping 40 pounds to a 120-pound person. Added weight puts both cats and people at added health risk.

For cases in which one cat eats too much and one eats too little, scheduling specific mealtimes is recommended. This allows you to have better control over your cats’ diets. To prevent the pudgy cat from gobbling up all the food, feed him in a separate room. Then, after a designated time, around 15 minutes or so, pick up the food bowls. Another option is to feed the slender cat an extra meal at night, while the plumper puss spends the night in a room of his own without any food.

Controlled feeding also works best when a medical problem arises, such as diabetes. Cats with this condition need to have their insulin and blood sugar levels monitored on a daily basis. Feeding small amounts a number of times each day can also help a cat who eats too much food at once and may throw up a short time later.

If you find yourself unable to be at home at specific mealtimes for your cats, consider buying a timed self-feeder. These gadgets dispense controlled portions of kibble at designated times. Putting a couple of golf balls in the food dish will also help to slow down a greedy gobbler, as will spreading out the kibble on a tray or shallow dish.

Confounded by your canine? Frustrated by your feline? Relax. Pet expert Arden Moore is here to deliver the real truth about cats, dogs…and you with her column appropriately called, “Oh Behave!”
Author and pet expert Arden Moore sits with her pets.
On a regular basis, Arden will unleash excerpts from her two award-winning books, The Dog Behavior Answer Book (named the top training and behavior book by the Dog Writers Association of America) and The Cat Behavior Answer Book (named the top training and behavior book by the Cat Writers Association). Learn more about Moore, who also hosts a weekly radio show called “Oh Behave!” on Pet Life Radio (www.petliferadio.com) by visiting her Four Legged Life website (www.fourleggedlife.com).

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