Monthly Archives January 2025

Step by Step… Staying Together on Walks

Taking our dogs for walks is beneficial for many reasons. It allows them to burn energy and engage with mental enrichment through sniffing the environment. It’s a bonding experience that provides the chance to explore the world around us, with their favorite person at their side. During walks, it’s always important to ensure safety and proper use of equipment. Using a properly fitted martingale collar (Picture A) will prevent your dog from slipping out of their collar. For dogs who use a harness, it is recommended to clip a carabiner from the harness onto the martingale collar (Pictures B and
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Scruffing Cats: The Surprising Truth About This Common Handling Myth

As with anything in our ever-changing world, we know so much more about training and working with cats now, and it’s up to us to advocate for best practices when we’re thinking about how we live with our cats. Let’s talk about “scruffing” or grabbing a cat by the nape of the neck, to move, hold, punish or control a cat. Here’s what we know: The “flexor reflex,” causing cats and kittens to go limp when picked up by their scruff, stops within the first few weeks of life. A mother cat may bite down on a kitten’s scruff and
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