A few weeks ago HAWS hosted feline behaviorist Victory Pappa from Cats International to talk to Waukesha County cat owners about cat behavior and help them solve cat behavior problems. Victoria did a great job explaining how to deal with cats not using the litterbox, play nipping, and counter cruising.
As a dog trainer one of the things I explain to dog owners is that many times behavior problems occur because our dogs are bored. Environmental enrichment and exercise can go a long way towards helping resolve a lot of behavior caused by boredom.
Therefore I wasn't too surprised when I learned that the same is true of cats. Many times people get cats because they don't want to spend as much time exercising them and consider them less work than dogs. And in a lot of ways this is true. However cats are very smart and curious animals, and if they aren't given enough to do can get into trouble.
Victoria brought along Vivian Frawley who brought her cat Linus for a special demonstration. She believes that teaching cats agility -- an obstacle course much like the dog sport -- can go a long way to getting them mentally tired, and possibly prevent behavior problems from occuring. Below is a video of Linus going through a simple course.
No comments:
Post a Comment