Resources

So you’ve got a shy cat — maybe they vanish as soon as someone comes to the door, live under the bed or startle easily. Because this behavior is so common in cats, it’s easy to see this as normal, when really, shyness is not a personality trait but an expression of fear!

Whether mild or severe, there are many things we can do to increase your shy or fearful kitty’s confidence and reduce their fear. This guide will cover the basics.

Training can be hard work for your pet, which can also be amplified by distractions in the environment. A certain amount of stress is normal when learning new things, but all too often people ignore the warning signs that their pets are experiencing an overload of pressure during training.

Bringing another animal into the home can be a nerve-racking experience — especially if your resident pet has never lived with another dog or cat before. But there are some ways to predict whether a new pet would be a good fit for your home.

Keeping our pets happy, healthy and demonstrating polite behavior has a lot to do with how we train them — and to train them, we must understand what motivates them.

Even if your pet rarely travels in a carrier, it’s important to make sure they are comfortable doing so. Most cats only interact with a carrier before a stressful experience, teaching them that the carrier means something scary or unpleasant is going to happen.

Household pets thrive on routine, but cats are especially attached to their space — which can make moving a particularly challenging experience. To help your cat through the transition, there are steps and precautions you can take throughout the moving process to minimize shock and keep your cat happy and healthy.

Cats scratch to meet physical, emotional or social needs. It’s a natural behavior that we can’t stop — and we shouldn’t try to. Asking our cats not to scratch would be like asking a bird not to fly. Instead, we can provide our cats with appropriate outlets for scratching.