June 11, 2025 • 15 mins
Mark Vette is a world-renowned animal behaviourist, dog trainer and educator who has been working with animals for over 40 years.
He's a trained animal psychologist and created the Dogzen online training programme.
And he joined the Afternoons team as part of their Ask the Expert series.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mark Viddi is a world renowned animal behaviorist an educator
who has been working with animals for over forty years.
He's a trained animal psychologist as well, and he joins
us once a month on our Ask the Expert series.
He's back with us, Mark, Good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Good afternoon. How are you very good?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Has it been a month already?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Time fly? Mark?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Finished the book since sin So that's good. Win's the
book out September. Your cat's in so cat Bavy book.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There you go, Oky, fantastic? Look like for that?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, Donald will be interested in a career and non
hunting cat.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Oh wow, well look Donald be interested in that because
Donnad's got a cat question. Donna, I don't.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
We have a Hi? We have a mixed breed one.
But he's mixed breed. He's crazy anyway, it's one a
half years old, is very very well fed at home.
He's lively anyway. He's taken now to not just chasing
mice's and killing them, but he's now eating them. Why
(01:19):
would he do that? He is an outside care he
is a hunter, but the previous cat wouldn't do that
at all.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, that's very natural. It's very natural. I mean, cats
don't hunt or not hunt because they're hungry or not angry.
So it might seem unusual, but that's that's the nature
of that species. And so yeah, that when they hunt,
they they often don't eat initially when they're when they're
(01:46):
naive to hunting and they're early in hunting, they don't
get guided by the mother from four to six weeks on.
Then they don't have great hunting skills. In fact, my
new books, one of the big things that we're teaching
in that book is how to prevent hunting, you know,
to develop no hunt conditioning for particularly for birds, you know,
and just to decrease wildlife killing. But of course the
(02:09):
hunting mass and rats uns so much of an issue
in that sense because they also hunt the wildlife. So
so what we in that situation is natural for the
cat to eat. It's all. It's all natural that, Yeah,
And as they develop they're hunting skills. They go from
just catching, which is part of what they do when
they're kittens, before they actually learned to kill and eat
(02:31):
and and there are different stages in the in the
hunting sequence what we what we call I used to
call a fixed action pattern, now called a modal action pattern.
So those are those are what the sequence of bavies
they go through in hunting, driven by different motivations or
seeking mechanisms in their hormones and so on. So that's
the way it all works. Yeah, they the question.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Thank you, what's your what's your book called?
Speaker 6 (02:57):
There?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It'll be called Cats and it's coming out in September. Yeah,
So it's it's about how to rear and train a cat,
and it's also about how to prevent how do.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You spell that?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
See a t zdy in being able to teach a
cat to bond with you?
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Really?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Well, thank you for you called Donna.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So bet a mouse meat? Nothing wrong with a bit
of mouse meat for a cat then, no.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
No, of course it's got all the goods and it
that's exactly what they're designed to eat. So that's only natural.
Speaker 8 (03:29):
Here.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
The tails are delicious. Welcome to show you've got a
you've got a cat question as well?
Speaker 6 (03:37):
Hey Julie, Hello, sorry, Yes, one of my cats, the
one particularly you colimb under up on the beard.
Speaker 9 (03:46):
She go under the bed clothes.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
She'll come over to my side where I'm sleeping, and
she proceeds the backside to my face.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
With the tail lifted up right up as well. That's
that's the that's what cats do. They love the tail
being right up under those circumstances exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I mean, the interesting thing about cat normally what happens
when they come up to you is they come up
with their cheek and if you handle their cheek and
you'll hear them, of course they'll start pairing in that situation.
And as opposed to let them adopt their own position.
It's probably not that she's turning that way for any
particular reason except that she feels more comfortable that way.
(04:30):
But if you actually handle her in the chin cheek region,
then you'll see her keep presenting the front of her
head for a while and then and then she'll fall
a sheep in that position and she's start learning to
sleep that way, if that's what you wanted to do.
So kicking the cheek because that activates what we call
the perioal glands around the face there and that which
(04:50):
is their rubbing pheromones, and that's their meat and Greek
behavior towards their mum, and you're the mom. You're the
saying of mother.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Ah, Because I was going to ask why do cats
like to just stick their heads into small spaces? That's
probably why because they love a lot of cats. If
you know, you make a weee hole with your hands,
they love to just squeeze the hidden there. I take
it they've got some sort of you know, they just
laugh a bit of a chick scratch.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, well they do. And you'll see, you know how
they pushed against you when you come up and greet them,
And that's what you're after. I call that joining up
in cats. And so when I'm joining up with a cat,
I tickle the cheek. It's always the first place you
should touch a cat. Don't touch a cats anywhere else.
Always touch on the cheek. And that's for that reason,
fair enough.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
To Yes, it's quite nice for humans as well.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I've got to say whiskers too.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, exactly. Like one hundred eighty eighty. We're joined by
Mark Vidi, Wild, renowned animal behaviorist. He's taking your questions.
You've got a problem with your pet? Here is the
man too?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Chat to it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
There's a couple of text questions comes through for your mark.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Here we go.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
This is from a Chelsea. I'm adopting an adult cat
this weekend. She's five and not overly affectionate. How do
I make her love me?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, that's a good question. One of the things about
cats is the early socialization that they have in the
two to seven week period predetermined pretty much the level
of sociality into the future, so depending on how much
they got, and clearly she didn't get that much at
that time or enough, and that's why she's a bit
more independent. However, if you've just got her, it does
take a while for a cat to adapt and resocialize
(06:23):
and rebond. So the best thing to do is once
you start getting feeding under control and she starts to
realize that you're in charge of those kind of goods,
then that's the first step towards your heart and clicker training.
I use to enhance that appetite and that ability for
them to realize that I'm in control of those resources
(06:45):
and I can get it to do things, even if
it's just to come and sit. But basically, what I'm
trying to do is make that relationship stronger, and the
way to do that is to utilize food in that
early stage, and when they do engage with you, then
you move into what I called joining up, which is
that little tickle on the cheek mainly, and don't progress
down the rest of the body for a little while
(07:06):
until the cat starts to show you that it wants
to engage you, and that's by rubbing the institu and
so don't force the issue with a cat.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Let him go, Daniel, Daniel, welcome the show. You've got
a question about a one year old dog.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
Yeah, good, a hate she's thanks for taking the school.
Look we're going to be four and a half year
old boditarian. He's superb and we recently, well a year ago,
got a s other foxy, drawable little feller mostly super
well behaved.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
In fact, just recently we've took him out of the
trade at night and he's stepping on his bed quite well.
No problems. The problems we have with him, we've got
plenty of true toys. But like today was probably the
third fourth time it's happened where he'll destroy something while
we're gone. But when I said, well we're gone, my
wife I'm lucky that enough she's a stay home mum
(07:56):
and the time she occasionally pops out for an hour
or two, and today destroyed a kid's school book, so
we're up for a library.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, it's so starting to show separation to stress issues.
Does he seem to get anxious and how or worry
about you being when you leave when everyone goes away,
and is that when it's.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Happening now he seems to be quite happy. He didn't
like to create too much, and that's why we got
rid of that at night, and he's been great. Yes,
it's just when when my wife will leave home for
a couple of hours, it's like, I don't know, we
think it's almost like a rebellious Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It'll be separation distress once once you get a dog
that starts that gets datched at that level, which you know,
did you say he was rescue?
Speaker 8 (08:42):
Was he no?
Speaker 9 (08:44):
No, we've gone from week.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yes, So it sounds like the basis of that would
be separation distress. So I'd expect I'd be doing a
little bit of what I call graduated departure around the
house and just see if he settles, you know, when
you leave for short periods and he can last. I'd also,
of course take up all the jewables to the to
the greed I can, and I would also look to
do some environmental management and decide to keep him in
(09:09):
a different place that's more suitable for not destroying the
important family things. And so I think about that just
over the first while. I suspect he's just getting more
attached and more and separation distress is setting in a
bit more particular when you got someone at home all
the time, they tend to get over attached. So I
suspect that's what's going on, and that's probably separation to
(09:32):
stress on. If you jump onto the schools, there's a
video on showing you how to do graduated departure. So
that's the technique that I'd be using, and hopefully that's
the issue.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Thank you call Daniel Susie. You've got to sen your
rescue dog.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
That's a bit anxious, Yes I have, Yes, he's He
will just head butter window till it breaks and rip
up curtains, carpet toos off the knobs on the cabinet tree,
just loud noises and I can't.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Get him out of it. Yeah, So what we do
is we use a You go on to us YouTube
or iTunes, and there's also a couple of websites. If
you jump on my stuff those websites, so there you
can get what called what we call the sound scary
tapes and they just play them over over the speak
(10:22):
up and using a desensitization technique with clicking food reward,
you can then desensitize into those sounds. It takes about
six weeks. You've got to put a bit diffident obviously,
and it's very durable. If you how old is the
dog done? Seven? Yeah, so it's an adult and quite
late in life, so it's not unusual that as they
(10:42):
grow older they get a little bit more hypersensitive to noise,
but often it's had It was there to some degree
in the early stages, but now it's developed into a phobia.
So when you've got a phobia at that level, sometimes
we need drug facilitated therapy as well. If you jump
into dogs in either the book or the or the
online videos. This video on how to treat that, and
(11:04):
it shows you how to do the desensitization with a
clicker and sometimes you'll need leterary help with medication.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, I hope that helps. Susie and Mau. You've got
a prolific liquor.
Speaker 9 (11:17):
I have indeed, where have we? A nine year old
epso male dog and he's a great dog, but he's
a prolific liquor. Down beside us, he starts flicking. If
you're take him to her bedroom at nighttime, he slips
down there, licks and licks and licks not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Himself. Yes, himself and you or himself.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Himself, tells us Mark, Yeah, he'll lick himself and then
he'll turn on us and start looking at leagus or whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Licking because he got obsessive licking on his skin somewhere.
Is that what he's doing, like on his legs.
Speaker 9 (11:56):
Can where he can reach, Mark, like he can his
foot to his belly or anywhere he can reach your lick?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, right, and then he does the same with you.
Speaker 9 (12:06):
He does, he does, yes, he does.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, it's nine years old. Is he is he getting geriatric?
Do you think is there any geriatric issues going on?
Speaker 9 (12:13):
Well? No, I mean we've had him for quite some time,
he says, a nine year old.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
We'd him nine year old is getting on.
Speaker 9 (12:19):
Yeah, he is, like he has licked for a long
long time. Yeah, And we came to a vet. The
vet said, oh, look, it's probably anxiety or something like that.
But I just sort of can't see that being the case.
But dog, no, no.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Okay, well, let me let me give you a trick.
Let me give you a trick to have a crack at.
It's you know, it's an obsessive behavior, as you can see,
and and licking and dog communication is soliciting. It's like kissing.
You know, it's a it's a soliciting, appeasing gesture. And
that's why they do it to you, doing it to themselves.
It's often caused by something else, you know, namely an analogy.
(12:56):
But in this case, what I do is I click
a train them out of it, you know, which means
I get on the clicker with the high value food reward.
When they come into interaction with me. You know, the
first thing they're going to do is lick. So instead
of doing that, I click on the reward for not looking,
and which happens obviously, you can do that straight away
because they're not looking yet. And and then I delay
(13:17):
the click systematically for longer and longer until such time
as they stop the locking behavior. You've normally got to
redirect them onto some other activity like a chew toy.
A kong or something like that for the initial stages.
But as you progress you can actually teach them to
understand what you're doing. And then you just start to
put a leave at command then and you're not being
(13:37):
assertive or aggressive. You're just saying a queue and they
learn that queue and then they stop looking. But remember
every time you are assertive with them, they will increase
their looking, not decrease it. You can't do it by punishment.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Well, interesting, thank you, I reckon, I reckon my dog.
Colin starts looking just to wake me up on the morning.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, starts going, well, that's another.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Five fifteen am. He wants a walk.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Normally mean it also normally means breakfast, doesn't it?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
When you've missed heard that? Tyler? He's not looking in
my face. He's looking his own downstairs.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
All right, okay, Yeah, he's having a good time. Ah.
Here's a question exactly, here's a question about a turtle. Mark.
Can you please ask Mark how long do red eared
sliders live for? We were given one about thirty years
ago and it is huge, still seems to be healthy,
but we don't know if he's geriatric or not.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Oh god, i'd have to use AI to check that
time frame, because but it's long. You know, all of
the reptiles, particularly the turtles and the tortoises, live a
long time, and so I would expect thirty or forty years,
but I'm not quite sure. Yeah, but I'll look that
up for you and give you the number. It's a
redlo did you say it's a red.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Red head red slider? Yep, ready to slider?
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, yeah, what about what the tortoise?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I'll go here if I can.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, there's that glapagus taught us Harriet that Charles Dowen
bought back on the beagle that live for one hundred
and seventy six years, gave it to the gave it
to the queen.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, that's a good run.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Six years. That's not bad.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Greenland shark I think the oldest
of three hundred and fifty or something like that.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, Mark fantastic has always chock a block on the
phone and a whole heap of ticks that we'll have
to get to next time. Thank you very much, and
we'll catch in about a month's time here.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
We look forward to it. Yeah, if you know one
needs more answers, just jump on their Facebook and we'll
direct you to an answer.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yep, very good. Thank you that you can go check
it out Mark Vitti dot com and his cats In
book will be out soon.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
For more from News Talks B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
Follow this and our Wide Ranger podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mark Viddi is a world renowned animal behaviorist an educator
who has been working with animals for over forty years.
He's a trained animal psychologist as well, and he joins
us once a month on our Ask the Expert series.
He's back with us, Mark, Good afternoon.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Good afternoon. How are you very good?
Speaker 4 (00:33):
Has it been a month already?
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Time fly? Mark?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Finished the book since sin So that's good. Win's the
book out September. Your cat's in so cat Bavy book.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There you go, Oky, fantastic? Look like for that?
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Well, Donald will be interested in a career and non
hunting cat.
Speaker 4 (00:50):
Oh wow, well look Donald be interested in that because
Donnad's got a cat question. Donna, I don't.
Speaker 5 (00:59):
We have a Hi? We have a mixed breed one.
But he's mixed breed. He's crazy anyway, it's one a
half years old, is very very well fed at home.
He's lively anyway. He's taken now to not just chasing
mice's and killing them, but he's now eating them. Why
(01:19):
would he do that? He is an outside care he
is a hunter, but the previous cat wouldn't do that
at all.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Yeah, that's very natural. It's very natural. I mean, cats
don't hunt or not hunt because they're hungry or not angry.
So it might seem unusual, but that's that's the nature
of that species. And so yeah, that when they hunt,
they they often don't eat initially when they're when they're
(01:46):
naive to hunting and they're early in hunting, they don't
get guided by the mother from four to six weeks on.
Then they don't have great hunting skills. In fact, my
new books, one of the big things that we're teaching
in that book is how to prevent hunting, you know,
to develop no hunt conditioning for particularly for birds, you know,
and just to decrease wildlife killing. But of course the
(02:09):
hunting mass and rats uns so much of an issue
in that sense because they also hunt the wildlife. So
so what we in that situation is natural for the
cat to eat. It's all. It's all natural that, Yeah,
And as they develop they're hunting skills. They go from
just catching, which is part of what they do when
they're kittens, before they actually learned to kill and eat
(02:31):
and and there are different stages in the in the
hunting sequence what we what we call I used to
call a fixed action pattern, now called a modal action pattern.
So those are those are what the sequence of bavies
they go through in hunting, driven by different motivations or
seeking mechanisms in their hormones and so on. So that's
the way it all works. Yeah, they the question.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
Thank you, what's your what's your book called?
Speaker 6 (02:57):
There?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
It'll be called Cats and it's coming out in September. Yeah,
So it's it's about how to rear and train a cat,
and it's also about how to prevent how do.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You spell that?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
See a t zdy in being able to teach a
cat to bond with you?
Speaker 7 (03:17):
Really?
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Well, thank you for you called Donna.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
So bet a mouse meat? Nothing wrong with a bit
of mouse meat for a cat then, no.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
No, of course it's got all the goods and it
that's exactly what they're designed to eat. So that's only natural.
Speaker 8 (03:29):
Here.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
The tails are delicious. Welcome to show you've got a
you've got a cat question as well?
Speaker 6 (03:37):
Hey Julie, Hello, sorry, Yes, one of my cats, the
one particularly you colimb under up on the beard.
Speaker 9 (03:46):
She go under the bed clothes.
Speaker 6 (03:48):
She'll come over to my side where I'm sleeping, and
she proceeds the backside to my face.
Speaker 4 (04:00):
With the tail lifted up right up as well. That's
that's the that's what cats do. They love the tail
being right up under those circumstances exactly.
Speaker 3 (04:08):
I mean, the interesting thing about cat normally what happens
when they come up to you is they come up
with their cheek and if you handle their cheek and
you'll hear them, of course they'll start pairing in that situation.
And as opposed to let them adopt their own position.
It's probably not that she's turning that way for any
particular reason except that she feels more comfortable that way.
(04:30):
But if you actually handle her in the chin cheek region,
then you'll see her keep presenting the front of her
head for a while and then and then she'll fall
a sheep in that position and she's start learning to
sleep that way, if that's what you wanted to do.
So kicking the cheek because that activates what we call
the perioal glands around the face there and that which
(04:50):
is their rubbing pheromones, and that's their meat and Greek
behavior towards their mum, and you're the mom. You're the
saying of mother.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Ah, Because I was going to ask why do cats
like to just stick their heads into small spaces? That's
probably why because they love a lot of cats. If
you know, you make a weee hole with your hands,
they love to just squeeze the hidden there. I take
it they've got some sort of you know, they just
laugh a bit of a chick scratch.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yeah, well they do. And you'll see, you know how
they pushed against you when you come up and greet them,
And that's what you're after. I call that joining up
in cats. And so when I'm joining up with a cat,
I tickle the cheek. It's always the first place you
should touch a cat. Don't touch a cats anywhere else.
Always touch on the cheek. And that's for that reason,
fair enough.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
To Yes, it's quite nice for humans as well.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
I've got to say whiskers too.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, exactly. Like one hundred eighty eighty. We're joined by
Mark Vidi, Wild, renowned animal behaviorist. He's taking your questions.
You've got a problem with your pet? Here is the
man too?
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Chat to it.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
There's a couple of text questions comes through for your mark.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Here we go.
Speaker 4 (05:51):
This is from a Chelsea. I'm adopting an adult cat
this weekend. She's five and not overly affectionate. How do
I make her love me?
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Well, that's a good question. One of the things about
cats is the early socialization that they have in the
two to seven week period predetermined pretty much the level
of sociality into the future, so depending on how much
they got, and clearly she didn't get that much at
that time or enough, and that's why she's a bit
more independent. However, if you've just got her, it does
take a while for a cat to adapt and resocialize
(06:23):
and rebond. So the best thing to do is once
you start getting feeding under control and she starts to
realize that you're in charge of those kind of goods,
then that's the first step towards your heart and clicker training.
I use to enhance that appetite and that ability for
them to realize that I'm in control of those resources
(06:45):
and I can get it to do things, even if
it's just to come and sit. But basically, what I'm
trying to do is make that relationship stronger, and the
way to do that is to utilize food in that
early stage, and when they do engage with you, then
you move into what I called joining up, which is
that little tickle on the cheek mainly, and don't progress
down the rest of the body for a little while
(07:06):
until the cat starts to show you that it wants
to engage you, and that's by rubbing the institu and
so don't force the issue with a cat.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Let him go, Daniel, Daniel, welcome the show. You've got
a question about a one year old dog.
Speaker 7 (07:19):
Yeah, good, a hate she's thanks for taking the school.
Look we're going to be four and a half year
old boditarian. He's superb and we recently, well a year ago,
got a s other foxy, drawable little feller mostly super
well behaved.
Speaker 8 (07:35):
In fact, just recently we've took him out of the
trade at night and he's stepping on his bed quite well.
No problems. The problems we have with him, we've got
plenty of true toys. But like today was probably the
third fourth time it's happened where he'll destroy something while
we're gone. But when I said, well we're gone, my
wife I'm lucky that enough she's a stay home mum
(07:56):
and the time she occasionally pops out for an hour
or two, and today destroyed a kid's school book, so
we're up for a library.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, it's so starting to show separation to stress issues.
Does he seem to get anxious and how or worry
about you being when you leave when everyone goes away,
and is that when it's.
Speaker 8 (08:16):
Happening now he seems to be quite happy. He didn't
like to create too much, and that's why we got
rid of that at night, and he's been great. Yes,
it's just when when my wife will leave home for
a couple of hours, it's like, I don't know, we
think it's almost like a rebellious Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
It'll be separation distress once once you get a dog
that starts that gets datched at that level, which you know,
did you say he was rescue?
Speaker 8 (08:42):
Was he no?
Speaker 9 (08:44):
No, we've gone from week.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
Yes, So it sounds like the basis of that would
be separation distress. So I'd expect I'd be doing a
little bit of what I call graduated departure around the
house and just see if he settles, you know, when
you leave for short periods and he can last. I'd also,
of course take up all the jewables to the to
the greed I can, and I would also look to
do some environmental management and decide to keep him in
(09:09):
a different place that's more suitable for not destroying the
important family things. And so I think about that just
over the first while. I suspect he's just getting more
attached and more and separation distress is setting in a
bit more particular when you got someone at home all
the time, they tend to get over attached. So I
suspect that's what's going on, and that's probably separation to
(09:32):
stress on. If you jump onto the schools, there's a
video on showing you how to do graduated departure. So
that's the technique that I'd be using, and hopefully that's
the issue.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Thank you call Daniel Susie. You've got to sen your
rescue dog.
Speaker 6 (09:48):
That's a bit anxious, Yes I have, Yes, he's He
will just head butter window till it breaks and rip
up curtains, carpet toos off the knobs on the cabinet tree,
just loud noises and I can't.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Get him out of it. Yeah, So what we do
is we use a You go on to us YouTube
or iTunes, and there's also a couple of websites. If
you jump on my stuff those websites, so there you
can get what called what we call the sound scary
tapes and they just play them over over the speak
(10:22):
up and using a desensitization technique with clicking food reward,
you can then desensitize into those sounds. It takes about
six weeks. You've got to put a bit diffident obviously,
and it's very durable. If you how old is the
dog done? Seven? Yeah, so it's an adult and quite
late in life, so it's not unusual that as they
(10:42):
grow older they get a little bit more hypersensitive to noise,
but often it's had It was there to some degree
in the early stages, but now it's developed into a phobia.
So when you've got a phobia at that level, sometimes
we need drug facilitated therapy as well. If you jump
into dogs in either the book or the or the
online videos. This video on how to treat that, and
(11:04):
it shows you how to do the desensitization with a
clicker and sometimes you'll need leterary help with medication.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
Yeah, I hope that helps. Susie and Mau. You've got
a prolific liquor.
Speaker 9 (11:17):
I have indeed, where have we? A nine year old
epso male dog and he's a great dog, but he's
a prolific liquor. Down beside us, he starts flicking. If
you're take him to her bedroom at nighttime, he slips
down there, licks and licks and licks not necessarily.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
Himself. Yes, himself and you or himself.
Speaker 9 (11:40):
Himself, tells us Mark, Yeah, he'll lick himself and then
he'll turn on us and start looking at leagus or whatever.
Speaker 3 (11:49):
Licking because he got obsessive licking on his skin somewhere.
Is that what he's doing, like on his legs.
Speaker 9 (11:56):
Can where he can reach, Mark, like he can his
foot to his belly or anywhere he can reach your lick?
Speaker 3 (12:03):
Yeah, right, and then he does the same with you.
Speaker 9 (12:06):
He does, he does, yes, he does.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Yeah, it's nine years old. Is he is he getting geriatric?
Do you think is there any geriatric issues going on?
Speaker 9 (12:13):
Well? No, I mean we've had him for quite some time,
he says, a nine year old.
Speaker 3 (12:16):
We'd him nine year old is getting on.
Speaker 9 (12:19):
Yeah, he is, like he has licked for a long
long time. Yeah, And we came to a vet. The
vet said, oh, look, it's probably anxiety or something like that.
But I just sort of can't see that being the case.
But dog, no, no.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
Okay, well, let me let me give you a trick.
Let me give you a trick to have a crack at.
It's you know, it's an obsessive behavior, as you can see,
and and licking and dog communication is soliciting. It's like kissing.
You know, it's a it's a soliciting, appeasing gesture. And
that's why they do it to you, doing it to themselves.
It's often caused by something else, you know, namely an analogy.
(12:56):
But in this case, what I do is I click
a train them out of it, you know, which means
I get on the clicker with the high value food reward.
When they come into interaction with me. You know, the
first thing they're going to do is lick. So instead
of doing that, I click on the reward for not looking,
and which happens obviously, you can do that straight away
because they're not looking yet. And and then I delay
(13:17):
the click systematically for longer and longer until such time
as they stop the locking behavior. You've normally got to
redirect them onto some other activity like a chew toy.
A kong or something like that for the initial stages.
But as you progress you can actually teach them to
understand what you're doing. And then you just start to
put a leave at command then and you're not being
(13:37):
assertive or aggressive. You're just saying a queue and they
learn that queue and then they stop looking. But remember
every time you are assertive with them, they will increase
their looking, not decrease it. You can't do it by punishment.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
Well, interesting, thank you, I reckon, I reckon my dog.
Colin starts looking just to wake me up on the morning.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Yeah, starts going, well, that's another.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Five fifteen am. He wants a walk.
Speaker 3 (14:07):
Normally mean it also normally means breakfast, doesn't it?
Speaker 4 (14:12):
When you've missed heard that? Tyler? He's not looking in
my face. He's looking his own downstairs.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
All right, okay, Yeah, he's having a good time. Ah.
Here's a question exactly, here's a question about a turtle. Mark.
Can you please ask Mark how long do red eared
sliders live for? We were given one about thirty years
ago and it is huge, still seems to be healthy,
but we don't know if he's geriatric or not.
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Oh god, i'd have to use AI to check that
time frame, because but it's long. You know, all of
the reptiles, particularly the turtles and the tortoises, live a
long time, and so I would expect thirty or forty years,
but I'm not quite sure. Yeah, but I'll look that
up for you and give you the number. It's a
redlo did you say it's a red.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Red head red slider? Yep, ready to slider?
Speaker 4 (15:03):
Yeah, yeah, what about what the tortoise?
Speaker 3 (15:08):
I'll go here if I can.
Speaker 4 (15:09):
Yeah, there's that glapagus taught us Harriet that Charles Dowen
bought back on the beagle that live for one hundred
and seventy six years, gave it to the gave it
to the queen.
Speaker 2 (15:19):
Yeah, that's a good run.
Speaker 4 (15:20):
Six years. That's not bad.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Greenland shark I think the oldest
of three hundred and fifty or something like that.
Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, Mark fantastic has always chock a block on the
phone and a whole heap of ticks that we'll have
to get to next time. Thank you very much, and
we'll catch in about a month's time here.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
We look forward to it. Yeah, if you know one
needs more answers, just jump on their Facebook and we'll
direct you to an answer.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
Yep, very good. Thank you that you can go check
it out Mark Vitti dot com and his cats In
book will be out soon.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
For more from News Talks B listen live on air
or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
go with our podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.