Dr. Sally Foote, veterinary behaviorist, joins me today and tells her tips for making this difficult time fun time with your pets. Don't you want ways to have fun with your pets while you are bored? Are there better ways to do this? Dr. Foote talks about DIY games that you can do to entertain pets while you are teleconferencing and things that kids can do to engage pets and keep everyone safe and happy. I bet you haven't thought about how your pets are going to adjust when things go back to normal, but Dr. Foote has and she gives some ideas there too!
EPISODE NOTES: Tips For Keeping Pets Happy And Healthy During Self Quarantine
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EPISODE NOTES: Tips For Keeping Pets Happy And Healthy During Self Quarantine
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, they're dog lovers. Welcome to doctor Kat Gone to
the dogs. I'm your host, doctor Catherine Prim and I'm
a small animal veterinarian and dog lover. You all have
heard me mention my dog Sky, and she and I
are currently trying to navigate the entire COVID crisis with
this self quarantine and the scary headlines, and so I
(00:46):
invited doctor Sally Foot, who is a veterinary behaviorist, to
talk with us today about ways we can make life
a little bit better for our pets while we are
self quarantining, and some ideas for fun things that we
can do with pets. And then what's gonna happen when
life returns to normal? What can we do to offset
(01:07):
problems that may happen. So we will be right back
with doctor Foot.
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Speaker 4 (01:55):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Welcome back to doctor Kat, gone to the dogs and
I have Sally Foot today and we are going to
talk about the things I mentioned, the issues associated with
self quarantine and some ways to head off the problems
that may develop when we all go back to work. Hi,
doctor Foot.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Hi, nice to get a chance to talk to you,
Doctor Kat.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This is really fun because I like being able to
reach people while they're doing all of these other things.
This digital format, it's pretty cool to me and I
would love it if you could tell us. I know
who you are and I know why you are qualified
to speak to us about this, but tell us a
little bit about yourself.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Well.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
I am a veterinarian and an animal behaviorist. I have
been in general practice with a behavior niche to my
small animal general practice here in Central Illinois, rural Central
Illinois for about thirty years. I actually sold my brick
and mortar practice the general practice, and I continue to
provide behavior veterinary behavior services to local veterinarians on a
(03:14):
referral basis for dogs and for cats. I was, you
know already I don't know if you want to use
the word into you know, using less stressful handling, fear
free techniques, kept friendly techniques back in you know, mid
two thousands, and became active with our American Veterinary Society
of Animal Behavior Association and through that, I you know,
(03:37):
started doing some speaking and working together with others leaders
in that, and that led me to some collaborative work
with the late doctor Savilion and then also being a
part of the Fear Free Certification program, one of the
authors in that first level in that, and I continue
to now besides now I'm doing you know, the behavior consults,
(03:59):
also speaking in writing, and continuing to develop continuing education
online education for veterinary staff in behavior and also reducing
stress and anxiety and veterinary care.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
So that's kind of about me.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, that's great, and so I actually attended one of
your webinars recently and that is when I realized, you know,
there is a different part of this whole self quarantine
thing that people really haven't thought of what about us
being home all the time? How does that impact our
companion pets?
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Very good point to bring up.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
And I did another webinar last night on how you
know we provide this curbside care and that was a
question one of the veterinarians brought up. Was she was
getting some calls from clients who said their dogs were
more anxious or maybe a bit more active. And I
know we're talking about cats here on this program. So
there is a bit of an impact because this disrupts
(04:57):
the routine for our pets. It's almost like a rowbacks,
say to summer vacation when their kids are home, or
maybe a winter time when you get a really bad
snowstorm and everybody's literally up here in the northern part
of the country. I think you're down in Tennessee. So
you may not get that unless you get a bad
ice storm, but you know, you get bad weather and
everybody is literally stuck in the house for like a
(05:19):
week or two weeks. That disrupts the pet's routine, and
so how does that affect them? And so there are
sometimes there's good effects because they're getting more attention. Now
our owners are actually doing a lot of the things
we ask them to do, like putting up more perchaes
and you know, enriching the home for our cats or
playing with them, you know, cleaning the litter box more frequently,
(05:41):
sometimes there's a you know, negative effect because the owner
may some of the anxiety. The owner may rub up
on the pet and so then the pet is showing
increased anxiety or because of some of the ways that
the owner interacts like pets the cat or things like this.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
You know, it's the interaction.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Maybe there may be some pet owner conflict that's been
going on, and while the owner went away to work
for eight hours or whatever a day, the cat got
a break from it. But now the cat's not getting
a break from it, and we may be seeing, you know,
then the problems from that.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So can you give us, maybe my listeners and I
some hints about ways to know if you are kind
of getting on your cat's nerves or you know, causing
some problems warning signs perhaps, Okay.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
So two things we need to recognize and really be
able to see the body language of early anxiety. Early
you know, fear, the cat wanting to get away, the
cat not liking something, so the two handouts. I really
think everyone should have pet owners.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Cat owners as well as.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Veterinarians and veterinary staff are on my website, The Doctor
Sallyjfoot dot Com. I'll need to go onto the veterinary tab.
There's like a veterinary, pet professional and pet owner tab.
But under the veterinary tab there's a little button that
says the feline Ladder of Aggression. I want you to
download that and print that off. And what this is.
(07:11):
It shows the early signs of a cat being a
little nervous with being a little anxious, and how they
step up to wear them the cat turns to staring,
swatting and then actually can lead to biting. So when
you see your cat like pulling away, looking away, their
ears being down a bit, stop what you're doing. Just
stop what you're doing, because whatever you're doing, if you're
(07:33):
petting your cap, you're walking up to your cat to
like get them off of the counter, it's that approach
that's upsetting them. And then we're gonna have to find
a different way, like to get them off the counter,
or just not pet them so much, or maybe don't
pet them over that power to the body. The other
handout is actually it's one I designed when I was
working for doctor Young's company, and it's through doctor Sofia
(07:55):
yin dot com. It's a free download, just like mine
is a free download on the shop. And this is
the the body language of anxiety in the cat. And
it's kind of this lavender you know, it's like a
cartoony picture, So it's pictures of what the cat looks like.
So you can mash the picture next to that ladder
of aggression to really tell what your cat's saying to you.
(08:15):
So just some other tips or things for so if
you find like you stroke your cat two times, oh
he's okay, he likes it. And then the third or
fourth time, especially as you're going down the whole body
a lot of cats do not like that whole body pet.
Now his tail starts flipping or swishing, and then he
kind of curls his body up a little tighter and
(08:36):
gets really still. That's actually freezing the cat, and the
cat is at a higher level of anxiety. So it's
almost like cats are more sensitive to touch, and I
think overpetting is something that leads to a lot of cats.
Then they jump away from you. They're avoiding okay, so
they resolved it. That's nice, better than biting you, or
all of a sudden they turn they swat you, or
(08:58):
they bite you, and that's aggression.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Now, we didn't realize it was.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
A third and fourth pet that overstimulated their body.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
It was like too much, you know.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
So my rule is between the like between the little ears,
you know, up on their forehead down to the back
of their neck. That's where you're gonna stroke them once,
stroke them twice, and stop. And then if the cat
headbunce you know where they take their forehead and they
kind of bump your hand and they're scenting on you,
they rub their face there, then just do one or
two pets again and you might go a little further
(09:28):
down the body and stop because what you're doing is
you're doing a little pet and you're waiting for them
to ask for more. And if they don't ask for more,
then don't do anymore. They said they've had enough. If
they ask for more, then you can do more. And
of course then if they say start purring or they're
leaning into you. So the simplest thing is if an
(09:49):
animal as cats, come towards you and with their tail
up and a relaxed body. Relaxed body is always an
indication of calm and happiness.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Relaxed body leaning towards you.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
They want something from you, know, they want that pet,
They want something from you. If they turn away, they
turn their head away, they jump away, they pull their
body away. They don't want it. Stop what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Well, So everybody calls me doctor Cat, and I talk
about cats a lot. However, I suspect that a lot
of our listeners may have dogs in addition to cats,
or maybe they're just listening that they have dogs, but
they like cats. So I think that cats and dogs
are different enough from each other the advice might be different.
Can you talk a little bit about healthy people that
(10:34):
are self quarantining that are now staying home with dogs
as well?
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Ah, very good question, Thank you, Doctor Cat. So dogs
and cats can really be great buddies as long as
each gets what their own species needs. And I think
this is what we have to keep in mind. So
what does that mean? Okay, a cat a cat likes
to be able to like get up high, you know,
get up high in the room or be in kind
(11:01):
of a heidi place to assess and kind of review like, Okay,
the dog is over there, the food is over there,
I'm going to walk along this direction to get there.
They don't just sort of walk in a room. And
because the movement of the cat, you see, is what
entices the dog to possibly want to chase So we
need to have a way that the cat can move
(11:21):
around the house up off the floor so they're not
right there in the space of the dog that attempts
the dog to want to chase them. Because when the
dog chases the cat, then the cat runs. It's scary
for the cat. Now we don't have good dog cat interactions,
So for the cat, we need to make sure we
have enough perchaes and kind of that off the ground runway,
if you will, for them to be able to move
(11:42):
around the house off the floor. That keeps cat happy,
not only if they're living with dogs, but with people
as well. And then cats like their food, you know,
to be hidden in small bowls around the house. It
uses their hunting skills and then also avoids the dog
possibly getting in the cat food or the dog staring
at the cat when the cat is eating, which then
can make the cat nervous. So that's you know, this
(12:04):
is how to help dogs and kiddies get along well together.
For the dog, we really need to be sure that
we get the dog out for walks. We get the
dog out for plenty of exercise, not just in the backyard.
Dogs need to get out and get sniffing other smells
and things like this to be you know, calm and
happy themselves. And then lastly the litter box. We need
to make sure that we have the litter box in
(12:25):
a room or a location. Maybe put a baby gate
up so we keep the dog out of.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
The litter box.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
It is a normal do I'll say it on the
radio here. It is normal dog behavior for the dog
to want to eat the cat's stool, to stick their
head in that litter box and clean it up.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
And of course for the cat.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
The cat may you know, the cat sees the dog
around a litter box and then the cat may not
want to get in the litter box because they're afraid
the dog is gonna bother me. Maybe the dog has
bothered the cat in a litter box, or the dog
is disrupted the litter box. All that so having a
baby gate up, gate up that the cat I can
get over or you know under to get to their
litter box and not be bothered by the dog, or
(13:06):
say a covered litter box turned and away to the
wall so that the dog cannot get into it.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
But that will help to keep dog and cat harmony.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So right now, last night I took my dog for
a walk in the neighborhood, and there were lots of
people walking their dogs right because you know, it's fun
and it's an activity that we now have time for
that maybe we didn't before. So for healthy people that
are self quarantined with their dogs and maybe their cats,
they may have a cat train to walk, but I
(13:35):
think that dogs are going to get used to being
walked and handled, maybe moored.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
What do you think, Oh, I completely agree, I have.
I mean, I'm enjoying it. I've always nagged my clients
to get their dogs out for walks more frequently when
I would say to clients my prescription for a dog
is to be walked at least one minute per pound
of body weight. People with a fifty sixty pound dog
look at me like I'm crazy because it means an
(14:01):
hour of walking a day. Yet that is what that
dog needs. I mean it broken up in the day.
But anyway, that is what that dog needs. So now
I am seeing dogs getting that and so I think, yes,
the dogs are happier, people are happier. It's what we
can do, you know, with this healthy people can do
with this social kind of isolation, the more limited ways
of going. So what's going to happen or we're all
(14:23):
predicting this and I think this is great, we're talking
about this. Our dogs are at a higher risk now
separation anxiety when people go back to work, because this
is increasing the bonding with the people, you know, the
attention and dogs are very routine oriented. So now we
get into a new routine and it's going to be established,
you know, for two weeks, maybe three weeks, depending upon
(14:45):
where you live, or maybe even longer, you know, say
you work for school system that has just said we're done,
We're going totally completely online, you know, for the rest
of the semester, as we've seen here in Illinois. So
when life gets back to the old norm these dogs
is it can be another change in routine, which is
going to be a lot more alone time. So there's
a big risk of a rebounding of separation anxiety or
(15:07):
some dogs showing separation anxiety, which they never showed before.
And we can also see this in our cats as well,
because the cats are getting more time to be played with.
Maybe there maybe yes, you're right, some kids can walk
on a leician harness or maybe our customs of the harness.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
And or the.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Client finally takes the time to do this and takes
the cat maybe outside, you know, in the yard on
a long lead while they're doing gardening because it is
springtime now, the cat will have a lot less enrichment
and attention. Come when you know, we go back to
the old norm and we may see separation anxiety signs
in the cat, and we can help prevent that in
(15:43):
different ways. But that would be you know how the
you know, a risk factor if you will something that
we may see show up.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So we probably ought to take a quick break. But
I want to come back and talk a little bit
more about taking advantage of this time to build these relationships.
Then if there's a risk that it might be a
transition back, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 7 (16:10):
I have two dogs, Sam and Bailey, both are Golden Retrievers.
Poor Sam, he was a mess, always itching his paws
or soaking wet all day from just constant licking. He
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putting shocks and steroids into your dog all the time.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
D n obit.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
Dynovite is nutrition. Probably two weeks after he started dynamite,
I started seeing three improvements, and today ninety nine percent
of his issues are non existent. It's amazing stuff. Since
Bailey has been twelve weeks old, he's been a dynovite
dog and he has zero issues today. He won't eat
his food without dynamite. When I get out the dynavite,
(16:54):
my dogs actually salivate like I'm getting them matrieved. They
droll over it. Dynamite is a thing you can do
for your dog.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
You won't be leave how happy your dog will be.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
I get my dinabite from the I n O v
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Speaker 4 (17:12):
Let's talk past it.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Let's done.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Pets automat Life Radio, HETLFE.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Radio, pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Welcome back to Doctor Cat Gone to the Dogs on
pet Life Radio. Doctor Sally Foote and I are talking
about the issues associated with being at home more as
we practice social distancing and self quarantining with our pets.
So Doctor foot I know that you probably have some
amazingly good and easy ships for people to provide entertainment
(17:53):
maybe for their cat. I saw some things. I love
your website, So give us some ideas for things we
can do.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Yes, so we can blend that, you know, giving them attention,
spending more time together and building the bond, while we
also help to build independence. So independence is where your
dog or your cat can be you know, present with you,
but they don't have to be like right by your
side or always, as I say, like feeling dependent on
(18:23):
you having to be with them for them to be calm.
So we can make some games. And these games are
kind of fun games, so you can do do this
also with your cat. And these are what I call
the pikaboo games. So peekaboo games are where we're actually
not gonna use We're not gonna do a lot of
feeding from the food ball through this time. We're going
to use food as the little paycheck, if you will,
(18:44):
you know, the as the treats, you know, the reward
for fun games or even kind of a little bit
of training. So what I mean is now, so with
our cats, especially too, we're gonna cats. We're gonna set
up small food balls. So the cat goes around the
house like the little tasting you know, dipping sauce dishes
you might get like a pure one, you know for
(19:04):
sushi or something, putting a tablespoon of food and hiding
those in different places around the house and switching it
up every day, so the cat.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Is using their hunting skills.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Now this second thing is say, maybe you do that
at breakfast time and put half the food out that way.
Then the second half of the food, and remember I'm
talking about cats here. The second half of the food is.
What I'm gonna want you to do is take those
little nuggets of the dry cat food. If you feed
most people feed some dry cat food. Maybe even if
the cat is primarily on what but or at least
(19:33):
we should feed some dry cat food or like the
temptation treats, you know, the small dry treat. You can
even break it in half because I want the size
of that pellet to be about the size of half
of the material. And you're going to toss it, you know,
across the floor, especially on like a herd surface, so
it bounces. You want the cat to see it bounced
because it looks like you know, it looks like a
(19:54):
little vermin, and it's to get the cat to want
to scamper after it, pounce on it, grab it, and
eat it. What it's doing is it's giving the cat exercise.
You know, the cat can express their predatory play behavior,
which is a normal play behavior in all cats. It's
more pronouncing the kit than the older cat, but very
important for cats to do so it's very their practicing.
Their skills are going to exercise. Thirdly, now the cat
(20:17):
is not like associating. They're so tightly bonded to you,
the owner, for like their food and attention. This is
a game that gets the cats to move away from
you and makes it fun to go away from you,
and great things happen is they kind of scamper away
from you. And the peekaboog part comes in where say
I take a couple of these tidbits, you know, nuggets
(20:38):
of food. I toss them across my kitchen floor. So
the cat is moving away from me scampering after the food.
And then I walk out the garage door and I
close it as if I was leaving in the car.
And then I'll come back in about fifteen twenty seconds
later and ignore my cat. So you see that going
out through the exit door, you know, closing the door.
Oftentimes that's a trigger for this a big trigger for
(21:01):
the separation anxiety. There can be other triggers, but that's
the biggie because the animal knows now you're really gone. Well,
now we play this game. What you're doing is you're
changing the meaning. You're counterconditioning what going through the garage
door means. It means whoo, pile of fun over here.
The cat learns to ignore you going out to the
garage door, and good things happen when you go out
(21:24):
the garage door. So keeps any of that building anxiety reduced.
And the cat then is you know, that's what I.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Mean by like kind of independent of you.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
You know, they're not clinging to you, winding around your
feet as you're trying to exit out the door. And
for our dogs, we do a similar game. You know
we're going to now we don't hide the food around
the house for the dog necessarily, We're gonna use a
little more of the food puzzles. We can use the
food puzzles for the cats as well, but for the dogs,
like food puzzles or you know, toys you put the
food in, not just treats. You're gonna put the nuggets
(21:54):
of food in these like ones called busy buddy and
a twist of the dog has to flip it around
to get the nuggets out. And we're gonna say about
half of the rest of the food, and we'll do
a similar thing for the dog. We'll toss a handful
of food for the dog down on the floor so
as the dog goes to eat it, I'm gonna walk
out the garage door and I'm gonna open it. I'm
gonna ignore my dog when I come back in, because
(22:16):
it's that emotional grating them when you come back as
well as oh, be a good dog, you know, emotional
kind of leaving them that leads to the separation anxiety.
So in this Peekaboo game, it helps to decrease the
dog's anxiety about the hearing that door click shut you
going out the door and coming back in. Because their
back is to you, they don't see it. They're geving
(22:37):
food happen, they're busy sniffing, and they're learning to ignore you. Again,
the dog is learning to be more independent and with
dogs because they have a higher rate of the high
anxiety and panic with separation anxiety as compared to cats.
We want to do this peekaboo game with things like
the bathroom door. You know, human go in the bathroom,
you throw the handful of food to the dog out
(22:57):
in the hallway, go in the bathroom and close the
door and come back out again, because a lot of
dogs also have this barrier frustration about doors in addition
to the anxiety about separation.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, and it's fun. So you know, when I interact
with my pets, even though there's a lot of anxiety
and I feel like we're also anxious, I just can't
help but smile. So I mean, you know, and that's
the good part of building bonds. But I agree that
having a bond is wonderful, but you do want them
to be independent. It's miserable to be afraid, as we
are all learning. So I appreciate that tip. That's really good.
(23:30):
So where would my listeners be able to maybe find
some of these enrichment toys without having to go to
a store.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Well, of course, we have our big bold online world,
and they could, you know, go to any of the
major retailers online. The second thing is you can make
some homemade food puzzles and toys yourself.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
There's lots of websites about that.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Basically, really good ones, you know, for cats can be
where you take the clean xbox, you know, and that
kind of plastic flat part on the top, leave it there,
throw some of the food nuggets in that and give
that to your cat and they've got a pot out
of the box and they really do enjoy that. The
cardboard tubes from paper towels or toilet paper again, you
could put some of the nuggets of food in there,
(24:14):
maybe even cut little holes out and then stuffs toilet
paper in the ends for the cat to roll it around.
Now and that you only want to put maybe ten
little nuggets of food so.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
It will roll.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
For the dogs, if you use a plastic water bottle,
remove the cap. Do not leave a cap on the
plastic water bottle for the dog to knock around and
roll around. If you cut little holes in it, you
can use that also for the cats as well. But
the pet whatever chewy dot com is like the Walmart
for pet purchasing, you know, that's one place to go.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Of course, on.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
Amazon, Nina Aten makes a lot of really interesting these
I call them like the spinny food puzzles, you know,
I'm multi layered, and they have those for the dogs.
I'm not quite clear she has smaller ones for the
cap but she probably does. And the Pet Safe Corporation
has a huge each amount because they had merged with
what was called the Premiere Pet Corporation. And Premiere was
(25:05):
a company, you know, they merged with it. It had
a lot of cat and dog food puzzles and varying
difficulty degrees.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
And that's something I want to say too.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
If you have a cat who's very crafty, you know,
and opening drawers and getting into things, and you know,
pawing in your purse and like picking up your keys
and running away with them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
We have some cats that are very good at this.
Those cats need difficult food puzzles.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
So one thing I really like is called like the exerciser,
and it's it's like an egg. You put the food
nuggets in it and you can click the openings to
be small, so the cat really has to bat it
around and work at it to get those food nuggets out.
And then also some people take like you know, the
a lidded tuppleware container and cut little squares out where
(25:51):
the cat has to like paw those out or again
just kind of do more complex tasks to get the
food out. And those are the toys that the cats
will want to use as compared to the easy ones.
Sometimes people will say like, well, my cat doesn't use it,
and it's like, well, this is a really simple one.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
You know, it's a it's a water bottle.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
I has to do roll and all the food falls
out and that he eats it and he's like, yeah,
a big deal. He's bored. You want to give him
something that's more like more work, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
So I did an interview with doctor Jason Stall and
we talked about coronavirus when it first started. You know,
he's an infectious disease specialist, and he talked about possibly
if you are sick, maybe avoiding close close contact with
your pets. So what about if we've talked about what
healthy people can do, but what if you're sick and
(26:39):
you need to sort of be away from your pets
during that time, what can you do to entertain them?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
I think remote Like I talked about, you know, tossing
the food is a game for cats, and you could
do the same with dogs. But especially for cats, that's
a great way to entertain them. I love that game.
I recommend it to parents with toddler and young children
because it keeps the child, you know, in.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
One place while the cat runs around.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
The kids think that's great, and it is, but it
also prevents the child from like picking the cat up.
But anyway, if you need to be in bed, or
you need to be you know, resting, and we do
not want you know, you actually petting the pet in
case there's contagent on your hand getting on their coat.
And we don't know yet about you know, for sure
about any kind of carrier state whatever with our animals
(27:28):
and our pets. So if you have to not pet them,
but you want to have this bod tossing the food
for the cats is the number one game I would
say to do with your cat.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
The second one would be maybe you need to get an.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
Actual fishing pole where you can cast out about ten
or fifteen feet with that feather toy on the end,
you know, for the cat to pounce on. Remember, a
happy cat is a cat who thinks he's killed something
every day. I always, you know, say that, and I
think that's really true. So we want the play that
we we play with our cats, right. Another rule of
thumb I have for happy cats is that the human
(28:00):
needs to play with the cat for at least ten
minutes a day of active place. What does that mean
like taking you know, on a fishing pole something like
some actual bird feathers tight on there. So casting it
out ten or fifteen feet if you can, in your room,
so the cat jumps on it, pounces on it, grabs
those feathers, choose on it with their mouth, and treads
with their back feet. They need to go through all
(28:21):
those behaviors that's really killing their toy. They need to
do that laser light to play, you know, where you're
flashing it around on the wall can be done provided
after you've shown it around a bit. Then toss a
nugget of food right where that spot of light is
so the cat achieves like killing because what they think
it is it looks like a little firefly, you know,
it looks like a little bug. And if they never
(28:43):
get to kill it, they can be frustrated and then
they may start knocking things off, you know, the counter
and naughty behaviors. So if you toss that nuggetive food
at the end of the spot of light. So they
get the food and you turn the light off. Then
they feel like they kill the light and they're not
going to be as like naughty, So later's the light
games can be another remote play. There are some actual
(29:03):
toys made that have like a remote laser light that
will shine. And there's that matt. It's like a yellow
circular mat that has a little like mousetail that pokes
out and all around. So that's something you could set
up so your cat can play. And even if it's
within eight feet of your presence, you know, so you're
laying in bed or you know, whatever where your cat
(29:25):
is sees you, they will still like associate this activity
with you, and that still maintains that human animal bond
together and.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
You get to watch them and then you get to
laugh even when you feel bad. So I'm having visions
to people everywhere at computers, on teleconferences, behind the scenes
kind of tossing a fishing pole. Well, this has really
really been helpful. I think that our listeners could take
this information and use it to make life better for
(29:55):
them and their pets. So thank you so much for
joining me today. I really appreciate You're welcome.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
Thank you so much for asking me to be on
the show cat and stay safe and stay healthy well.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And so I'd like to tell my listeners exactly how
to find out more about you, because you do have
a really cool website. Can you tell us the web address?
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Again?
Speaker 6 (30:15):
Sure, the web address is Dr Doctor Dr Sally Jfoot
dot com. So I'll spell it out. It's d R
s A L L Y J F O O t
E dot com. When you get to the home page,
you know you'll see the different sections. I have videos,
(30:38):
I have handouts, and I do have some client webinars
as well that they can take like cat Health and
Behavior at all ages and five simple rules for keeping
your cat in the box and patches.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
So if you're at home, listeners and your board, this
would be a really really good use of your time.
And her website is so cool, like her loading screen
is a little e kg it's it's just really cool.
So thanks again, Doctor Foot. I am so glad that
you agreed to come with me today. And also thank
you to my amazing producer, Mark Winter because he makes
(31:11):
this all happen. And thank you to all my listeners
for joining me today on Doctor Kat Gone to the
Dogs on pet Life Radio. I hope that you can
use the information that we gave you today about navigating
self quarantine and providing the enrichment and the things that
your pets may need to adjust back to life the
(31:33):
old fashioned way. I want everyone to go out and
raise the rough.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
dot com.
This is Pet Life Radio. Let's talk pets.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey, they're dog lovers. Welcome to doctor Kat Gone to
the dogs. I'm your host, doctor Catherine Prim and I'm
a small animal veterinarian and dog lover. You all have
heard me mention my dog Sky, and she and I
are currently trying to navigate the entire COVID crisis with
this self quarantine and the scary headlines, and so I
(00:46):
invited doctor Sally Foot, who is a veterinary behaviorist, to
talk with us today about ways we can make life
a little bit better for our pets while we are
self quarantining, and some ideas for fun things that we
can do with pets. And then what's gonna happen when
life returns to normal? What can we do to offset
(01:07):
problems that may happen. So we will be right back
with doctor Foot.
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Speaker 4 (01:55):
Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Welcome back to doctor Kat, gone to the dogs and
I have Sally Foot today and we are going to
talk about the things I mentioned, the issues associated with
self quarantine and some ways to head off the problems
that may develop when we all go back to work. Hi,
doctor Foot.
Speaker 5 (02:28):
Hi, nice to get a chance to talk to you,
Doctor Kat.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
This is really fun because I like being able to
reach people while they're doing all of these other things.
This digital format, it's pretty cool to me and I
would love it if you could tell us. I know
who you are and I know why you are qualified
to speak to us about this, but tell us a
little bit about yourself.
Speaker 5 (02:49):
Well.
Speaker 6 (02:49):
I am a veterinarian and an animal behaviorist. I have
been in general practice with a behavior niche to my
small animal general practice here in Central Illinois, rural Central
Illinois for about thirty years. I actually sold my brick
and mortar practice the general practice, and I continue to
provide behavior veterinary behavior services to local veterinarians on a
(03:14):
referral basis for dogs and for cats. I was, you
know already I don't know if you want to use
the word into you know, using less stressful handling, fear
free techniques, kept friendly techniques back in you know, mid
two thousands, and became active with our American Veterinary Society
of Animal Behavior Association and through that, I you know,
(03:37):
started doing some speaking and working together with others leaders
in that, and that led me to some collaborative work
with the late doctor Savilion and then also being a
part of the Fear Free Certification program, one of the
authors in that first level in that, and I continue
to now besides now I'm doing you know, the behavior consults,
(03:59):
also speaking in writing, and continuing to develop continuing education
online education for veterinary staff in behavior and also reducing
stress and anxiety and veterinary care.
Speaker 5 (04:13):
So that's kind of about me.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
Well, that's great, and so I actually attended one of
your webinars recently and that is when I realized, you know,
there is a different part of this whole self quarantine
thing that people really haven't thought of what about us
being home all the time? How does that impact our
companion pets?
Speaker 5 (04:34):
Very good point to bring up.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
And I did another webinar last night on how you
know we provide this curbside care and that was a
question one of the veterinarians brought up. Was she was
getting some calls from clients who said their dogs were
more anxious or maybe a bit more active. And I
know we're talking about cats here on this program. So
there is a bit of an impact because this disrupts
(04:57):
the routine for our pets. It's almost like a rowbacks,
say to summer vacation when their kids are home, or
maybe a winter time when you get a really bad
snowstorm and everybody's literally up here in the northern part
of the country. I think you're down in Tennessee. So
you may not get that unless you get a bad
ice storm, but you know, you get bad weather and
everybody is literally stuck in the house for like a
(05:19):
week or two weeks. That disrupts the pet's routine, and
so how does that affect them? And so there are
sometimes there's good effects because they're getting more attention. Now
our owners are actually doing a lot of the things
we ask them to do, like putting up more perchaes
and you know, enriching the home for our cats or
playing with them, you know, cleaning the litter box more frequently,
(05:41):
sometimes there's a you know, negative effect because the owner
may some of the anxiety. The owner may rub up
on the pet and so then the pet is showing
increased anxiety or because of some of the ways that
the owner interacts like pets the cat or things like this.
Speaker 5 (05:59):
You know, it's the interaction.
Speaker 6 (06:01):
Maybe there may be some pet owner conflict that's been
going on, and while the owner went away to work
for eight hours or whatever a day, the cat got
a break from it. But now the cat's not getting
a break from it, and we may be seeing, you know,
then the problems from that.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So can you give us, maybe my listeners and I
some hints about ways to know if you are kind
of getting on your cat's nerves or you know, causing
some problems warning signs perhaps, Okay.
Speaker 6 (06:30):
So two things we need to recognize and really be
able to see the body language of early anxiety. Early
you know, fear, the cat wanting to get away, the
cat not liking something, so the two handouts. I really
think everyone should have pet owners.
Speaker 5 (06:49):
Cat owners as well as.
Speaker 6 (06:50):
Veterinarians and veterinary staff are on my website, The Doctor
Sallyjfoot dot Com. I'll need to go onto the veterinary tab.
There's like a veterinary, pet professional and pet owner tab.
But under the veterinary tab there's a little button that
says the feline Ladder of Aggression. I want you to
download that and print that off. And what this is.
(07:11):
It shows the early signs of a cat being a
little nervous with being a little anxious, and how they
step up to wear them the cat turns to staring,
swatting and then actually can lead to biting. So when
you see your cat like pulling away, looking away, their
ears being down a bit, stop what you're doing. Just
stop what you're doing, because whatever you're doing, if you're
(07:33):
petting your cap, you're walking up to your cat to
like get them off of the counter, it's that approach
that's upsetting them. And then we're gonna have to find
a different way, like to get them off the counter,
or just not pet them so much, or maybe don't
pet them over that power to the body. The other
handout is actually it's one I designed when I was
working for doctor Young's company, and it's through doctor Sofia
(07:55):
yin dot com. It's a free download, just like mine
is a free download on the shop. And this is
the the body language of anxiety in the cat. And
it's kind of this lavender you know, it's like a
cartoony picture, So it's pictures of what the cat looks like.
So you can mash the picture next to that ladder
of aggression to really tell what your cat's saying to you.
(08:15):
So just some other tips or things for so if
you find like you stroke your cat two times, oh
he's okay, he likes it. And then the third or
fourth time, especially as you're going down the whole body
a lot of cats do not like that whole body pet.
Now his tail starts flipping or swishing, and then he
kind of curls his body up a little tighter and
(08:36):
gets really still. That's actually freezing the cat, and the
cat is at a higher level of anxiety. So it's
almost like cats are more sensitive to touch, and I
think overpetting is something that leads to a lot of cats.
Then they jump away from you. They're avoiding okay, so
they resolved it. That's nice, better than biting you, or
all of a sudden they turn they swat you, or
(08:58):
they bite you, and that's aggression.
Speaker 5 (09:00):
Now, we didn't realize it was.
Speaker 6 (09:02):
A third and fourth pet that overstimulated their body.
Speaker 5 (09:06):
It was like too much, you know.
Speaker 6 (09:08):
So my rule is between the like between the little ears,
you know, up on their forehead down to the back
of their neck. That's where you're gonna stroke them once,
stroke them twice, and stop. And then if the cat
headbunce you know where they take their forehead and they
kind of bump your hand and they're scenting on you,
they rub their face there, then just do one or
two pets again and you might go a little further
(09:28):
down the body and stop because what you're doing is
you're doing a little pet and you're waiting for them
to ask for more. And if they don't ask for more,
then don't do anymore. They said they've had enough. If
they ask for more, then you can do more. And
of course then if they say start purring or they're
leaning into you. So the simplest thing is if an
(09:49):
animal as cats, come towards you and with their tail
up and a relaxed body. Relaxed body is always an
indication of calm and happiness.
Speaker 5 (09:58):
Relaxed body leaning towards you.
Speaker 6 (10:01):
They want something from you, know, they want that pet,
They want something from you. If they turn away, they
turn their head away, they jump away, they pull their
body away. They don't want it. Stop what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Well, So everybody calls me doctor Cat, and I talk
about cats a lot. However, I suspect that a lot
of our listeners may have dogs in addition to cats,
or maybe they're just listening that they have dogs, but
they like cats. So I think that cats and dogs
are different enough from each other the advice might be different.
Can you talk a little bit about healthy people that
(10:34):
are self quarantining that are now staying home with dogs
as well?
Speaker 6 (10:39):
Ah, very good question, Thank you, Doctor Cat. So dogs
and cats can really be great buddies as long as
each gets what their own species needs. And I think
this is what we have to keep in mind. So
what does that mean? Okay, a cat a cat likes
to be able to like get up high, you know,
get up high in the room or be in kind
(11:01):
of a heidi place to assess and kind of review like, Okay,
the dog is over there, the food is over there,
I'm going to walk along this direction to get there.
They don't just sort of walk in a room. And
because the movement of the cat, you see, is what
entices the dog to possibly want to chase So we
need to have a way that the cat can move
(11:21):
around the house up off the floor so they're not
right there in the space of the dog that attempts
the dog to want to chase them. Because when the
dog chases the cat, then the cat runs. It's scary
for the cat. Now we don't have good dog cat interactions,
So for the cat, we need to make sure we
have enough perchaes and kind of that off the ground runway,
if you will, for them to be able to move
(11:42):
around the house off the floor. That keeps cat happy,
not only if they're living with dogs, but with people
as well. And then cats like their food, you know,
to be hidden in small bowls around the house. It
uses their hunting skills and then also avoids the dog
possibly getting in the cat food or the dog staring
at the cat when the cat is eating, which then
can make the cat nervous. So that's you know, this
(12:04):
is how to help dogs and kiddies get along well together.
For the dog, we really need to be sure that
we get the dog out for walks. We get the
dog out for plenty of exercise, not just in the backyard.
Dogs need to get out and get sniffing other smells
and things like this to be you know, calm and
happy themselves. And then lastly the litter box. We need
to make sure that we have the litter box in
(12:25):
a room or a location. Maybe put a baby gate
up so we keep the dog out of.
Speaker 5 (12:30):
The litter box.
Speaker 6 (12:31):
It is a normal do I'll say it on the
radio here. It is normal dog behavior for the dog
to want to eat the cat's stool, to stick their
head in that litter box and clean it up.
Speaker 5 (12:42):
And of course for the cat.
Speaker 6 (12:44):
The cat may you know, the cat sees the dog
around a litter box and then the cat may not
want to get in the litter box because they're afraid
the dog is gonna bother me. Maybe the dog has
bothered the cat in a litter box, or the dog
is disrupted the litter box. All that so having a
baby gate up, gate up that the cat I can
get over or you know under to get to their
litter box and not be bothered by the dog, or
(13:06):
say a covered litter box turned and away to the
wall so that the dog cannot get into it.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
But that will help to keep dog and cat harmony.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
So right now, last night I took my dog for
a walk in the neighborhood, and there were lots of
people walking their dogs right because you know, it's fun
and it's an activity that we now have time for
that maybe we didn't before. So for healthy people that
are self quarantined with their dogs and maybe their cats,
they may have a cat train to walk, but I
(13:35):
think that dogs are going to get used to being
walked and handled, maybe moored.
Speaker 6 (13:40):
What do you think, Oh, I completely agree, I have.
I mean, I'm enjoying it. I've always nagged my clients
to get their dogs out for walks more frequently when
I would say to clients my prescription for a dog
is to be walked at least one minute per pound
of body weight. People with a fifty sixty pound dog
look at me like I'm crazy because it means an
(14:01):
hour of walking a day. Yet that is what that
dog needs. I mean it broken up in the day.
But anyway, that is what that dog needs. So now
I am seeing dogs getting that and so I think, yes,
the dogs are happier, people are happier. It's what we
can do, you know, with this healthy people can do
with this social kind of isolation, the more limited ways
of going. So what's going to happen or we're all
(14:23):
predicting this and I think this is great, we're talking
about this. Our dogs are at a higher risk now
separation anxiety when people go back to work, because this
is increasing the bonding with the people, you know, the
attention and dogs are very routine oriented. So now we
get into a new routine and it's going to be established,
you know, for two weeks, maybe three weeks, depending upon
(14:45):
where you live, or maybe even longer, you know, say
you work for school system that has just said we're done,
We're going totally completely online, you know, for the rest
of the semester, as we've seen here in Illinois. So
when life gets back to the old norm these dogs
is it can be another change in routine, which is
going to be a lot more alone time. So there's
a big risk of a rebounding of separation anxiety or
(15:07):
some dogs showing separation anxiety, which they never showed before.
And we can also see this in our cats as well,
because the cats are getting more time to be played with.
Maybe there maybe yes, you're right, some kids can walk
on a leician harness or maybe our customs of the harness.
Speaker 5 (15:21):
And or the.
Speaker 6 (15:22):
Client finally takes the time to do this and takes
the cat maybe outside, you know, in the yard on
a long lead while they're doing gardening because it is
springtime now, the cat will have a lot less enrichment
and attention. Come when you know, we go back to
the old norm and we may see separation anxiety signs
in the cat, and we can help prevent that in
(15:43):
different ways. But that would be you know how the
you know, a risk factor if you will something that
we may see show up.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
So we probably ought to take a quick break. But
I want to come back and talk a little bit
more about taking advantage of this time to build these relationships.
Then if there's a risk that it might be a
transition back, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
Speaker 7 (16:10):
I have two dogs, Sam and Bailey, both are Golden Retrievers.
Poor Sam, he was a mess, always itching his paws
or soaking wet all day from just constant licking. He
had bald spots on his back. I just don't like
putting shocks and steroids into your dog all the time.
Speaker 6 (16:28):
D n obit.
Speaker 7 (16:31):
Dynovite is nutrition. Probably two weeks after he started dynamite,
I started seeing three improvements, and today ninety nine percent
of his issues are non existent. It's amazing stuff. Since
Bailey has been twelve weeks old, he's been a dynovite
dog and he has zero issues today. He won't eat
his food without dynamite. When I get out the dynavite,
(16:54):
my dogs actually salivate like I'm getting them matrieved. They
droll over it. Dynamite is a thing you can do
for your dog.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
You won't be leave how happy your dog will be.
Speaker 7 (17:05):
I get my dinabite from the I n O v
TE dot Com.
Speaker 4 (17:12):
Let's talk past it.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Let's done.
Speaker 6 (17:14):
Pets automat Life Radio, HETLFE.
Speaker 4 (17:16):
Radio, pet Life Radio dot Com.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
Welcome back to Doctor Cat Gone to the Dogs on
pet Life Radio. Doctor Sally Foote and I are talking
about the issues associated with being at home more as
we practice social distancing and self quarantining with our pets.
So Doctor foot I know that you probably have some
amazingly good and easy ships for people to provide entertainment
(17:53):
maybe for their cat. I saw some things. I love
your website, So give us some ideas for things we
can do.
Speaker 6 (18:00):
Yes, so we can blend that, you know, giving them attention,
spending more time together and building the bond, while we
also help to build independence. So independence is where your
dog or your cat can be you know, present with you,
but they don't have to be like right by your
side or always, as I say, like feeling dependent on
(18:23):
you having to be with them for them to be calm.
So we can make some games. And these games are
kind of fun games, so you can do do this
also with your cat. And these are what I call
the pikaboo games. So peekaboo games are where we're actually
not gonna use We're not gonna do a lot of
feeding from the food ball through this time. We're going
to use food as the little paycheck, if you will,
(18:44):
you know, the as the treats, you know, the reward
for fun games or even kind of a little bit
of training. So what I mean is now, so with
our cats, especially too, we're gonna cats. We're gonna set
up small food balls. So the cat goes around the
house like the little tasting you know, dipping sauce dishes
you might get like a pure one, you know for
(19:04):
sushi or something, putting a tablespoon of food and hiding
those in different places around the house and switching it
up every day, so the cat.
Speaker 5 (19:11):
Is using their hunting skills.
Speaker 6 (19:12):
Now this second thing is say, maybe you do that
at breakfast time and put half the food out that way.
Then the second half of the food, and remember I'm
talking about cats here. The second half of the food is.
What I'm gonna want you to do is take those
little nuggets of the dry cat food. If you feed
most people feed some dry cat food. Maybe even if
the cat is primarily on what but or at least
(19:33):
we should feed some dry cat food or like the
temptation treats, you know, the small dry treat. You can
even break it in half because I want the size
of that pellet to be about the size of half
of the material. And you're going to toss it, you know,
across the floor, especially on like a herd surface, so
it bounces. You want the cat to see it bounced
because it looks like you know, it looks like a
(19:54):
little vermin, and it's to get the cat to want
to scamper after it, pounce on it, grab it, and
eat it. What it's doing is it's giving the cat exercise.
You know, the cat can express their predatory play behavior,
which is a normal play behavior in all cats. It's
more pronouncing the kit than the older cat, but very
important for cats to do so it's very their practicing.
Their skills are going to exercise. Thirdly, now the cat
(20:17):
is not like associating. They're so tightly bonded to you,
the owner, for like their food and attention. This is
a game that gets the cats to move away from
you and makes it fun to go away from you,
and great things happen is they kind of scamper away
from you. And the peekaboog part comes in where say
I take a couple of these tidbits, you know, nuggets
(20:38):
of food. I toss them across my kitchen floor. So
the cat is moving away from me scampering after the food.
And then I walk out the garage door and I
close it as if I was leaving in the car.
And then I'll come back in about fifteen twenty seconds
later and ignore my cat. So you see that going
out through the exit door, you know, closing the door.
Oftentimes that's a trigger for this a big trigger for
(21:01):
the separation anxiety. There can be other triggers, but that's
the biggie because the animal knows now you're really gone. Well,
now we play this game. What you're doing is you're
changing the meaning. You're counterconditioning what going through the garage
door means. It means whoo, pile of fun over here.
The cat learns to ignore you going out to the
garage door, and good things happen when you go out
(21:24):
the garage door. So keeps any of that building anxiety reduced.
And the cat then is you know, that's what I.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Mean by like kind of independent of you.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
You know, they're not clinging to you, winding around your
feet as you're trying to exit out the door. And
for our dogs, we do a similar game. You know
we're going to now we don't hide the food around
the house for the dog necessarily, We're gonna use a
little more of the food puzzles. We can use the
food puzzles for the cats as well, but for the dogs,
like food puzzles or you know, toys you put the
food in, not just treats. You're gonna put the nuggets
(21:54):
of food in these like ones called busy buddy and
a twist of the dog has to flip it around
to get the nuggets out. And we're gonna say about
half of the rest of the food, and we'll do
a similar thing for the dog. We'll toss a handful
of food for the dog down on the floor so
as the dog goes to eat it, I'm gonna walk
out the garage door and I'm gonna open it. I'm
gonna ignore my dog when I come back in, because
(22:16):
it's that emotional grating them when you come back as
well as oh, be a good dog, you know, emotional
kind of leaving them that leads to the separation anxiety.
So in this Peekaboo game, it helps to decrease the
dog's anxiety about the hearing that door click shut you
going out the door and coming back in. Because their
back is to you, they don't see it. They're geving
(22:37):
food happen, they're busy sniffing, and they're learning to ignore you. Again,
the dog is learning to be more independent and with
dogs because they have a higher rate of the high
anxiety and panic with separation anxiety as compared to cats.
We want to do this peekaboo game with things like
the bathroom door. You know, human go in the bathroom,
you throw the handful of food to the dog out
(22:57):
in the hallway, go in the bathroom and close the
door and come back out again, because a lot of
dogs also have this barrier frustration about doors in addition
to the anxiety about separation.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Yeah, and it's fun. So you know, when I interact
with my pets, even though there's a lot of anxiety
and I feel like we're also anxious, I just can't
help but smile. So I mean, you know, and that's
the good part of building bonds. But I agree that
having a bond is wonderful, but you do want them
to be independent. It's miserable to be afraid, as we
are all learning. So I appreciate that tip. That's really good.
(23:30):
So where would my listeners be able to maybe find
some of these enrichment toys without having to go to
a store.
Speaker 6 (23:37):
Well, of course, we have our big bold online world,
and they could, you know, go to any of the
major retailers online. The second thing is you can make
some homemade food puzzles and toys yourself.
Speaker 5 (23:51):
There's lots of websites about that.
Speaker 6 (23:53):
Basically, really good ones, you know, for cats can be
where you take the clean xbox, you know, and that
kind of plastic flat part on the top, leave it there,
throw some of the food nuggets in that and give
that to your cat and they've got a pot out
of the box and they really do enjoy that. The
cardboard tubes from paper towels or toilet paper again, you
could put some of the nuggets of food in there,
(24:14):
maybe even cut little holes out and then stuffs toilet
paper in the ends for the cat to roll it around.
Now and that you only want to put maybe ten
little nuggets of food so.
Speaker 5 (24:22):
It will roll.
Speaker 6 (24:24):
For the dogs, if you use a plastic water bottle,
remove the cap. Do not leave a cap on the
plastic water bottle for the dog to knock around and
roll around. If you cut little holes in it, you
can use that also for the cats as well. But
the pet whatever chewy dot com is like the Walmart
for pet purchasing, you know, that's one place to go.
Speaker 5 (24:43):
Of course, on.
Speaker 6 (24:44):
Amazon, Nina Aten makes a lot of really interesting these
I call them like the spinny food puzzles, you know,
I'm multi layered, and they have those for the dogs.
I'm not quite clear she has smaller ones for the
cap but she probably does. And the Pet Safe Corporation
has a huge each amount because they had merged with
what was called the Premiere Pet Corporation. And Premiere was
(25:05):
a company, you know, they merged with it. It had
a lot of cat and dog food puzzles and varying
difficulty degrees.
Speaker 5 (25:12):
And that's something I want to say too.
Speaker 6 (25:14):
If you have a cat who's very crafty, you know,
and opening drawers and getting into things, and you know,
pawing in your purse and like picking up your keys
and running away with them, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
We have some cats that are very good at this.
Those cats need difficult food puzzles.
Speaker 6 (25:30):
So one thing I really like is called like the exerciser,
and it's it's like an egg. You put the food
nuggets in it and you can click the openings to
be small, so the cat really has to bat it
around and work at it to get those food nuggets out.
And then also some people take like you know, the
a lidded tuppleware container and cut little squares out where
(25:51):
the cat has to like paw those out or again
just kind of do more complex tasks to get the
food out. And those are the toys that the cats
will want to use as compared to the easy ones.
Sometimes people will say like, well, my cat doesn't use it,
and it's like, well, this is a really simple one.
Speaker 5 (26:08):
You know, it's a it's a water bottle.
Speaker 6 (26:09):
I has to do roll and all the food falls
out and that he eats it and he's like, yeah,
a big deal. He's bored. You want to give him
something that's more like more work, you know.
Speaker 2 (26:18):
So I did an interview with doctor Jason Stall and
we talked about coronavirus when it first started. You know,
he's an infectious disease specialist, and he talked about possibly
if you are sick, maybe avoiding close close contact with
your pets. So what about if we've talked about what
healthy people can do, but what if you're sick and
(26:39):
you need to sort of be away from your pets
during that time, what can you do to entertain them?
Speaker 6 (26:45):
I think remote Like I talked about, you know, tossing
the food is a game for cats, and you could
do the same with dogs. But especially for cats, that's
a great way to entertain them. I love that game.
I recommend it to parents with toddler and young children
because it keeps the child, you know, in.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
One place while the cat runs around.
Speaker 6 (27:05):
The kids think that's great, and it is, but it
also prevents the child from like picking the cat up.
But anyway, if you need to be in bed, or
you need to be you know, resting, and we do
not want you know, you actually petting the pet in
case there's contagent on your hand getting on their coat.
And we don't know yet about you know, for sure
about any kind of carrier state whatever with our animals
(27:28):
and our pets. So if you have to not pet them,
but you want to have this bod tossing the food
for the cats is the number one game I would
say to do with your cat.
Speaker 5 (27:36):
The second one would be maybe you need to get an.
Speaker 6 (27:38):
Actual fishing pole where you can cast out about ten
or fifteen feet with that feather toy on the end,
you know, for the cat to pounce on. Remember, a
happy cat is a cat who thinks he's killed something
every day. I always, you know, say that, and I
think that's really true. So we want the play that
we we play with our cats, right. Another rule of
thumb I have for happy cats is that the human
(28:00):
needs to play with the cat for at least ten
minutes a day of active place. What does that mean
like taking you know, on a fishing pole something like
some actual bird feathers tight on there. So casting it
out ten or fifteen feet if you can, in your room,
so the cat jumps on it, pounces on it, grabs
those feathers, choose on it with their mouth, and treads
with their back feet. They need to go through all
(28:21):
those behaviors that's really killing their toy. They need to
do that laser light to play, you know, where you're
flashing it around on the wall can be done provided
after you've shown it around a bit. Then toss a
nugget of food right where that spot of light is
so the cat achieves like killing because what they think
it is it looks like a little firefly, you know,
it looks like a little bug. And if they never
(28:43):
get to kill it, they can be frustrated and then
they may start knocking things off, you know, the counter
and naughty behaviors. So if you toss that nuggetive food
at the end of the spot of light. So they
get the food and you turn the light off. Then
they feel like they kill the light and they're not
going to be as like naughty, So later's the light
games can be another remote play. There are some actual
(29:03):
toys made that have like a remote laser light that
will shine. And there's that matt. It's like a yellow
circular mat that has a little like mousetail that pokes
out and all around. So that's something you could set
up so your cat can play. And even if it's
within eight feet of your presence, you know, so you're
laying in bed or you know, whatever where your cat
(29:25):
is sees you, they will still like associate this activity
with you, and that still maintains that human animal bond
together and.
Speaker 2 (29:33):
You get to watch them and then you get to
laugh even when you feel bad. So I'm having visions
to people everywhere at computers, on teleconferences, behind the scenes
kind of tossing a fishing pole. Well, this has really
really been helpful. I think that our listeners could take
this information and use it to make life better for
(29:55):
them and their pets. So thank you so much for
joining me today. I really appreciate You're welcome.
Speaker 6 (30:01):
Thank you so much for asking me to be on
the show cat and stay safe and stay healthy well.
Speaker 2 (30:06):
And so I'd like to tell my listeners exactly how
to find out more about you, because you do have
a really cool website. Can you tell us the web address?
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Again?
Speaker 6 (30:15):
Sure, the web address is Dr Doctor Dr Sally Jfoot
dot com. So I'll spell it out. It's d R
s A L L Y J F O O t
E dot com. When you get to the home page,
you know you'll see the different sections. I have videos,
(30:38):
I have handouts, and I do have some client webinars
as well that they can take like cat Health and
Behavior at all ages and five simple rules for keeping
your cat in the box and patches.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
So if you're at home, listeners and your board, this
would be a really really good use of your time.
And her website is so cool, like her loading screen
is a little e kg it's it's just really cool.
So thanks again, Doctor Foot. I am so glad that
you agreed to come with me today. And also thank
you to my amazing producer, Mark Winter because he makes
(31:11):
this all happen. And thank you to all my listeners
for joining me today on Doctor Kat Gone to the
Dogs on pet Life Radio. I hope that you can
use the information that we gave you today about navigating
self quarantine and providing the enrichment and the things that
your pets may need to adjust back to life the
(31:33):
old fashioned way. I want everyone to go out and
raise the rough.
Speaker 4 (31:39):
Let's talk pets every week on demand only on petlfradio
dot com.
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