Posts in Category: Training & Behavior

Cats with access to the great outdoors may have more feline fun, but this freedom can come at a high price. The potential for serious falls, car accidents, and fights with other animals leads many owners to keep their fluffy buddies strictly indoors. Many cats are content to hang around the house, but depend on their indoor environment to keep them busy, engaged and entertained. However, without daily physical and mental stimulation, owners can possibly expect some destructive cat behavior.

Cats are already cute to the max, but what if you added an extra furry toe or two? Without a doubt, polydactyl cats take adorableness to a whole new level, but their extra toes deliver more than looks. A cat with “kitty mitties” has even better balance, greater climbing capabilities, and finer predatory skills. If you have a polydactyl cat, our team at Leon Valley Veterinary Hospital is ready to serve their unique cat wellness needs.

Thanks to their wider, larger paws, polydactyl cats come equipped to handle life’s challenges!

Wildlife is abundant in Texas, including those that are venomous and carry zoonotic diseases, which are transmittable to humans. While wildlife are beautiful and necessary, domestic dogs still have their innate prey drive that causes thousands of wildlife related emergencies each year.

Many pet owners lament why they can’t stop the family Fido from running after wild animals, which carry disease and threats of injury. This is why the team at Leon Valley Veterinary Hospital is here to give you some suggestions on how to discourage your dog from chasing squirrels and other wild animals.

While your pet doesn’t have that terrible commute or bad days at the office, stress in dogs isn’t unheard of. In fact, stress is common among our canine companions and there are several reasons for this. 

You may have noticed that there are changes in your dog’s behavior, from being more clingy or acting out, like digging and chewing. If you suspect your pet is stressed, Leon Valley Veterinary Hospital is here to explain stress in dogs and ways you can decrease their anxiety.

It’s reasonable to assume that training your cat to do tricks could result in the ultimate feline takeover, but that’s not an excuse, is it?

Of course not!

Cats are smart, clever, and resourceful problem solvers. Teaching them how to do certain things that aren’t exactly “cattish” is not only fun but giving them new skills expands their mental capacity. 

Delightfully Feline Skills

Who wouldn’t want a high five from a fluffy, adorable cat? Being on the receiving end of a delightfully feline “trick” is guaranteed to make you swoon. Even better than a cat that does tricks is the one that blinks innocently at you as if whatever they did was just invented by them. 

Separation anxiety in dogs is one of the most common behavioral issues affecting both pups and their people alike. Unfortunately, dogs share this diagnosis with other pets, including our sweet kitties. 

Perhaps owing to their solitary and quiet natures, cats are perceived as being less demanding of their owner’s time and attention. However, the love you feel for your cat is returned to you tenfold, thus making any episodes of isolation and loneliness that much harder for our feline friends. Separation anxiety in cats is a very real problem today, but there are ways to get through it together.

At Leon Valley Veterinary Hospital, we are seeing more new puppies than ever! With social restrictions in place it seems like many have decided it’s a great time to grow their furry family. 

While we couldn’t be happier for all the proud, new pet parents out there, raising a puppy during COVID-19 has its challenges. In particular, socialization suffers when your new pet can’t get out into the world and learn about different people, places, and things. That’s not to say it’s impossible, though. You can still do a good job with puppy socialization in a less than social time. 

Although many of us are not thrilled with the recent changes to our routines, workplaces, and lifestyles thanks to the statewide Stay-at-Home order. Pets, on the other hand, are probably thrilled with the sudden increase in family time. But what happens when parents return to work and kids go back to school?

Separation anxiety in pets is a common, and serious, problem that can lead to extremely disruptive behavior issues. The issue becomes even more glaring for those pets who were adopted during this period and have never known their new life without all of their family members around all day. 

The transition from a day full of activity to being left alone can range from mildly challenging to full-on heartbreaking, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Our suggestions aim to help your whole family, both two-legged and four, cope gracefully and successfully with the changes that will inevitably come.

We spend much of our time connected. Whether that connection is through an iPad, cell, or our busy life in front of computers, there’s no denying, we spend lots of time “plugged in”. But what happens to the rest of our lives, including our time with pets, when we are disengaged from them? 

The emotional lives of animals isn’t a new field of study. Our animals experience a wide range of emotions from joy to fear, grief to even depression.

Since we know from human studies that excessive smartphone use can cause depression, the question is can your cell depress your pet? The team at Leon Valley Veterinary Hospital is here to take a closer look.

If you’re an animal lover, it may be that you have introduced a new pet into your family a time or two. And sometimes those introductions can go amazingly smoothly! In those cases, the adjustment period goes by quickly and everyone gets along, making your menagerie the happy group you hoped for. 

Sometimes though, there is more involved with helping your current pet adjust to a new pet. If things aren’t going well, keep reading for some ideas from your friends at Leon Valley Veterinary Hospital.