When dogs chew up their masters’ shoes or cats use the living room carpet as a toilet, the problem may be with the owner, not the pet.
“Dog owners are the cause, dogs are the effect,” says Serhiy Storozhuk, who works at the Legion dog training center in Kyiv. Owners often do not know how to communicate correctly with their pets or manage them.
Anna Hutorchuk, who has a one-year old Irish setter Monica, complained that her dog “used to behave like a vacuum cleaner, putting everything it could find on streets into its mouth.”
But for the last six months, Hutorchuk has been taking her pet to a dog trainer. The change in behavior for the better has been remarkable, she says. Now Hutorchuk says the dog is obedient and knows its master.
Although dog may be man’s best friend, it still must take the lowest level of the family hierarchy. “When people treat dogs like humans, such ‘humanized’ dogs start demonstrating the worst human traits – they become revengeful and rancorous, which is not characteristic for them,” he said.
Some problems can be solved quickly and easily. Others cannot.
Cats tend to be just as problematic – or even more so, since some think cats cannot be trained.
Animal psychologist Darya Vishenskaya, however, says this is not the case.
Oleksander Nikitin, the owner of an eight-year old Persian turtle cat Asya, says his cat started peeing on his blankets and scratching soil in a flower pot. It took him a month to diagnose the problem. After talking to friends who are more experienced pet owners, he realized that Asya wanted to have some sand or soil in her toilet, instead of pieces of paper in a plastic box.
Nataliya Melnykova, the head of the Feline Alliance of Ukraine, says that – unlike dogs, which can be subordinate – a cat owner should negotiate with the pet.
“If your cat scratches your favorite sofa, it doesn’t mean the cat is a vandal. Taking care of its claws is one of cat’s basic needs,” Melnykova explains.
The most fruitful period to communicate and socialize with the cat is between the second and seventh weeks after birth. Otherwise, the cat may become unsociable, distrustful and unfriendly.
There are few pet behaviorist specialists around, however. Many are self-trained. The price for such service is the same as for human psychologists.
Some, like Storozhuk, charge Hr 35 per session, while Melnykova of the Feline Alliance of Ukraine says they are ready to help needy cat owners for free.
Pet horoscope
While some cat and dog owners take their pets to beauty salons, others believe that the stars hold the key to real understanding of their pets. A personal cat or dog horoscope, based on the pet’s date of birth or the time when an animal appeared in a family, can be ordered up. Astrologists say they can divine the personal traits of the pet based on their zodiac sign. They can also prepare a horoscope to assess the compatibility of a particular pet and owner.
Kyiv Post staff writer Nataliya Trach can be reached at [email protected].
