Companion Animal Psychology

These signs of affectionate feline behaviour show that your cats are friends with each other. Photo: Fernando Calmon/Shutterstock By Zazie Todd PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. If you have more than one cat , it helps a lot if they are good friends. Tension between cats can result in stress for them and perhaps also for you. But how do you know if they are friends? Here are the signs to look out for. They greet each other with the tail up . The tail up greeting is when one cat approaches the other with their tail straight up, often with a little hook at the end, a bit like a question mark. You might also see this when your cat approaches you. The tail up is a friendly signal.  These two cats are touching heads, bodies, and tails, and they're also showing the tail up signal. Photo: ClementineKANJ.  They sniff noses . Sniffing the nose is another way that cats who are friends greet each other. Incide

Can you help Generation Pup get to 10,000 puppies? Photo: Lunja/Shutterstock By James Oxley, Dogs Trust Generation Pup is a longitudinal study, run by Dogs Trust , started in 2016. In 2023 the study recruited its 7,500th puppy onto the project. However, although the study has been a great success, we still require more puppies and their owners to take part in order for us to reach our 10,000-puppy target. Can you help? The data gathered from this work will be fundamental in understanding the development of health and behaviour problems in dogs over their lifetime. This is achieved by all our voluntary puppy owners who regularly complete online surveys about all aspects of their dog’s health, welfare and management.  There are also additional contributions which dedicated owners can decide to provide to the study, including the submission of hair, faecal, urine and buccal swabs from their dogs. This also builds a unique database of dog samples which will help in the understanding of do

The importance of enrichment for cats, Sassafras Lowrey's latest books Claw This Journal and Jillian at the Junior Showcase , and tips for aspiring dog and cat writers. The latest episode of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation .  By Zazie Todd PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Watch episode 11 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation   on Youtube or below, listen via your favourite podcast app or below, or scroll down to read the highlights. Enrichment for cats and tips for aspiring writers In this episode, we chat with dog trainer and author Sassafras Lowrey. We start with her latest book, Claw This Journal , which is full of fun activities to do with your cat. We learn about how Sassafras's cat Thing came into her life and why she wrote this book. We talk about enrichment for cats, and how it's important to tailor it for individual cats.  We take one of the activities from the book, mak