Q: I was curious if you knew why some dogs howl when the local fire horns go off. My neighbor's dog seems to howl almost every time the horn sounds. I remember as a kid my dog Ginger did the same thing. She was a mixed breed, with some Lab in her. The three other dogs I have had in my lifetime don't even flinch. Is this something that is done out of instinct or is it done because the horn bothers them? Do you think it is related to certain breeds or just random?
A: Howling is the main method of communication among wolves, and this ability is also inherent in dogs, but very few dogs howl just as very few wolves bark. Howling is unique to each individual dog, and it is triggered by many different external or even internal events in the dog's life. Just like in humans, certain events mean more to one individual than others do. The sirens do not actually hurt the dog's ears, but there is something about the noise that triggers that primal wolf urge dormant in the dog to join in the musical chorus. However, just as one type of music is pleasant to one human and causes that person to want to participate, another person will hear the exact same music and not pay any attention to it. Same with dogs, and that is why some will join in with certain sounds like sirens or organ music and others sleep through it.
Q: I was just curious about the behavior of our 10-year-old male Tabby cat, Hercules. Each morning after I sit down at the dining room table for breakfast and read the paper, Hercules flops down directly on my paper and refuses to move. I have experimented with placing other sections of the paper by the other chairs, but he only wants to sit on mine, regardless where I sit. He won't even sit on my wife's open paper, only mine. My wife insists he is marking me as his property.
A: Quite frankly I have no idea why cats do this. The exact same thing has always happened to me. Every single time I open up a book or read a paper at a table, some cat in my house will do his or her best to curl up on the paper in front of me. Even when I was a kid doing my homework, my cats would do it and my papers would be turned in with cat hair ground into them.
I can be reading a little paperback book and the cats will do their best to squeeze onto the open book. Cats mark their territory in more biological manners, so this is not the reason. All I can say is that it is a scientific fact that many cats do have paper fetishes.
Q: We are going on vacation and we are leaving our 18-month-old Malti-poo with my sister, whom the dog is familiar with. Should we just up and leave or is it better to say goodbye and pet her just before we leave her at my sister's house? I will miss the dog but I want to do whatever it takes to prevent her from feeling anxiety.
A: When I was a little kid, none of the adults in my world ever felt the need to explain anything to me nor apologize to me for anything they did. Quite frankly, life seemed much easier this way as my simple little mind was quite content to just follow along and blindly accept whatever it was that the trusted adults in my life decided for me.
Of course, things are different nowadays in our relationships with children, but I believe this is still the best way to deal with pets. There is never the need to explain what we do to them or why we do it, and pets accept such events the same way they accept changes in the weather.
If you are going to leave her at your sister's house, then just bring her there, sit down and spend a bit of time with your sister and then just leave. The dog may be confused at first, but then will settle down.
If you sit there petting the dog and telling her how much you will miss her then she might think that something bad is going to happen and feel anxiety when you leave.
If you want to make things even easier on the dog, then just bring her to your sister's house a week before you go away and leave her for a few hours. Then pick her up again later with no fuss. The dog will quickly learn that this random event seems to happen in her life quite regularly and that there is nothing at all to worry about.
