Q: My 4-year-old, female, Maltese has been pad trained almost as long as I have had her. Once in a while she defecates in a particular spot in my dining room. She is so good in many other ways; I don't know why she has these lapses. I am an older person and Molly is my first dog.
A: A female Maltese is a little dog living in a big world. Sometimes it is hard for little animals to figure things out and they get confused, as you have seen with Molly. Dogs are creatures of habit but do take advantage of opportunities when they are presented. A house-trained dog has gotten so used to eliminating in one particular area or surface that it does not think that elimination anywhere else is a viable option. However, when a dog does have an ``accident'' (we humans think of it as an accident -- they just think of it as elimination) in a place that is not one they are used to, they then realize that this is now a place for elimination. So Molly got confused and did poop in your dining room once for whatever doggy reason that she had, and when she did she realized that it was an OK place to do so.
The only way to prevent her from doing this is to gate off the dining room so that she no longer has access to that spot. As the weeks go by and she no longer has the opportunity to use that spot, she will forget about it. However, a senior like yourself does not really need to be stepping over gates all day long to get into the room that you want Molly to stay out of, and quite frankly my best advice to you is to just put another wee-wee pad in the dining room in that spot that she likes and allow her to use it. We humans do not always have to win.
Q: My husband just had a severe heart attack and required heart surgery, Right now, all seems OK, and he is home. Of course this brings about all sorts of lifestyle changes with his new drugs that he needs to take and the dietary changes and exercise that has been prescribed. My friends tell me that keeping a dog can lower a person's blood pressure and that if we get one this may help out with my husband's condition. Neither of us has ever felt we had the time for a dog and our cardiologist said that if we want one then get one, but that there is no scientific proof that having a dog will help prevent another heart attack.
A: I have had not only dogs but lots of other animals all my life and yet I had a heart attack as well a few years back. I still have to take so many pills every day now that I rattle when I walk. However, while there is no scientific evidence that you will live longer if you have a dog, there is substantial proof that the quality of your life will be enhanced. Interacting with a dog -- or cat or any other pet, even watching an aquarium full of fish -- will make blood pressure drop, our heart rate slow down and our sense of anxiety diminish. There has been some comparative research done in the United States, England and Australia that demonstrates that pet owners suffer from fewer health issues than those who don't own pets; however, there is nothing as yet to suggest that pets are directly responsible for these health benefits. Common sense firmly implies that if you have something to care for and to play with, to love or to just even watch, then the quality of your life will improve.
Everyone who knows me understands that I admire and respect all animals, but there is no wavering in my mind that dogs are the superb companions. They play significant roles in every culture all over the world, and the benefits from having a dog cannot be overstated.
That being said . . . there are dogs and there are dogs, and getting the wrong dog for your lifestyle can certainly raise your blood pressure quite a bit rather than lower it. You did not describe to me your free time or housing situation, but if both are limited, then an older dog that is content to lay around the house all day and be petted and happy with a few walks will be a good fit. In the past I talked about adopting retired racing greyhounds; they are perfect for this kind of situation, but every shelter has an older dog that is down on its luck and would be a superb pet for your situation.
Q: We have had two female cats for 10 years now, that stay indoors, and we just brought another cat into our home that was owned by a relative who passed away. This cat is 8 years old and was declawed as a kitten. We were worried about our cats hurting him, but much to our surprise all three get along nicely and sleep together in a big pile on our couch as if they grew up together. One issue that we notice is what goes on at a big cat tree that our two cats use as a scratching post for their claws. The declawed cat will go up to the same area on the scratching post and reach up and rub his paws along the post as if he had claws, and then walks away with an almost smug look on his face. Does he know that he does not have claws? I would have thought that after eight years he would have figured it out.
A: I am really not sure what goes on in the mind of a declawed cat. Declawing is such an invasive and unnatural situation for cats that most likely they cannot comprehend it. Yet they must know something is not quite right with their paws as I have been bitten many times by cats that were declawed. Cats do have scent glands on their front feet, and when a cat is running its claws over a surface it is depositing its scent there as well as a calling card to other cats. So what your cat is doing may be more of an olfactory function rather than an instinctive scratching behavior. But only the cat knows for certain.
