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The 3 T's of Responsible Pet Guardianship

It is obvious that if you have pets, you must be responsible and provide them with what they need for a happy and healthy life. I think that everyone knows that pets need food, water and shelter- if you do not know this, please find a good home for your pets! Likewise, everyone should know that you need to spay and neuter your pets, not just for their health, but to reduce the massive suffering caused by overpopulation. With the three T's I want to emphasize your responsibility to your pet's mental and emotional well-being, not his physical health. Your pet depends on you for everything, and his quality of life is your responsibility. So, the three T's summarizes things you must do to make your pet's life a happy one, and to make your relationship with him closer and mutually rewarding.

1.  TOYS:  While you are off at work or sleeping, your pet spends an awful lot of time alone. If he does not have things to do, he becomes bored. Boredom not only creates behavior problems which endanger your relationship with him, it means your pet is suffering. For that reason alone, you should be concerned that he has toys to keep him occupied. When I say toys, I am not talking about that old rawhide that has been laying around for two years, or the tennis ball that you throw for him occasionally. Animals are intelligent, and like us get bored with the same old thing. You must provide a wide and ever-changing variety of interactive toys that he will actually want to play with. Now, you don't have to spend a fortune on fancy toys, although Kongs and other toys are great. With a little creativity, you can make toys for little or nothing- even by recycling some of your trash! For example, paper towel rolls can hold treats or a pet's meal- crumple the ends up, and you have a Happy Meal for dogs, cats, birds or rodents. Shredded paper is great fun for cats to play in- a kiddie wading pool contains the mess somewhat. Hide toys and treats in the paper to encourage exploration. Plastic pop bottles - plastic ring removed- are a blast when filled with treats or a meal, too. They can be filled with water and frozen for a midsummer toy for outdoor dogs. Even powerful dogs like pit bulls have fun with 2 liter bottles, and I have never seen any eat the plastic. If you are throwing a paper bag or a box away, toss it down for the cats to play in, rodents to chew up, or dogs to shred. Outdoor dogs who tend to dig can fulfill their natural urges if you provide them with a sandbox; hide rewards under the sand to encourage digging in the sand, not flowers.

You might be thinking, "I don't want to do these things- it sounds like there will be a mess to clean up." Well, you are right, there will be. But pets are not humans- they don't read books, they chew them up. Part of keeping your pet happy is to allow him to be what he is, not what you wish he was.

2. TEACHING:  Teaching (a more accurate term than "training," which connotes something that you do during a prescribed time and nowhere else) is something that you do with your pet, whether you like it or not. Just as a child learns to talk by hearing others speak, pets learn what we are teaching them during our interactions with them. Too often, people don't realize that pets are learning, and they teach their pets things that they don't want to! How many of you have a dog who jumps up on them? Well, smack yourself and not the dog- he only offered the behavior, but you are one who taught him that it gets him attention!

You should always teach your pet basic manners. Teaching him strengthens the bond between you, makes you appreciate how smart your pet is, and it provides the pet with much-needed mental exercise. By providing everything for our pets, we have taken away their opportunities to think by hunting, interacting with other members of their species, and so on. The lack of mental exercise can drive animals to bizarre, objectionable or even self-destructive behavior. Providing your pet with opportunities to learn will calm him and help prevent problem behaviors.

A word of caution- you will need help with this teaching. But avoid the old, negative methods that are still used by too many trainers. Methods which rely on punishment ("correction") destroy your pet's trust and actually inhibit learning. Remember, your goal is a happy pet, so be open-minded about newer training methods which use positive reinforcement for good behavior in place of punishment for wrong behavior. Even if you have trained dogs in the past, you can learn to be a better teacher. If you use these positive methods, you will be amazed to find that your pet is smart and doesn't have to practice something a million times to understand it! Some training methods I would avoid are those that use pinch or choke collars; those that use "corrections," or jerking a dog's collar; training which does not allow you to use signals and body language, food and toys to train, but rely on spoken commands only (dogs don't speak English as well as you might think); and any class which uses so much repetition that you and your pet are bored. Learning should be fun, or neither of you will want to do it!

3. TIME:  This may be the most important thing your pet needs from you. Your pet does not have a job to go to, errands to run, movies and restaurants to frequent, or vacations to go on. What he has is you. He depends on you to provide him with companionship, take him places, play with him, etc. What I would ask is that you be completely honest and put yourself in you pet's place, then mentally go through a 24-hour day in his life. If he lives in a pen outside, I dare you to go out and sit in it, with no books, tunes, phones or TV, for four hours. Now imagine spending your life in there, as an intelligent, feeling being. Is your pet living with 15 minutes of human contact followed by 23 hours, 45 minutes of loneliness, frustration and boredom? Even pets in the house get bored, and they have you there for hours at a time! So, bring in that outdoor dog, and spend time with him. Play with him, but play games he wants to play, not what you want to- this is his time. Take dogs on walks, even pets who go potty in a fenced yard. And let the poor dog linger over that interesting smell- if you need aerobic exercise, do that at another time. This is not about you- let your dog explore the world for awhile without you dragging him along. Cats have a little different set of social needs, so do some grooming/petting, play, even just sitting near him and talking to him. Not all cats want to be held, but a cat who wants to sit near you is being social, so indulge him. Pocket pets enjoy being handled and played with, and getting a chance to explore something outside a cage. Birds are highly social, and need more attention than most species, as a general rule.

I hope I have made you think about some ways you can improve your relationship with your pet. Although it sounds like a lot to have to do, it is what you signed on for when you took responsibility for a pet. And you'll find that many of these things get easy to do with just a little practice. Apply the 3 T's and I think you'll quickly see a difference in your pet's happiness, and yours as well!