Cat Fights & Canine Clashes: Decoding Pet Behavior
Deborah Wolfe answers an anonymous email asking, ‘How can I tell the bully cat from the victim cat in my 3-cat family?’ Bullies sound, walk and claim time share space differently from victims and Deb Wolfe tells you what to watch for to figure this out. And how can you tell when two dogs who are usually dog friendly signal, they are about to fight? Plus, a mouse stops a plane, and a cat makes a 1000-mile journey solo. Did you know that Cats & dogs sometimes learn the other’s language. Deborah describes dogs who speak cat, and a ‘Kali’, a schipperke dog who spoke cat more than dog!
Please Send your pet questions, problems &, Guest suggestions to deb@petliferadio.com as text, email or voice clip and Deb will talk about it on Air!
Listen to Episode #204 Now:
Transcript:
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Announcer: This is Pet Life Radio.
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Announcer: Let's talk pets.
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Deborah Wolfe: Hello, you're listening to Animal Party on Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: So you're listening to Deborah Wolfe, that's me.
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Deborah Wolfe: I'm your host, and I've been hosting this show for a very long time.
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Deborah Wolfe: And one of the things I've noticed over the years is that sometimes animals pop into the news in unexpected ways.
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Deborah Wolfe: And usually I talk about cats and dogs, almost always for most of the show.
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Deborah Wolfe: Sometimes I throw in a little bit about a pet bird or a horse or something else.
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Deborah Wolfe: But today, I'm going to throw in something about a mouse.
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Deborah Wolfe: So Scandinavian Airlines had a mouse crawl out of one of their meals during takeoff.
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Deborah Wolfe: And they actually didn't take off.
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Deborah Wolfe: All those people had to leave the plane and they had to decontaminate the plane.
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Deborah Wolfe: And can you imagine if you were on that plane and there was a mouse that crawled out of one of the meals, and then you had to get delayed and you had to wait for another plane?
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Deborah Wolfe: Because of a mouse?
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Deborah Wolfe: So why would they wait?
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Deborah Wolfe: I mean, maybe you just don't eat that time, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: Well, apparently, the worry was that not only did this mouse escape, so it was loose in the plane and no one knew where, but also maybe there were more mice.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then even if it was just the one, there was the potential that it could chew on valuable components and they didn't want to risk it.
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Deborah Wolfe: So even a giant airplane and a whole bunch of humans can get stopped by one tiny mouse.
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Deborah Wolfe: All the more reason to have cats wherever you are, so you don't have mice infestations.
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Deborah Wolfe: Well, that's how I read that.
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Deborah Wolfe: Anyway, we're gawking on Animal Party, Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I was telling a friend of mine, he was trying to talk to my dogs, and he was using the word goat repeatedly.
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Deborah Wolfe: He was saying to the dogs, did you chase the goats today?
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Deborah Wolfe: Are you chasing goats?
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Deborah Wolfe: And he was talking about an incident that had happened earlier when a gate had been left open.
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Deborah Wolfe: And one 10-year-old poodle, standard poodle, big poodle, and one five-year-old golden doodle got into the goat pen and chased them around for a while.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I had to go in there and first catch the younger doodle.
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Deborah Wolfe: Well, first catch the goat the doodle was chasing, have my worker from the kennel help catch the dog, put it with the other one, and then we went to the next field.
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Deborah Wolfe: And it was really easy to catch the older poodle.
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Deborah Wolfe: He didn't really want to.
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Deborah Wolfe: He was just sort of dead sicker out.
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Deborah Wolfe: But the doodle, the doodle was grabbing the goat.
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Deborah Wolfe: And that's not nice.
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Deborah Wolfe: She wasn't hurting it.
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Deborah Wolfe: She was grabbing it like a retriever grabs things with a soft mouth.
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Deborah Wolfe: But the goat was not impressed and the goat was screaming and I was out in the garden.
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Deborah Wolfe: I heard this whole thing.
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Deborah Wolfe: And if you've never heard a goat scream, well, it's something.
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Deborah Wolfe: And so I went running and the goat's fine, the dogs are fine, everybody's fine.
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Deborah Wolfe: But my friend was talking to them and he was, he kept saying goat and they were just completely ignoring him.
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Deborah Wolfe: And he said, they don't seem to know what that word is.
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Deborah Wolfe: And I said, well, no, they're hearing you say go, G-O.
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Deborah Wolfe: And they're looking at you and they see you're not wearing shoes, you don't have a jacket on, you don't have a leash in your hand.
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Deborah Wolfe: They think it's just chatter.
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Deborah Wolfe: They're tuning you out.
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Deborah Wolfe: If you really want them to know you're talking about the goats, then make the noise the goats make.
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Deborah Wolfe: Give a little meh and they'll know right away.
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Deborah Wolfe: So he did that and immediately all the dogs came running to him and their ears perked up and see they don't really need another word for goat.
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Deborah Wolfe: That is perfectly good and it's completely, immediately tells them what you're talking about.
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Deborah Wolfe: So in a lot of times when we try to talk to animals, we complicate things.
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Deborah Wolfe: Cats, in particular, I find, they're really interested in verbs, you know?
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Deborah Wolfe: Not so much sentences and adjectives and stories like the dogs are.
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Deborah Wolfe: No, they like verbs.
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Deborah Wolfe: They like words like chase, climb, catch, run.
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Deborah Wolfe: These are the words cats like.
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Deborah Wolfe: And they like thoughts and words and sentences that have to do with an action.
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Deborah Wolfe: Cat chase boasts, that's a good one for a cat, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: Cat, get cat back scratch, scratch cats back.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's a good one for a cat.
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Deborah Wolfe: If you want to think a message to a cat and have him come over, think, I'll scratch your back.
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Deborah Wolfe: The word scratch is in there, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: Think those things.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, for a dog, you can think more things, and you can add more words because they love stories, as long as every few words is something they recognize.
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Deborah Wolfe: So one of the things I like to do with dogs, when I'm driving in the car and I have a group of them or something, when a radio comes on, is I'll sing along to whatever songs on the radio, but I'll just change the odd word.
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Deborah Wolfe: Throw in the word walk, throw in the word ball, throw in a couple of their names.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, all of a sudden, they're enjoying the music as much as I am.
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Deborah Wolfe: So there's a tip for you with dogs and cats and how to talk to them.
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Deborah Wolfe: I'm going to answer a reader's question.
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Deborah Wolfe: Someone sent in an email saying, I know you've talked about this before, but I'd really like to hear it again.
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Deborah Wolfe: And they said, how can you tell when you have more than one cat, how can you tell the bully from the victim?
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Deborah Wolfe: That's interesting.
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Deborah Wolfe: They're using my words because that's how I describe it.
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Deborah Wolfe: He's basically got a long story about how his cats pick on each other and he's got three cats.
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Deborah Wolfe: And he's not really sure who the bottom cat is and who the top cat is or who's responsible.
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Deborah Wolfe: So we're going to talk about that after the break.
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Deborah Wolfe: Stay tuned on Animal Party, Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: This is Deborah Wolfe, host of Animal Party on Pet Life Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: You know the expression, cats have nine lives?
00:06:09.372 --> 00:06:11.692
Deborah Wolfe: Well, what if you can give them one more?
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Deborah Wolfe: The Give Them 10 Movement is on a mission to help give cats an extra life.
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Deborah Wolfe: How?
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Deborah Wolfe: With spay and neuter.
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Deborah Wolfe: Spaying or neutering your cat helps them live a longer, healthier life.
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Deborah Wolfe: And it helps control free roaming cat populations too.
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Deborah Wolfe: Learn more about the benefits of spay and neuter and meet Scooter, the neutered cat, at givethem10.org.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's give them T-E-N dot org.
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Announcer: Let's Talk Pets on petliferadio.com.
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Deborah Wolfe: Hello, you're back on Animal Party, Pet Life Radio with me, Deb Wolfe.
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Deborah Wolfe: And we're going to talk about how you tell the bully from the victim.
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Deborah Wolfe: It's not always that easy.
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Deborah Wolfe: So for one thing, the cat making all the noise is usually not the bully.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's usually the victim.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, so that's one tip.
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Deborah Wolfe: But not always, but usually.
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Deborah Wolfe: I mean, sometimes you have a noisy cat and a quiet cat, and the noisy cat will be making all the noise.
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Deborah Wolfe: But generally speaking, the one complaining is the one who's scared and being victimized.
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Deborah Wolfe: And oftentimes, while you'll hear is a noise sort of like this, something like that.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's the cat who's scared and upset and about to get picked on.
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Deborah Wolfe: So that's one way to tell.
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Deborah Wolfe: The other way to tell is when they're in the same room together, say you come home or you're feeding them or something, they have some reason to want to go to the same place at the same time.
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Deborah Wolfe: Watch how they move.
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Deborah Wolfe: The one that just marches straight and direct right to you or right to the thing it wants, the dog food, the cat food rather, the cat treat jar, the grooming tool, whatever it is they're going for, the play toy, the cat scratch, whatever, the litter box.
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Deborah Wolfe: The one who goes directly to what it wants is the bully.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's the confident cat.
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Deborah Wolfe: The one who kind of slinks around the edges and peeks out a little bit and maybe darts for cover, and then surreptitiously secretly tries to get into the litter or the food or whatever.
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Deborah Wolfe: That one, that's the victim.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, so that's a really good way to tell.
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Deborah Wolfe: Another way to tell, and this is a little trickier, you have to kind of get it in your head that cats have time share.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, I know that's a bit tricky to understand, but it's true.
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Deborah Wolfe: So here's how I explain it.
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Deborah Wolfe: You don't want to go to Mexico and rent that place and have your time share in that beautiful place during hurricane season, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: That would be a lousy time share.
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Deborah Wolfe: The only time you could use that beautiful place in Florida or Mexico or wherever was right in the middle of hurricane season on the beach in the target area.
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Deborah Wolfe: You don't want that.
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Deborah Wolfe: But if you could use that place at Christmas, well, that would be quite nice, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: And time share, you'd want something else in July.
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Deborah Wolfe: You wouldn't want to be in the hottest place where the storms are coming.
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Deborah Wolfe: You might want to go, I don't know where you'd want to go, but you'd want to go somewhere else.
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Deborah Wolfe: So that's how time share works with cats, too.
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Deborah Wolfe: So I'll give you an example.
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Deborah Wolfe: The top of the bookcase, when the sun is shining through the window on that bookcase, that's Florida in December to the cats.
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Deborah Wolfe: As soon as the sun moves, that place has no value, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: Or very little value.
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Deborah Wolfe: There's another place that has more value.
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Deborah Wolfe: So the confident cat, the cat who's in charge, gets the primo location.
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Deborah Wolfe: He gets or she gets the highest perch that they want in the sun when the sun is shining.
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Deborah Wolfe: Now, if you live in a hot, hot climate, that might be the spot next to the fan or the air conditioner.
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Deborah Wolfe: You have to figure out what your cat values.
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Deborah Wolfe: What primo location at the primo time is where they all want to be.
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Deborah Wolfe: And whoever's there, that's your dominant cat.
00:10:14.604 --> 00:10:19.304
Deborah Wolfe: All right, so when we come back, because we talked about cats, I better talk about dogs.
00:10:19.304 --> 00:10:21.404
Deborah Wolfe: I'll tell you how you tell who's dominant.
00:10:21.404 --> 00:10:26.484
Deborah Wolfe: Who's the aggressor before the fight begins, when two dogs meet in the park?
00:10:26.484 --> 00:10:29.564
Deborah Wolfe: Stay tuned on Animal Party Pet Life Radio.
00:10:29.564 --> 00:10:33.104
Deborah Wolfe: Oh, and cat lovers, there's one more story for you.
00:10:33.104 --> 00:10:35.844
Deborah Wolfe: A thousand miles.
00:10:35.844 --> 00:10:38.644
Deborah Wolfe: Oh yeah, a cat and a thousand miles.
00:10:38.644 --> 00:10:41.404
Deborah Wolfe: Stay tuned on Animal Party Pet Life Radio.
00:10:44.324 --> 00:10:47.584
Announcer: You know the expression, cats have nine lives.
00:10:47.584 --> 00:10:50.164
Announcer: Well, what if you can give them one more?
00:10:50.164 --> 00:10:55.744
Announcer: The GiveThem10 movement is on a mission to help give cats an extra life.
00:10:55.744 --> 00:10:56.464
Announcer: How?
00:10:56.464 --> 00:10:58.064
Announcer: With spay and neuter.
00:10:58.064 --> 00:11:02.864
Announcer: Spaying or neutering your cat helps them live a longer, healthier life.
00:11:02.864 --> 00:11:07.124
Announcer: And it helps control free roaming cat populations too.
00:11:07.124 --> 00:11:14.384
Announcer: Learn more about the benefits of spay and neuter and meet Scooter, the neutered cat, at givethemten.org.
00:11:15.464 --> 00:11:18.744
Announcer: That's GiveThem, T-E-N, dot org.
00:11:26.204 --> 00:11:39.704
Announcer: PetLifeRadio.com
00:11:39.704 --> 00:11:43.884
Deborah Wolfe: Hello! You're back on Animal Party, PetLife Radio.
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Deborah Wolfe: And...
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Deborah Wolfe: How do you tell if two dogs meeting in the park, who's gonna throw the fight, and why there's a fight starting?
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Deborah Wolfe: Well, normally, normally, with two dogs, they greet each other friendly at first.
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Deborah Wolfe: Usually, if both dogs are sometimes social, or most of the time social.
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Deborah Wolfe: I'm not talking about the dogs who just hate everybody, hate all dogs, no, I'm not talking about them.
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Deborah Wolfe: I'm talking about dogs who generally get along, but sometimes there's a problem and you don't know why.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, so you got these two dogs, they greet each other at first, tails are wagging, maybe a little stipply because they're not sure yet.
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Deborah Wolfe: Not the loose, the dump, the dump, the dump wag, it's more of an alert wag, ding, ding, ding, ding.
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Deborah Wolfe: But not straight up, not stiff posture, muscles aren't tensed.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, they're about to go nose to nose.
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Deborah Wolfe: And normally, the next step would be bum to nose, right?
00:12:34.973 --> 00:12:36.693
Deborah Wolfe: They're getting each other's scent.
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Deborah Wolfe: And they sort of turn and turn and turn, so each smells the other at the same time.
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Deborah Wolfe: Okay, that's normal.
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Deborah Wolfe: And then they would walk to something, if it's close, like a post, a fire hydrant, whatever, a tree.
00:12:48.293 --> 00:12:56.913
Deborah Wolfe: And each would take a turn making a pee, and they would smell the area around that to get more information about the other dog.
00:12:56.913 --> 00:12:59.973
Deborah Wolfe: How old he is, how healthy is, what he eats, where he lives, all that.
00:12:59.973 --> 00:13:11.173
Deborah Wolfe: All that's contained in the urine because they followed it around the neighborhood and they know where this dog lives and they're just getting an idea of who this guy is, where he lives, what the background is, and what he's up to, right?
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Deborah Wolfe: So all that's going on.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's normal.
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Deborah Wolfe: What's not, well, another normal when there's about to be a fight, is the two dogs approach head to head.
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Deborah Wolfe: And one dog says, I'm taller than you.
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Deborah Wolfe: And instead of going to sniff the other's bum and giving his bum to be sniffed, instead of all that politeness, it's kind of like a handshake or a high five or a fist bump, in the human world, no, doesn't do that.
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Deborah Wolfe: Instead, he does what's kind of like a chin nod, an aggressive chin nod, the two men might do before they're going to fight.
00:13:43.313 --> 00:13:50.453
Deborah Wolfe: And what he does is he puts his head higher than the other dog's head and he says, I'm bigger, I'm taller, my head's bigger than yours.
00:13:50.453 --> 00:14:01.773
Deborah Wolfe: Now the other one, if it's a submissive dog or a sweet dog or different gender from the first one, dog not inclined to fight, will often just sort of bow his head, stick his bum in the air to say, I would like to play.
00:14:02.593 --> 00:14:05.553
Deborah Wolfe: And then they'll probably burst into play and everything's fine.
00:14:05.553 --> 00:14:08.113
Deborah Wolfe: Top dog got to be top dog.
00:14:08.113 --> 00:14:13.933
Deborah Wolfe: But if the second dog says, well, wait a minute, I'm bigger, younger, tougher than you.
00:14:13.933 --> 00:14:16.313
Deborah Wolfe: I don't want to be second dog to anybody.
00:14:16.313 --> 00:14:24.633
Deborah Wolfe: What he does is he puts his head higher than the first dog's head, right on top of his head, maybe not touching, but above.
00:14:24.633 --> 00:14:29.353
Deborah Wolfe: Now, if you don't pull these dogs back, you are likely to have a fight in about two seconds.
00:14:29.353 --> 00:14:40.113
Deborah Wolfe: So pull them back or walk away, because you've just had the equivalent of one guy pushing another guy in the chest and the other guy pushing back, and in two seconds, it's going to be an explosion.
00:14:40.113 --> 00:14:45.593
Deborah Wolfe: So you got to work on heel, you got to work on manners, you got to work on socialization.
00:14:45.593 --> 00:14:49.633
Deborah Wolfe: If your dogs are intact, you got to avoid other intact dogs.
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Deborah Wolfe: That's what's going on there.
00:14:51.953 --> 00:14:56.413
Deborah Wolfe: And since we're talking about this, I met the most lovely boxer the other day.
00:14:56.413 --> 00:14:57.273
Deborah Wolfe: He's about seven.
00:14:58.213 --> 00:15:02.773
Deborah Wolfe: And so leaving his prime entering his senior years.
00:15:02.773 --> 00:15:03.793
Deborah Wolfe: And he's adorable.
00:15:03.793 --> 00:15:06.493
Deborah Wolfe: He's two on two legs on the ground most of the time.
00:15:06.493 --> 00:15:07.473
Deborah Wolfe: He's bouncing around.
00:15:07.473 --> 00:15:08.953
Deborah Wolfe: He loves the ball.
00:15:08.953 --> 00:15:13.933
Deborah Wolfe: Sweet, sweet dog barked at us when we arrived, didn't know us, growled at us a little bit, just like he should.
00:15:13.933 --> 00:15:15.693
Deborah Wolfe: But once he knew us, he was great.
00:15:15.693 --> 00:15:17.393
Deborah Wolfe: He was in their backyard playing with them.
00:15:17.393 --> 00:15:18.913
Deborah Wolfe: All was good.
00:15:18.913 --> 00:15:22.013
Deborah Wolfe: But what about taking that dog somewhere else?
00:15:22.013 --> 00:15:27.913
Deborah Wolfe: So they took that dog one time, who's intact, somewhere where there were lots of females running around.
00:15:27.913 --> 00:15:30.293
Deborah Wolfe: And they suspect he went and made it.
00:15:30.293 --> 00:15:31.753
Deborah Wolfe: They suspect that.
00:15:31.753 --> 00:15:33.393
Deborah Wolfe: They tried to control him, but it didn't work.
00:15:33.393 --> 00:15:36.473
Deborah Wolfe: He got away a few years ago.
00:15:36.473 --> 00:15:37.973
Deborah Wolfe: Well, what's the problem with that?
00:15:37.973 --> 00:15:47.733
Deborah Wolfe: The problem with that is that that dog probably produced puppies by whatever mutt it found at this campsite they were at.
00:15:47.733 --> 00:15:49.573
Deborah Wolfe: And what's the problem with that?
00:15:49.573 --> 00:15:55.153
Deborah Wolfe: Well, all those puppies will be mistaken for Pippo Cross, even though there is no pit bull in them whatsoever.
00:15:55.153 --> 00:15:56.373
Deborah Wolfe: They're boxers.
00:15:56.373 --> 00:16:01.733
Deborah Wolfe: And probably generations will be produced of dogs that look like Pippo Crosses.
00:16:01.733 --> 00:16:17.933
Deborah Wolfe: Now, some pit bulls are perfectly fine, but in today's climate, the last thing you want is a mutt that looks like a pit bull, because it's far more likely to be treated harshly or put down or not allowed off leash or whatever else is applying to pit bulls right now.
00:16:17.933 --> 00:16:23.273
Deborah Wolfe: So if you have a boxer out there, you should neuter him or keep him on leash all the time.
00:16:23.273 --> 00:16:31.493
Deborah Wolfe: Because there are whole areas, like here, there's a suburb called Richmond, a city just outside of Vancouver, where the Vancouver airport is.
00:16:31.493 --> 00:16:40.253
Deborah Wolfe: And they have a rule that all square faced dogs are considered vicious without ever having an offense.
00:16:40.253 --> 00:16:44.733
Deborah Wolfe: Now, the boxer isn't in that list, but he sure looks like everybody else on the list.
00:16:44.733 --> 00:16:55.193
Deborah Wolfe: You see the pictures, if your dog looks like this, and they have a picture of a mastiff, and then they have a picture, and I don't mean a bull mastiff, they have a picture of like a dogo Argentino or a Cane Corso or something.
00:16:55.193 --> 00:17:05.833
Deborah Wolfe: And then the next picture is in a pit bull, and then the next picture, you know, and it just, you see a ray, there's like six pictures of faces, dog heads, and they're all squirtch.
00:17:05.833 --> 00:17:07.633
Deborah Wolfe: Yeah, you don't want your dog mistaken for that.
00:17:07.633 --> 00:17:10.773
Deborah Wolfe: If I had a boxer, I don't think I'd want to live in Richmond right now.
00:17:10.773 --> 00:17:19.033
Deborah Wolfe: I think I'd want to live somewhere else, because you've got a very harmless dog that's going to be mistaken as a very, oh, Routweiler's on the list too, everybody, of course.
00:17:19.033 --> 00:17:21.473
Deborah Wolfe: So I don't believe in breed bans.
00:17:21.473 --> 00:17:23.113
Deborah Wolfe: I don't like them.
00:17:23.113 --> 00:17:25.213
Deborah Wolfe: I don't think they affect the people they should.
00:17:25.213 --> 00:17:32.633
Deborah Wolfe: I think the bad apples still are bad, but I do understand where the fear comes from.
00:17:32.633 --> 00:17:44.293
Deborah Wolfe: And I wish people who own these dogs would be extra aware of that and extra careful to always present the positive side of their breed, the friendly social side.
00:17:44.293 --> 00:17:45.273
Deborah Wolfe: Work on their breeds.
00:17:45.273 --> 00:17:46.153
Deborah Wolfe: Work on their dogs.
00:17:46.153 --> 00:17:50.593
Deborah Wolfe: So they're just the most loving, lassie type dogs that you could have.
00:17:50.593 --> 00:17:52.453
Deborah Wolfe: Dispel that bad image.
00:17:52.453 --> 00:17:57.653
Deborah Wolfe: Have them carrying balls so no one thinks they're out for no good when they're in a park.
00:17:57.653 --> 00:17:58.613
Deborah Wolfe: You know?
00:17:58.613 --> 00:17:59.813
Deborah Wolfe: Make it easy.
00:17:59.813 --> 00:18:00.393
Deborah Wolfe: All right.
00:18:00.393 --> 00:18:03.893
Deborah Wolfe: So there's something else in the news.
00:18:03.893 --> 00:18:09.873
Deborah Wolfe: A thousand miles from Yellowstone Park to California, the cat came back.
00:18:09.873 --> 00:18:13.093
Deborah Wolfe: It wasn't the very next day, but the cat came back.
00:18:13.093 --> 00:18:15.793
Deborah Wolfe: They thought it was a goner, but the cat came back.
00:18:15.793 --> 00:18:19.193
Deborah Wolfe: From Yellowstone to California, holy moly.
00:18:19.193 --> 00:18:23.273
Deborah Wolfe: Now, only 10% of cats that are lost actually get reunited with their owners.
00:18:23.273 --> 00:18:26.193
Deborah Wolfe: So don't think this means that it's okay to leave the door open.
00:18:26.193 --> 00:18:27.013
Deborah Wolfe: It isn't.
00:18:27.013 --> 00:18:30.913
Deborah Wolfe: Or okay to take your cat on vacation with no harness, no ID, no leash.
00:18:30.913 --> 00:18:32.633
Deborah Wolfe: No, it isn't.
00:18:32.633 --> 00:18:34.333
Deborah Wolfe: Microchip that guy.
00:18:34.333 --> 00:18:39.113
Deborah Wolfe: But 60% of dogs who are lost get returned, but only 10% of cats.
00:18:39.113 --> 00:18:43.833
Deborah Wolfe: So you really want to be careful even though there's this one good news story.
00:18:43.833 --> 00:18:52.673
Deborah Wolfe: It took that cat a long time and it must have been an absolutely harrowing experience being prey hunted all along the way.
00:18:52.673 --> 00:18:55.353
Deborah Wolfe: So we don't want that for our cats.
00:18:55.353 --> 00:18:58.573
Deborah Wolfe: All right, everybody, we're coming to the end of this show.
00:18:58.573 --> 00:19:02.833
Deborah Wolfe: I had another question a while back, which I thought was really interesting.
00:19:02.833 --> 00:19:05.893
Deborah Wolfe: And it was, do some cats speak dog?
00:19:05.893 --> 00:19:09.013
Deborah Wolfe: Do some dogs speak cat?
00:19:09.013 --> 00:19:10.153
Deborah Wolfe: Now I know what they're talking about.
00:19:10.193 --> 00:19:15.613
Deborah Wolfe: And they were probably listening to a show where I was saying to everybody in the audience, this is how you speak dog.
00:19:15.613 --> 00:19:16.993
Deborah Wolfe: This is how you greet your dog.
00:19:16.993 --> 00:19:18.613
Deborah Wolfe: This is how you speak cat.
00:19:18.613 --> 00:19:20.933
Deborah Wolfe: This is how you greet your cat, right?
00:19:20.933 --> 00:19:24.653
Deborah Wolfe: So that's kind of my terminology, speak dog, speak cat.
00:19:24.653 --> 00:19:29.113
Deborah Wolfe: And yes, some dogs speak cat, some cats speak dog.
00:19:29.113 --> 00:19:32.053
Deborah Wolfe: So we've all seen, well, maybe we haven't.
00:19:32.053 --> 00:19:34.913
Deborah Wolfe: I've seen dogs who can charm cats.
00:19:34.913 --> 00:19:36.293
Deborah Wolfe: They can charm cats they've never met.
00:19:36.293 --> 00:19:37.953
Deborah Wolfe: They can charm cats who are afraid of dogs.
00:19:38.533 --> 00:19:52.733
Deborah Wolfe: They have this ability to show the right body posture and the right amount of attention and inattention so that the cat will let them approach and even become friends with them.
00:19:52.733 --> 00:19:55.033
Deborah Wolfe: That dog speaks cat.
00:19:55.033 --> 00:19:58.873
Deborah Wolfe: A different example, years ago, I worked with the Skipper Key.
00:19:58.873 --> 00:20:00.253
Deborah Wolfe: She just came for boarding.
00:20:00.253 --> 00:20:05.833
Deborah Wolfe: And Skipper Key is a little black dog, sort of looks like a Pekingese, but it has a really round back end.
00:20:07.373 --> 00:20:10.953
Deborah Wolfe: Looks like it ran into a wall backwards, sort of with a bent up tail.
00:20:10.953 --> 00:20:13.233
Deborah Wolfe: They're adorable and they're usually black.
00:20:13.233 --> 00:20:14.153
Deborah Wolfe: Maybe they're always black.
00:20:14.153 --> 00:20:14.473
Deborah Wolfe: I don't know.
00:20:14.473 --> 00:20:15.573
Deborah Wolfe: This one was black.
00:20:15.573 --> 00:20:17.033
Deborah Wolfe: Gorgeous little dog.
00:20:17.033 --> 00:20:23.793
Deborah Wolfe: So little you could lift it up real easy, but big enough to actually, you know, do something not tiny like you have to worry.
00:20:23.793 --> 00:20:25.753
Deborah Wolfe: Slightly bigger than a cat.
00:20:25.753 --> 00:20:27.393
Deborah Wolfe: Maybe a cat and a half.
00:20:27.393 --> 00:20:28.293
Deborah Wolfe: Okay.
00:20:29.253 --> 00:20:34.293
Deborah Wolfe: So Kali, when I met her, I visited the house and was meeting the lady and signing her up.
00:20:34.473 --> 00:20:38.633
Deborah Wolfe: And she took me into the room and there was one cat in the room and Kali was in the room.
00:20:38.633 --> 00:20:42.453
Deborah Wolfe: And I noticed right away that Kali started rubbing against me like a cat.
00:20:42.453 --> 00:20:47.033
Deborah Wolfe: Rubbing and then turning around and rubbing, and then turning around and whining herself around my legs.
00:20:47.033 --> 00:20:48.793
Deborah Wolfe: And I said, this is really strange.
00:20:48.793 --> 00:20:50.813
Deborah Wolfe: Your dog is behaving like a cat.
00:20:50.813 --> 00:20:52.253
Deborah Wolfe: And she started to laugh.
00:20:52.253 --> 00:20:53.173
Deborah Wolfe: And I said, what?
00:20:53.173 --> 00:20:54.073
Deborah Wolfe: Why is this?
00:20:54.073 --> 00:21:00.453
Deborah Wolfe: Like, you know, I'm looking at the cat, the cat's sitting there doing nothing, and the dog is completely behaving like a cat.
00:21:00.453 --> 00:21:02.113
Deborah Wolfe: The only thing it's not doing is purring.
00:21:02.113 --> 00:21:02.733
Deborah Wolfe: And I said that.
00:21:02.813 --> 00:21:04.513
Deborah Wolfe: I said, the only thing it's not doing is purring.
00:21:04.513 --> 00:21:06.993
Deborah Wolfe: And she said, oh, she does that sometimes too.
00:21:06.993 --> 00:21:07.993
Deborah Wolfe: What are you talking about?
00:21:07.993 --> 00:21:09.433
Deborah Wolfe: She said, well, she makes this noise with her mouth.
00:21:09.433 --> 00:21:10.393
Deborah Wolfe: That's like a purr.
00:21:10.393 --> 00:21:13.313
Deborah Wolfe: She said, why is your dog so much like a cat?
00:21:13.313 --> 00:21:14.733
Deborah Wolfe: And she said, come with me.
00:21:14.733 --> 00:21:18.533
Deborah Wolfe: And she opened these two French doors to the dining room.
00:21:18.533 --> 00:21:23.773
Deborah Wolfe: We'd been in a little studio office, and there were 11 cats in there.
00:21:23.773 --> 00:21:26.213
Deborah Wolfe: And I was like, oh my God, there's so many cats.
00:21:26.213 --> 00:21:27.833
Deborah Wolfe: She said, well, I had more.
00:21:27.833 --> 00:21:29.253
Deborah Wolfe: Too fast to wait last year.
00:21:29.873 --> 00:21:34.573
Deborah Wolfe: So, Kali grew up, was a puppy, with 13 cats in the house.
00:21:34.573 --> 00:21:37.053
Deborah Wolfe: And then there was 11, and then there was 7, as I knew her.
00:21:37.053 --> 00:21:39.113
Deborah Wolfe: You know, the cats got older.
00:21:39.113 --> 00:21:43.453
Deborah Wolfe: But Kali was surrounded by cats and had all cat mannerisms.
00:21:43.453 --> 00:21:46.253
Deborah Wolfe: She would rub her eye with her paw and then lick her paw.
00:21:46.253 --> 00:21:47.873
Deborah Wolfe: She would rub against you like a cat.
00:21:47.873 --> 00:21:50.893
Deborah Wolfe: She would make a purr sound, which I eventually did hear.
00:21:50.893 --> 00:21:56.673
Deborah Wolfe: If you rubbed her just the right way on her chest, she would start to go purr in this really weird noise.
00:21:56.673 --> 00:21:59.713
Deborah Wolfe: She was a dog who completely spoke cat.
00:21:59.713 --> 00:22:01.633
Deborah Wolfe: So animals do bond early.
00:22:01.633 --> 00:22:04.293
Deborah Wolfe: Between three and six months, they're learning all this stuff.
00:22:04.293 --> 00:22:05.133
Deborah Wolfe: Who's a friend?
00:22:05.133 --> 00:22:06.213
Deborah Wolfe: Who's not a friend?
00:22:06.773 --> 00:22:07.173
Deborah Wolfe: What?
00:22:07.173 --> 00:22:08.353
Deborah Wolfe: How to speak?
00:22:08.353 --> 00:22:11.353
Deborah Wolfe: And that's when your dog or cat is most receptive to learning things.
00:22:11.353 --> 00:22:16.793
Deborah Wolfe: They're always receptive, but at that moment, they're like a sponge trying to absorb everything.
00:22:16.793 --> 00:22:19.733
Deborah Wolfe: And Kali absorbed how to speak cat.
00:22:19.733 --> 00:22:21.213
Deborah Wolfe: So there's your answer, everybody.
00:22:22.033 --> 00:22:24.413
Deborah Wolfe: I just want to let you know where you can find me.
00:22:24.413 --> 00:22:28.393
Deborah Wolfe: Animal Party is on petliferadio.com, where you can subscribe.
00:22:28.393 --> 00:22:35.333
Deborah Wolfe: But you can also find this show on iTunes and Spotify and everywhere podcasts play.
00:22:35.333 --> 00:22:38.653
Deborah Wolfe: I'd love it if you subscribe so you don't miss a show.
00:22:38.653 --> 00:22:45.813
Deborah Wolfe: But also on social media, you can find my training demos with real cats and real dogs, naughty ones.
00:22:45.833 --> 00:22:49.613
Deborah Wolfe: You can check that out at Deb Wolfe, Pet Expert on YouTube.
00:22:50.013 --> 00:22:56.873
Deborah Wolfe: And for pet laughs and great social media posts, you can see Deb Wolfe, Pet Expert on Facebook.
00:22:56.873 --> 00:23:05.153
Deborah Wolfe: Here at Animal Party, I welcome your pet questions, comments and guest suggestions, especially if you have a pet problem.
00:23:05.153 --> 00:23:07.073
Deborah Wolfe: I'm begging you like a beagle.
00:23:07.073 --> 00:23:15.873
Deborah Wolfe: Please send me a voice clip message or text message to deb at petliferadio.com and I'll answer your question on the air.
00:23:15.873 --> 00:23:25.853
Deborah Wolfe: I can even, if you send me your contact information, we will try to arrange to speak with you off air, record it and solve your problem together.
00:23:25.853 --> 00:23:32.813
Deborah Wolfe: If you're a first time listener, you can scroll through the older shows and find a topic or expert guest that really speaks to you.
00:23:32.813 --> 00:23:41.533
Deborah Wolfe: Maybe it's dog breed bands or the royal family pets or pets in war zones or how to train your cat to use a litter box.
00:23:41.533 --> 00:23:46.953
Deborah Wolfe: Whatever it is, you can find it on one of my old shows and they're all there at petliferadio.com.
00:23:47.773 --> 00:23:53.493
Deborah Wolfe: So, I hope you'll tune in wherever you listen to podcasts to Animal Party on Pet Life Radio.
00:23:53.493 --> 00:23:58.273
Deborah Wolfe: And for me, Deb Wolfe and Animal Party, be good to your animals.
00:24:00.533 --> 00:24:06.473
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