Caring for Dogs vs Caring for Cats

We discuss the differences in training a dog vs training a cat, the needs for exercise, enrichment, and other aspects of caring for dogs and cats.

By Zazie Todd, PhD

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Listen to episode 50 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation wherever you get your podcasts (Apple, Spotify) or below, watch on Youtube or below, or scroll down for the show notes.

Caring for dogs vs caring for cats

How is caring for a dog different than caring for a cat, and what is the same? We talk about what dogs and cats need for a happy life with us.

We talk about:

•     Training dogs and training cats (and why you should train your cat)
•     The importance of enrichment
•     Their sense of smell
•     Going places with your dog, but not your cat
•     House training
•     Vet care and husbandry
•     And the books we’ve been reading.

Also mentioned in this episode:

The books are:

Highlights of the conversation about cats vs dogs

Z: This is actually our episode 50, which I think is very cool.

Now, it’s not our 50th episode because we do have an episode nought, which is a very short trailer, and that kind of doesn’t really count. So I’m counting this one as the 50th episode of our show, which I think is very cool. Thank you for doing it with me.

K: And thank you for having me, as always.

Z: It’s always fun. And this topic came about for a couple of reasons, and one of them is that several people have emailed and said that they would like us to talk about dogs and cats.

So we’re going to do a few shows on dogs and cats, actually, but this one today, we’re talking about an overview, really, of some of the similarities and differences in caring for dogs and cats.

And there was also something you said, Kristi, you had an idea, too, because of thinking about groceries and shopping.

K: Yeah. So a while ago, and I think it was probably even on our podcast, I was talking about how one of the things that I do just sort of like random enrichment for the dogs is when I bring something home, you know, groceries or something, you know, from outside,

I stop and I always lower it down so that my dogs can smell it, because they always seem to get kind of a little bit of a kick of being like, what is this? What’s in here? Where were you?

Instead of, like, holding it up and being like, don’t smell this, don’t. You know, just to give them that opportunity. And I. I was seeing this, and then you responded something like, oh, that’s actually something that cats may not like.

And it kind of surprised me a bit. And I was like, oh, yeah. There’s a lot the same. You know, we. We’re both talking about domesticated predators that live on our laps, but then there’s also these really interesting differences too.

Z: Yeah, I think so. And of course, the framework that we use for thinking about how to care for dogs and cats, it’s the same in the sense of wanting to make sure that we meet their needs, obviously preventing cruelty, but also making sure that they actually have positive experiences.

And that’s something, it doesn’t just apply to dogs, it applies to cats as well.

But I guess the first thing that most people will think of is in terms of training and training dogs and training cats, because so many people have this misconception that you can’t or shouldn’t even bother trying to train your cat.

And of course, both species actually benefit from being trained quite a bit. And I think cats. It would be good for cats if more people tried to train their cat.

And of course, we’re talking about positive reinforcement here, using positive reinforcement to train them, because we know that. I have to say this every time. We know that aversive methods have risks for dogs welfare, including risks of increased fear, anxiety, stress, aggression, a worse relationship with the guardian and them being more pessimistic.

And although we do not have as much research on cats as we do for dogs, we would expect it to be the same. And the literature that we do have, again, it shows risks to cats for using aversive methods.

And some people probably think, well, no one does that with a cat, but people do, unfortunately. They squirt them with a water bottle or they just flick water on them, or they hiss at them or things like that, which is quite unpleasant for the cat. And again, the same problems apply.

So when we’re talking about training, it should be positive reinforcement training that you’re doing with your dog and your cat. And I guess it’s, people have to do this with their dog because they’re thinking about manners and obedience and things like that, aren’t they?

K: And safety. Yeah, absolutely.

Z: Yeah. And safety is more of an issue for the dog than the cat. But cats do bite people and they do scratch people if they’re unhappy. So it is still something that you want to think about. You never want to force your cat into a situation where they feel like the only way out for them is to scratch your bite or something like that. Yeah.

So the kinds of training that people do with dogs is manners. Mainly people start with manners. 

K: It’s almost like it’s expected, you know, like you get a puppy, you’re gonna go to a dog training class, which I think is great in a lot of senses. A lot of dog classes, unfortunately, like you said just a couple seconds ago, are still in 2026, focused on the use of aversive to change a dog’s behaviors, which we don’t love.

But I think there’s sort of a recognition that, you know, we can take a puppy, we can take a dog, and we can help them fit better into their sort of human environment through training.

We can change their behavior, we can shape their behavior, we can, you know, we can give them rewards for doing things that, you know, help them to fit better into our lives.

So I think. I agree. I think that is kind of a difference. Cats are sort of seen as, they come ready made. You know, they come fully baked and, and how they are is how they are. And you can kind of like, oh, don’t do X, Y, Z. But yeah. 

Z: Yeah. And I feel like people, therefore, perhaps are more likely to let cats do some things that they maybe would be upset if their dog did because they think they can’t train the cat. They’re going to perhaps give the cat more opportunities to engage in those behaviors. 

But at the same time, because so many cats are indoors only, it’s actually up to us to make a real effort to provide opportunities to engage in those behaviors. But there are some bits of training for cats.

The one thing that I wish everyone would do for their cat is to teach them to go in the cat carrier, because so many cats hate going in their carrier. They will run away as soon as the carrier comes out, and that makes it really hard for people to take them to the vet. And yet you can train your cat to go in their carrier.

And even if your cat is terrified already, you can get a new carrier or clean it really thoroughly so that it seems like it’s a new carrier and you can get started. And it will obviously take longer than if you’re training a kitten, but you can still do it. And I think that’s an important bit of training.

K: Yeah, absolutely. I completely, completely agree. And I know there’s a good training plan in your book. So that would be something that if you’re unsure about where to start, there is a good training plan. You don’t even have to think about it. You know, you can just follow, start with step one and go from there.

And maybe that would be like an interesting thing that cats and dogs share is that they respond well to good training and good training means you have a training plan, you have good treats that the animal actually wants in that moment and you follow up.

You know, you sort of make things harder when the animal is ready for you to make things harder.

So you’re, you’re sort of like taking into account how’s the animal performing at the current step, when can I move to the next step? And the next step is something that the animal is, you know, going to be likely to achieve as you work through the training plan.

Z: Yes, that’s a really good point. And thank you for mentioning that training plan that’s in the back of Purr. And I also have some useful advice [on training cats] in a blog post, so I’ll put links to those in the show notes.

But I think because people go to dog training classes, they learn about a bit about training there, whereas if they start training their cat, they’re probably starting themselves from scratch as well, so they themselves have more to learn. 

Whereas if you’ve been like you’ve been to puppy class, you’ve at least had some experience of being taught how to follow a training plan, even if it’s not been made explicit, depending on the class. And you know, you’ve just been told what to do, but you’ve done it and you’ve had someone observe you giving food and say, yes, good timing, or whatever when you’ve done that.

So you already have some of those skills. And I think most people training their cat, obviously it’s not happening. It’s a cat training class. Those don’t really exist except online.

You can sign up for tricks training classes if you want to improve your training skills. That would really help as well as give you something fun to do with your cat.

But so people aren’t used to it. So I think it probably therefore feels a bit more frustrating to try and train a cat because the person is less likely to have the skills.

And at the same time, the cat hasn’t been trained since they were a kitten in the same way that a dog has been trained since they were a puppy. And I feel like learning to be trained, you know, learning the skill that, that if you think of what to do and do it, then you’re going to earn a treat. That is something that they can learn over time. And if your cat isn’t used to it, it’s going to be very tiring for them.

So your first training sessions are going to be really short, which they might be with some dogs, but, you know, some dogs will go for a long, long time.

K: Yeah, yeah. And as, as we’re speaking about this. It’s making me think a little bit that having a hard to train dog sets you up well for training cats. I think a little bit, because you really have to, like, a lot of dogs are very easy.

They love food. They’re sort of like, do you want me to do something? I’ll try it, you know, And I think that’s great and wonderful and it makes for, you know, a great relationship with your dog.

But it also can make you a sloppy trainer, which is fine if you don’t need to be a good trainer. But then if you get a cat and you’re like, oh, I all of a sudden have to, you know, to really pay attention to some of the specifics of training.

If you’ve had some hard dogs, I think it can, it can set you up nicely. So yet another cheer for those of us who’ve had hard dogs to train.

Z: That’s a really good point. And I think a lot of dog trainers become dog trainers because they’ve had a dog who’s hard to train and they’ve had to learn that stuff.

And it is really good for you to learn that stuff. But the process of learning it can sometimes be a bit hard. And yes, with cats, you do have to pay more attention. 

And the other thing is with cats, I think they’re not as used to taking treats from us, like from our hands as dogs are. So even from being a puppy, they get used to us holding our hand out and we teach them to take treats gently and we teach them, or we hope that they’ve come already with acquired bite inhibition that they’ve learned from, you know, being a puppy.

But your kitten, your cat is not used to taking treats from you in the same way. And as well, if they’re not used to being training, they can actually get very excited.

And I know my own cat, Melina, when I first started training her, she got really excited, really quite grabby, and she didn’t think to keep her. Yes, she didn’t think to keep her claws in. So it’s like, okay, this feels a bit dangerous now. 

So you have to think about how you want to deliver the treats. And it might be that you’re using a tube of wet treats that the cat can just lick from, or you put it on a little plate or bowl or something that they can take it from there instead of taking it from your hand. And that can save you from being accidentally scratched.

K: I mean, and it kind of speaks a little bit to the difference in how dogs and cats and their ancestors acquired food. You know, if I think of a cat, I think of them grabbing their prey with their claws and biting.

And it’s terrifying to think of like a cougar sized cat doing that. But then watching our own cats do that, it’s kind of like, oh, that’s neat and different from how, you know, dogs, genetic source material, wolves, how they would acquire prey.

So I just took a weird tangent, but, you know.

Z: But it’s not so weird because the evolutionary history, I mean, it’s a reminder that that evolutionary history is important and that we need to think about what each species needs as a member of that species, as well as what they need as an individual animal too. So, yeah, absolutely.

And the other thing about training, what happens with puppies, we go to puppy class and they get trained and they get socialization there. And the thing about kittens is that they have a much earlier socialization period.

So the sensitive period for socialization in kittens is from two until seven weeks. And so that’s over by the time the cat comes to join you. Because they definitely should not be coming to your home before eight weeks. And sometimes they shouldn’t be coming until 12 weeks. And even 16 weeks might actually be better for them.

So they’ve already finished their sensitive period for socialization by the time they come to live with the person. But there’s still a lot that you can do to expand on that and kind of build on the socialization that they’ve had already.

So I think that’s worth knowing because people don’t think about socializing their cats, kittens. And there aren’t many places where you can take a class. But some vet clinics do run kitten kindergarten classes and some of them probably also run them online as well.

So occasionally you might be able to do a kitten kindergarten class. And the thing that is like puppy class is that it’s also for the guardian to learn about how to care for this animal as well. It’s not just for the kitten or the puppy.

K: And I think I’m sure we have, you know, more than a handful of listeners who foster litters of kittens. And I think just knowing that there is this urgency about socialization and what socialization means to kittens and what it means to, you know, they’re developing into an adult cat, I think is something that we should all be paying attention to.

Z: Yes. And I think it’s really important actually for both species to make sure that during that sensitive period they are being exposed in a positive way that they can handle that they feel comfortable with, where they have choices to household, common household sounds, environments and people as well. 

And if you think of where some puppies come from, they do not get that at all. If they’ve been born at a puppy mill, they’re not getting socialized to household sounds until they actually get to the house that they’re going to live in. And that actually is quite sad and quite worrying and concerning.

So I think that is something that applies to both species there. They both need to be socialized to people, houses, other animals that they might meet and so on. Even if the cat is going to be indoors only because you actually never, never know if you want them to be an adventure cat and go adventures with you on walks in a rucksack and so on, then that’s something you can get them used to as a kitten as well. When they, when they’re young, that’s going to be much easier. 

But for most people these days, their cat’s going to be indoors, and so it’s the household sounds environment and people is the most important thing to get them used to.

K: Yeah, I think. I think it’s worth remembering that we as humans are social and we have people over.

And like Apricat, for example, was a barn cat and he didn’t get exposure to people and until, you know, quite far past his socialization window had ended. And he is quite scared of people. And that’s something that, you know, we’ve. We would work on. 

You know, we coach people on how to act with him, but. And we give him a lot of space, which is something I think we’re going to talk about a little bit later about how to take care of the spaces that our animals are in management.

But I think it would have been better for him if he had been socialized to people earlier and he was comfortable around people. He would have gotten more laps to sit in, which he loves, more padding, which he adores, you know, and less fear, which is something that we want all of our domestic animals to have less fear.

So, yeah, I think it’s good to keep in mind that our cats are part of our homes and they’re part of our family and part of our lives.

Z: Yes, absolutely. And that’s also a reminder that there are individual differences between cats in just the same way that there are with dogs. And some cats are just not going to be very sociable with visitors to your house.

And that likely arises from how they were socialized. It might arise from bad experiences that they’ve had at Some point as well. 

K: And I think, and I know that cats exist that don’t like laps. And I’m like, what?!!

Z: Yeah, or cats who would rather sit next to you on the sofa, maybe even cuddling up to your leg, but they would prefer that to sitting actually on your lap. And that’s fine. They have a choice in this.

K: Consent is everything.

Z: Yeah, absolutely, definitely.

So I think enrichment is another topic that applies to both dogs and cats. And then it’s the specifics of what counts as enriching that might be quite different.

And I also feel like although most people could do more for their dogs, more people could do more for their cats. I feel like cats really kind of miss out, especially if they’re indoors only. And they, they can’t leave their environment, they can’t go and find anything enriching for themselves and they don’t get taken for walks.

You know, they really need things to do, they need their environment to be set up for them. And so with cats, we do pay a lot more attention to their environment, to providing scratching posts. We know that we need to give them high up spaces and perches. 

We know that we need to give them hiding spaces in their environment and we know that they need to have multiple separated environmental resources. So not everything all in one room. And especially if there are multiple animals in the house, then we have to think about making sure that, you know, they can always access whatever resource they need without another animal in the way.

Now, I only have one cat now, so I don’t really think about that as much as I used to, but we had an incident, a minor incident recently where Pepper actually laid down in front of, she can’t get into the bathroom where we keep the litter trays. We have a pet gate to block him, but he laid down in front of that gate and we didn’t notice that he was there.

And he wasn’t intentionally blocking Melina’s access to that room, but he was actually blocking Melina’s access to that room.

And when she was younger, she could have jumped him and the gate all in one go and it wouldn’t have been a problem.

But she couldn’t do that now, so he was actually blocking her access. So that’s something that you have to think about. If you have multiple cats or a cat and a dog in the home, you have to make sure that you have enough litter trays that they can always access them without another animal in the way.

And with cats, people often don’t notice, like a cat lying in front of a room or a cat lying on a stair is actually perhaps blocking another cat in the home from going up the stairs.

K: Like, I think with a dog, most people would recognize. If a dog was like, get away from my thing, I think that that would be a behavior that most people would recognize.

But cats blocking by just sitting there with their little tails out, that’s something. 

Z: So maybe we need to put a bit more effort into learning about cats and how to recognize what they’re saying and what they’re doing with their bodies.

Although having said that, I still think most people are not that good at reading dog body language e either.

I mean, most people could get better at it. They probably know some of the basics, and they know perhaps when to be scared of the dog, but they don’t necessarily spot when the dog is showing those subtle signs of stress. And so I do think for both dogs and cats, people could learn a lot more about how to recognize some of those signs.

K: And I think they could also learn more about what’s the actual motivation as best as we can understand. You know, I think. And maybe this is the same for cats, but dogs are sort of ascribed a lot of, like, really rich human motivations for their behaviors when it probably doesn’t exist, you know, and maybe that’s the same for cats, too. But I feel like cats almost get a little bit more of a pass of the cat’s just doing, you know, what cats do.

But dogs are, oh, he’s like, Machiavellian kind of, I think.

Z: I think it depends because I think sometimes cats do get a pass. They do just. People do just say, well, is. They’re just being a cat and they can. They can do it. They can do whatever they happen to be doing. 

But I do also think people will blame the cat and say the cat is being spiteful if they’ve done something like maybe they’ve toileted in the wrong place or whatever. And maybe actually they just have a UTI. But people will go to that place of blaming the cat and thinking, you know, ascribing human emotions to the cat without seeing it from the cat’s perspective.

But I do think there are times when people will let cats get away with things because they think, oh, it’s just a cat, and they think it’s pointless to try and change it.

So cats do at least get recognized as being independent creatures in a way, which I think dogs don’t. Not in the same way. 

K: Yeah, for sure.

Z: Yeah. Dogs are meant to kind of do what we want them to Do. And no one expects a cat to do what, what you want the cat to do. 

K: No, yeah, yeah, yeah. It’s interesting, for sure.

Z: Yeah. But having said that, cats do like to spend time with us. Cats who have been socialized to. People definitely like to hang out with their person.

And you can think of, or I can certainly think of several outdoor cats that I’ve known who have wanted, for example, to follow someone when they’ve gone out of the house on foot and the cat has followed them down the street, or they follow the kid to school in the morning and then go back home.

So they do like to hang out with people, and that’s important, which I guess is a type of social enrichment. Hanging out with people can be good for dogs and good for cats. Hanging out with people they can do joint activities with.

And I think any kind of exercise and enrichment is important. So we know we have to take the dog for a walk. But it surprises me how many people don’t necessarily take their dog for a walk every day. It’s one of those things I feel like almost everyone should do. Obviously some dogs are too old or not well enough for it, but almost everyone can take their dog for a walk.

And to me, it’s a joy of having a dog, but some people find it a chore and don’t do it as much as they should.

K: I also think there’s behavioral barriers. A lot of people find it really hard to walk their dog. Their dog isn’t good on leash. Their dog might be reactive. Their dog might pull. And they don’t know that there’s training, training and equipment that they could use that won’t hurt the dog, but that will still allow them to take these walks.

And I think so many people still in 2026 don’t realize if you just bring food with you on your walk, you’ll be in a whole new chapter Right. Immediately. So recognizing that having food with you and using that food to help, you know, reinforce your dog, the dog, the type of behavior that you want to see from your dog will really change things.

But, yeah, I agree. I think I read somewhere that, you know, something like half of people who have dogs, maybe this was a North American study, don’t walk them, which I find shocking.

Like you said, most dogs should be getting walks.

Z: Yeah. And obviously, as you say, for some reactive dogs, it can be better not to walk them and to find other enrichment activities while you work on dealing with that reactivity. But yes, taking food on the walk it makes such a big difference.

And if you’re struggling, a dog trainer can teach you how to use that food to make a big difference and to help your dog feel more comfortable on walks. And that can help.

I do think people are quicker to go to get food to help dogs when they, when the dog is struggling in a way which they wouldn’t go to get food, perhaps to help the cat, they maybe wouldn’t think of that.

But also the cat probably would actually prefer to just run and hide under the bed or something and they wouldn’t see the cat. So if they’re, if they’re letting the cat do that, because that’s a normal feline response to feeling stressed, is to hide, then I think that’s okay.

People don’t seem to be very tolerant of letting dogs hide. Like if someone comes round to their house and their dog is a bit nervous, they’re not so keen on letting the.

It’s like people feel that the dog has to be sociable and the dog should be willing to meet people or even people on the street will be like, well, this dog should meet me.

Whereas if they saw an outdoor cat, I think they would not expect or require the cat to come up and meet them. But they probably might be pleased if the cat chose to come up and rub on their legs or something like that.

K: Yeah, for sure. Yeah, absolutely. They are seen as very different.

Z: So I think enrichment activities can be the same. I mean, food puzzle toys are good for dogs, they’re good for cats as well.

Tricks training, good for dogs, good for cats as well, things like that. Obviously exercise. So your dog you can take for a walk, your cat, if you teach your cat to follow your hand or a target stick, you can kind of do living room parkour with your indoors only cat to help them get a bit more exercise if you want to.

And of course you should have a one toy and make time to play with your cat with a one toy. And that’s another great way to give them exercise and to give them opportunities to engage in predatory behaviors and that need to engage in normal behaviors.

It’s there for dogs and it’s there for cats. But the predatory sequence is like it’s still there in full for cats. You already talked about cats, how they catch their prey, and it’s there when you’re playing with the one toy, you’re kind of engaging that predatory sequence.

K: Yeah, I would say that’s one of my favorite differences between dogs and cats, just from the perspective of someone who has both, is when you play with dogs, they’re like, I love you.

They’re like, really, like, this is fun. They get that big, like wide open play face, as we call it in the dog training zone. And cats, cats are like, they’re playing, but they’re also like, like, I’m gonna kill and eat that.

Like, they’re, they become so intense. Their eyes, their tail flicks, their, you know. So to me, that’s like such an interesting difference. You feel really like, oh, cat, cat’s killing, you know. Sorry [to Apricat].

Z: Yes. They can be fierce. 

K: When I yelled there [it disturbed Apricat]. 

Z: Not currently killing. Just chilling. Yes.

K: Yeah, and chilling or killing.

Z: And then smell is another one. Because I think everybody knows that dogs have a good sense of smell and somehow they don’t seem to know that. Cats have an amazing sense of smell too.

And they do have an amazing sense of smell. And that’s important in kind of different ways because on the one hand it means we can use scent to be enriching, like when we have toys with catnip or silver vine in them.

And on the other hand, we need to think about not using really strongly scented cleaners, especially in the locations where their litter trays are, where it is, where we might be inclined to get a really strong like pine scented cleaner or something. Well, the cat’s not necessarily going to like that. And if that puts them off using their litter tray, then we’re going to be quite unhappy about that too.

So we need to think about not having those, those really strong smells and then also giving the cat plenty of opportunities. Like when they’re marking territory in their place, they kind of rub their head on things.

Not so for us, it’s like not to clean all of that up because they can smell those. That’s putting scent in there or pheromones there which they detect, which help them perhaps to feel like this is home.

And if we go and clean it all up, then it suddenly might actually be a bit stressful for them because it doesn’t smell the same anymore. So that’s important too, right?

K: Yeah, yeah. They’re a little. What’s it called when they do the little cheek thing?

Z: Bunting. Rubbing their head. Yeah. And I love it when they do that. And I feel very honored whenever my cat comes and rubs her head on me. But we also have, there’s a little spot in the hall where she repeatedly rubs her head. And so over time, it’s kind of got a marked.

You can see that she’s done that there. She’s kind of deposited lots of pheromones and it’s kind of gone a bit yellowy.

But it’s important for her that she can smell that there and she wouldn’t be happy if we were to clean it up all the time. We do clean it occasionally, but not very often.

So mostly we let that build up. I guess house training is another thing, because most kittens are going to come to the home, they will already be house trained. 

So typically that’s not something that many people will have to think about, but if they do, I mean, sometimes the main thing is making sure that your litter tray is suitable for them and that they’re going to be happy with it, because that’s the main thing that will put them off using it is if you’ve got some kind of litter that they don’t like or that’s strongly scented, or you’ve got a litter liner that they don’t like, or it’s got a lid and they don’t want a lid, or it hasn’t got a lid and they would prefer a lid for privacy. 

Or it’s got a cat door on it to keep the smell in and they don’t want to have to push the cat door or they haven’t learned how to use the cat door.

All of those things, like the environmental things, are much more important for cats. I mean, obviously we’re not letting dogs toilet in our house, we’re not wanting them to, but.

So that’s something that we have to think about for cats is how to provide that space in a way that they’re going to be happy with it and happy to use it.

K: Yeah, it seems like, you know, in the discussion of similarities and differences, I think the way that we approach house training and, you know, ensuring continuing use of house training, sort of rules and zones that we’ve established, cats and dogs are very different. 

Cats is very much, you know, from what I can see, it’s about making sure that it’s comfortable and attractive. It’s like an attracting them to. To sort of go into the spot that we want. Whereas with dogs, it’s very much a training exercise to get them.

It’s more like excluding them rather than, you know, we do want to sort of magnetize them to going in places where we’re comfortable. And that’s something that, you know, I think there’s even a bit of research about how we can get dogs, as very young puppies sort of into going into a particular, you know, surface or, or sort of like, you know, g

rass or Gravel or whatever, get them, you know, magnetized to using those types of surfaces. But also it’s very much about preventing, through management and excluding them from getting comfortable going in our house. So it’s a different exercise. And I, I know. I, I mean, I can imagine. I’ve heard from my friends who are cat trainers that litter box issues is something that comes up, up frequently.

And it’s a big thing for people, you know, but for, yeah, for, for dogs, house training issues for dogs can be a deadly issue. Dogs regularly get, you know, dropped off at, you know, a shelter and they might even be euthanized for house training issues. So it’s an important thing that we get right. And it is something that for almost every dog, it’s a very trainable exercise.

But yeah, it’s, it. It’s not a small deal if you have a dog who has a house training issue.

Z: And the same for cats. Cats also get dropped off at shelters for that very reason, too. It’s just that the approach to dealing with it is a bit different because it’s much more about the environment rather than the training aspect.

But it is really important for, you know, and it’s not something that people really think about unless it’s going wrong. I think, except for when they have a puppy, they know that they do need to do, you know, to get the puppy outside often and give lots of treats for going outside.

But otherwise people don’t think about it until something goes wrong. And actually, I think for both species, it’s a good idea just to make sure you know what the rules are.

You’re providing the environment. So for the dog, you’re providing enough toilet breaks. For the cat, you’re making sure that the environment is one that encourages them to go in the place where you want them to go.

And then, and also for both cases, making sure because they both have good noses, that you use enzyme cleaners that will really get rid of the smell properly if they have gone inside, because otherwise that, that smell will kind magnetize them back to that spot and it might encourage them to go there again, which is not what you want at all.

K: Definitely. Yeah.

Z: Vet care is another thing where we know that cats miss out more so than dogs. And I think even for dogs, there are certainly some dogs that don’t get taken to the vet often enough.

We know that some pets don’t get their vaccinations perhaps as they get older or as animals get older, dogs and cats, people think, well, it’s just old age and they don’t take the, the pet to the vet when they should do.

But the obvious issue for cats is the cat carrier as one of the barriers to taking them. And I think for both species, if the animal hates going to the vet, that can be a barrier to taking them as well because it makes it a really stressful experience for the guardian as well.

You know, it makes it quite unpleasant and sometimes just very difficult and maybe a bit embarrassing. If you have to drag your dog across the threshold into the vet or if your cat is cowering in the carrier and hissing at everybody, for example, that can be quite difficult.

And that’s where the cat carrier training really comes in, because it does make a big, big difference to being able to get your cat at the vet. But some of it also, it’s just, I mean, vet care is expensive.

Everybody needs to think about how they’re going to manage to cover those costs, especially as their pet gets older. But we know from the research that cats just don’t go as often as dogs.

And I think that means they’re missing out on some things that would help them to be healthier for longer.

K: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. And it, it is true, I think, that dogs are just sort of seen more readily as like a car buddy, you know, they, they often get taken places and it’s just not something that cats experience nearly as much.

So, yeah. And I think it, I know we’ve talked about this before, in particular when we’re talking about dogs and husbandry training, but I think it, it’s a good instinct to not want to upset your animal, you know, like, it’s a good instinct, it’s a good, caring instinct to be like, my animal finds this really terrible. I don’t want to through that. 

But the answer isn’t to say we’re not going to the vet. The answer is to I’m going to train my animal to be comfortable going into this environment.

Z: And this is actually where the husbandry project from the Academy for Dog Trainers is really useful because it’s a full set of fully tested plans that anyone can download for free from the Academy website.

And I’ll put a link in the show notes for that too. And it’s designed for dogs. But I will say, you know, cats can be trained too, as we said earlier in the show.

So if you wanted to do some of this with your cat, like teaching your cat to be handled in particular ways, you could probably, I think, follow some of those plans with your cat as well. And you just might need to go a bit more slowly because your cat won’t be so used to it.

But your cat needs to know how to be handled at the vet, too. That’s very helpful. So it’s just an amazing resource that people can use to train their dog to accept different husbandry behaviors and to cooperate and feel a lot more comfortable at the vet.

K: Yeah. Yeah.

I think, think the idea that animals in our care should just automatically accept, you know, husbandry and veterinary care is a fallacy that kind of needs to die. You know, I like. Apricat has started to not really take care of his own nails as much as he ages.

And so we’ve had to do nail care training for him, which is normally something that you’d expect to be doing a lot with a dog. You know, dogs, their nails just never stop growing. Oh, my God.

But yeah, so having to train and luckily he was way easier than any dog I’ve ever experienced. Except.

Z: That’s good.

K: Yeah, he was, he was fine with that. And we got good treats. We got. He like, he, you know, he’s. He’s relatively easy because he likes his churro and, and stuff.

But, yeah, definitely having to do a reasonable job at training him, though, it was. Was definitely the case.

Z: Yeah. So, I mean, I think there are quite a few differences between dogs and cats. And at the same time, there’s a lot that’s the same in terms of needing exercise and enrichment, needing us to know what, what, what’s good for their species, and recognizing what the individual pet that we’ve got wants, you know, so looking after them if they’re stressed and things like that.

So there is a lot there that’s kind of the same. And obviously our approach is the same in terms of positive reinforcement training, and I would really encourage people to do. Try, at least try a little bit of training with your cat. 

K: I meant to say this earlier, but recent, not recently, when, when Apricat was quite a bit younger, there was like an online challenge to training your cat to hop through your arms. Like, you put your arms into a hoop and you train your cat to hop through your arms.

And it was so fast and easy, and he did so well. And I remember just being like, I’m this. I. I found it so satisfying that they do an easy trick like that.

You’ll be surprised at how much confidence it gives you to. To keep training your cat. And it’s great. It’s enrichment for them. Your friends will be shocked and amazed.

This transcript has been lightly edited for content and style.

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