120. Pet Anxiety Awareness Month: Understanding Fear, Stress & Anxiety in Pets

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Pets Ad Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products and the joy of the Human Animal Bond with Kristen Levine and me. Chris Bonafide, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog tv. Let's get started. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to a very special live edition of The Pets a Life podcast. I am one of your hosts, Chris Boning. Joining me as always is Tony Award winner Kristen Levine. What

Speaker 2 (00:33):
I was wondering, what you were going to come up with for my intro today?

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Had to be a big

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Award winner,

Speaker 1 (00:37):
Had to be a very big live for a very big show. We are celebrating a very special month. So Kristen, why don't you explain to everybody why we're going live today?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, sure. We're going live because it's finally June, and June is Pet Anxiety Awareness Month, and it's an extra big deal this year because it's our 10th annual. So it's a really big milestone. And so the Pit Style Life Podcast offered to do our show live today so that we can talk all things pet anxiety. Just a little bit of that background. I've told this story before, but for those of you who have heard it, I used to have a dog named Buck. He was my heart dog, and he struggled so badly with separation anxiety and noise phobia. And unfortunately at the time I didn't take him to the vet right away. I waited a couple of years until his symptoms were so severe that I had to get to the vet and I met an amazing board certified veterinary behaviors, Dr. Lisa Adaa, who helped me to understand what was going on with Buck and helped me understand that it was treatable.

(01:42):
Long story short, after a couple months of working with Buck and modifying our routine and some behavior modification and some medication, buck lived his last year's really comfortably. So I thought if I didn't notice that I work in the pet industry that I, but a lot of pet parents don't know how important it is to watch for those signs and recognize those signs early. So I started this awareness initiative 10 years ago just to help raise awareness about the condition and how common it is and how there is lots of hope and lots of help out there for us.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Yeah, it's one of those things that we are really just starting to discover now as an industry, like this whole concept of anxious bets and I think especially coming out of the pandemic where all of us were home all the time with our pets and that changed and now things are very different. So Kristen does some amazing work behind the scenes and year round to help keep people on top of these kinds of things, and especially for new pet owners or maybe pet owners who've had animals for a long time and they've just recently found themselves with a new pet who's experiencing some of these symptoms. We're hoping that today's episode will give you some important and solid information on how to proceed and be an excellent dog or cat or small animal owner. So

Speaker 2 (03:11):
That's right.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
Without further ado, let's go ahead and jump into story time. Kristen and Chris, present story time.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
I love those sound effects. Hear

Speaker 1 (03:24):
A lot of fun to lot to experience that

Speaker 2 (03:26):
When we do a live show, it's a different experience for us.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Normally we don't hear that jingle, we just have to sort of go right into it unprompted. Kristen, you want me want to kick it off?

Speaker 2 (03:36):
Yeah, kick it off Chris.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Alright, so I've got a little story here, and this is a little anecdotal story that I found on people.com, people magazine. We all know the people that I guess found, it's just such a relatable story about a woman who adopted a pet to help with her mental health. And I'll read the headline as is Woman adopts Pet to help with mental health. Turns out the cat has more anxiety than she does, and this is just such a wholesome article because to spoil the end, they do end up helping each other. In fact, this woman wound up getting a second cat, which is sometimes a good strategy when your cat's experiencing anxiety as they are pack animals, they're social animals and bonded pears usually have a better time, especially for indoor only cats. This is somebody from New York City, so the cat was an indoors cat helps a lot and I guess thought it was such an awesome story.

(04:34):
This person talks about how she was struggling with her mental health, decided that she wanted to have a pet for more companionship and roles, wound up being sort of reversed back and forth with them taking care of each other and going through this journey of self-discovery and introspection together. I think it's just a really great example of how animals can help us learn more about ourselves and that through taking care of them. Sometimes we learn to take care of ourselves as well. So while I am not a doctor and I try not to give people advice, if you are experiencing anxiety or some other type of mental health issue, I'll say consider a pet. It's not always the right solution, but consider it. Talk to your mental health professional. Talk to your doctors, talk to the people at the adoption agency about what might be best for you. You could be missing out on potentially a life-changing experience.

Speaker 2 (05:37):
So true. And I think that's probably where the term, who rescued who came from, right?

Speaker 1 (05:44):
Yep. Just a great little example of it.

Speaker 2 (05:47):
It is, it is. So for my story, actually, I just shared my story about Buck and how he inspired this whole movement, but I thought I wanted to tell you that what we've done with Dog TV this year is we've launched a 48 minute special called Understanding Pet Anxiety, and it's got about five different chapters or segments that hit on some really important topics. And in between those topics, we also share real pet parent stories, which I think is first of all, it's the first time we've done that in the 10 years. And I think it's really impactful because when you hear a story that you can relate directly to, I think you're just more engaged in that educational content. So I'm really excited about that.

(06:32):
The other thing I just wanted to share a few more points about fear, stress, and anxiety. This is something that millions of dogs and cats experience, obviously some fear and anxiety is totally normal. That's how we kind of protect ourselves. But if it's impacting your dog's quality of life, and certainly if it's affecting your quality of life, it's definitely time to talk to a veterinarian. It's also important to remember it's not bad behavior. Like in my dog's case buck, he was very destructive when we would leave. And it's important to understand it's not bad behavior, it's a medical condition. And what happens when a dog is triggered by this particular fear, whether it's noise or you leaving the home, or I dunno, going to a dog park, if a dog is afraid of that, their heart rate increases, their cortisol spikes, and they're really experiencing genuine panic. So that's why it's so important to understand that these signs, they often just look like behavior problems. It's important to understand that there's a lot more going on inside your pet. So we got some amazing guests today. We're going to jump to them soon, but I just wanted to let you know that early recognition is critical in getting your pet help. And even if your pet's handy signs for a while, it's never too late to talk to your vet to get some help.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
And if you are out there watching this on any of the live platforms and have a question about your pet that may be anxiety related, feel free to leave a comment. Our wonderful staff is moderating all of the platforms, so feel free to leave that question in any of the comment sections. And we may get to your question at the end of the show because we always do two questions from our lovely audience at the end of the show. But speaking which question,

Speaker 2 (08:21):
We don't always have a staff monitoring. I mean, this is I

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Incredible thing. Usually we just have a Ron and apparently that's not enough beyond the leash, exploring the untold stories of pet passion and professionalism.

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Okay, so I believe that was the open for our guests. Is that right Chris?

Speaker 1 (08:39):
That is the jingle for our guest. I will go ahead and read a short introduction here as we bring our guest into the studio. We are going to be speaking with Debbie Martin, a licensed veterinary technician, veterinary technician, specialist in behavior, and a Karen Pryor Academy certified training partner. Wow. She's an elite, Fear-Free certified professional, a member of the Clicker Expo faculty and a recognized leader in the fields of animal behavior training and welfare. She has many, many more epitaphs, but we'd be here forever if I had to read all of them. Debbie has worked as a veterinary technician since 1996 and spent 19 years as an animal behavior technician for the Veterinary Behavior Consultations. She's a board member of the Academy of Veterinary Behavior Technicians, a subject matter expert for Fear Free and a frequent lecturer at veterinary and animal behavior conferences around the world. She's also the co-author of Puppy Start Wright Foundation training for the companion dog and co-editor of Canine and Feline Behavior for veterinary technicians and nurses, helping educate both pet owners and professionals on science-based humane approaches to animal behavior and training. And I can finally take a breath. Debbie, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for hopping on live.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Oh, thank you, Chris. I love your enthusiasm. I think it's just if you've been in the field long enough, you start to be able to add things up. It's been 30 years since I've been in the veterinary field, actually a little bit more. That's when I graduated from tech school. But certainly you start doing things and the list gets a little bit longer, especially when you want to continue to learn and advance your skills throughout your career.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Absolutely. And so 30 years is quite a career, but what drew you to this field at first and what continues to inspire you to stay in the field and continue to work at it?

Speaker 3 (10:35):
I actually was a preschool teacher before I went back to school to become a veterinary technician. And very quickly I started thinking about the fact that we can have an impact on how children develop depending on genetics and their learning experiences. Trauma obviously can cause problems as well, and I thought, I wonder if it's the same with dogs and cats and lo and behold it is, and they just have a smaller window of opportunity for that socialization period compared to humans, but long lasting memories, something that happens in dogs and cats as well as people. So that's where I started to get into can you prevent behavior issues and then when you can't, what are the interventions that we need to do?

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Right. Yeah. And along those lines, Debbie, what are some of the earliest signs that a dog or a cat might be struggling emotionally or behaviorally?

Speaker 3 (11:37):
Well, anytime you have a change in behavior, anything that's abnormal for that pet, their activity level is much higher or much lower. Certainly we think medical conditions, and that's always the first rollout when you see behavioral changes is you want to make sure there's not a new or exacerbation of a condition that they already have. So behavioral changes can be medically related, want to make sure we get them to the veterinarian and rule those things out. And then a change in their routine if they like doing things, but now they're showing avoidance. I'll give examples that will probably hit home right now, at least in North America, is that we've got thunderstorms that are pretty rampant in a lot of states this time of year in the summer we also have fireworks getting ready to start. And so noise sensitivities tend to be one of those behaviors that can really affect the animal, not just when the noise event's happening, but also outside of that, the dog who doesn't want to go outside anymore because it's cloudy and so now they're having accidents in the house. So the change in behavior, a house trained dog is now having accidents, but if we delve deeper first we want to make sure it's not a medical condition that certainly will cause that as well. And then we also want to see is there some kind of a link? Are they showing hesitancy to go outside because they're afraid of hearing sounds out there?

Speaker 1 (13:07):
And you brought up that word afraid. So I've wanted to ask this question to an expert for a while about the difference between fear and anxiety in the pets because all animals are going to have a healthy dose of fear. It's what keeps all of us alive. It's our survival instincts. What's the difference between fear and anxiety and how does that look different in our pets?

Speaker 3 (13:26):
Yeah, actually it often looks very much the same. It's just more contextual. So example, a fear is there's an actual event happening, there's a thunderstorm going on, you can see that they hear a clap of thunder and that makes them tremble. So we have this actual event that we can also perceive and the animal is perceiving. So we usually label that fear, the dog or the cat who's afraid to go to the veterinary hospital, you'll pull in the parking lot and they recognize where they are and they start to show these signs of fear, which can be the ears going back, tail down, refusing treats, vocalizations, all kinds of different behaviors. Each individual displays different behaviors associated with that. The difference with anxiety is it's the anticipation of something undesirable happening, so it may not actually be happening. So when we talk about separation anxiety, your dog buck, Kristen that had separation anxiety and was treated for it, they start to get anxious before you leave the home.

(14:28):
They see your routine and some of that anxiety, there is probably some kind of stimulus for them. They've paired things together, they recognize when you put on certain clothes or the alarm clock goes off, it means you're going to be leaving the house or you're getting your things together. That could be the trigger. A dog that's afraid of storms, it gets windy outside, it gets cloudy, those can become triggers even though the storm's not there. So you start to see these fear response or anxious pacing behavior maybe before it's actually happening. In fact, I know some dogs are better meteorologists than my weather apps on my phone or the weathermen because they know way before when the storms several counties away.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Sure. Yeah. Well, so I think we can certainly understand what those signs look like, especially if they're happening with our own pet. So the panting, the pacing that maybe they're being clingy before you leave the house, but what is actually happening physiologically inside that we don't see?

Speaker 3 (15:34):
Right Kristen? So we have observable behaviors, the things that we can see, we can identify, they're panting, they're pacing, they're refusing treats. These are very observable, but internally there's a lot of physiological changes happening simultaneously. So what happens is the sympathetic nervous system is activated within the body and that releases adrenaline or epinephrine into the body to prepare the animal for fight or flight. It is a neurochemistry response to keep them safe. Lots of things happen when the blood system is innovated with adrenaline, where we're going to see things like their cognitive ability is going to decrease that well-trained dog that was snappy with responding to cues. Can't respond to even a simple cue like a sip. The blood is being shunted to the muscle so they get energy and they might show pacing or panting behavior. So observable behaviors, heart rate's going to increase, respiratory rate's going to increase.

(16:41):
Cortisol is released into the system, and cortisol and adrenaline aren't bad things when it's an adaptive response to an acute stressor, but when it becomes chronic and their recovery period is really long, I personally had a dog who had sound sensitivities and after a thunderstorm, she would still be in the bathroom hiding behind the toilet for a couple hours and that's just not healthy. And is that prolonged recovery, the chronic nature of it, if it happens once a year, probably not as chronic, but if it's happening daily or weekly, which many dogs and cats are feeling distress on a chronic level and it affects their immune system, it can affect GI issues in the animal. It can cause dermatological conditions, so skin conditions as well, because when there's chronic stress, it opens up the permeability of the skin to allow allergens to actually be more infiltrated and cause allergic reaction.

Speaker 1 (17:51):
Yeah, that's some incredible insight into some of the physical aspects of anxiety. I know cortisol is a heck of a thing. I got a lot of that in me and let me tell you, it's not good for my wellbeing. And I want to pivot a little bit and talk about a thing that most, and I'll say most to all pet parents do, that can be an incredibly stressful thing for a dog, a cat, and that's vet visits tends to be a stressful and anxious time for your animals. So what are some simple things that families can do at home to help their pets feel more comfortable when doing this very important errand?

Speaker 3 (18:33):
Yeah. Well, first of all, I have been very involved with Fear Free, so I can talk to you for hours about this, but we have minutes narrow it down to just a couple of things. One is be your pet's advocate. Seek out hospitals that are looking for after not just the physical wellbeing of your pet, but also the emotional wellbeing because they go hand in hand. If they're physically not well emotionally, they're not going to be as well, and if they're emotionally not feeling safe, they're going to suffer physiologically as we just discussed. So care should be protective. Don't be afraid to consider supplements or even medical interventions to help prevent these negative experiences. Traumatic fearful experiences, especially if the pet is ill or not feeling well, will have a long lasting effect. They are stored in the memory bank and pulled up every time something similar like that happens. So that's why dogs will start to learn when you turn left instead of right, it means we're going to the vet hospital instead of to the dog park, and they start to not like the car ride after that. Change in direction, be their advocate. Don't be afraid to ask for or use medical interventions and then also go do some fun visits.

Speaker 2 (20:01):
Yeah. Debbie, you've such a wealth of knowledge on this topic, but we are coming up on time, so to move things along, I wanted to have you tell us where we can find more of your work. How can we follow you? And then we'll jump on the,

Speaker 3 (20:17):
I've got a website, it's called team animal behavior.com, and you can go there to, there's some free webinars on there that are prerecorded obviously from webinars over the years that I've given on a variety of behavior topics. So just information there, you can reach out to me on that platform as well.

Speaker 2 (20:35):
Fantastic. And Debbie, you've kindly offered to stick around and answer one of our questions from a viewer or a listener later, so we appreciate that.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
Okay. So we are going to let you go with Debbie, and then we're going to bring in our next guest, Dr. Keona Williams.

Speaker 4 (20:55):
Hey. Hey

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Doc. Thank you so much for waiting in the back, the virtual green room. Let me do a quick introduction for you. Dr. Keona Williams is a veterinarian with Chewy Med Care who is passionate about helping pet parents better understand their pet's physical and emotional wellbeing. Also, she's a fear-free certified professional and graduate of Auburn University's College of Veterinary Medicine. Dr. Williams focuses on reducing fear, stress, and anxiety and pets while helping families build healthier and more positive relationships with their pets. And through her work, she advocates for proactive care, early intervention, and practical strategies to help pets feel safe, comfortable, and confident throughout their lives, which makes you a perfect guest for today. Thanks, Dr. Williams.

Speaker 4 (21:41):
Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Of course, of course. I'll just kick it off with this question. Pet anxiety seems to be one of the most common concerns among pet owners today. We know it affects at least half of our pets. Why are we seeing so many dogs struggle with your stress and anxiety today versus maybe five, 10 years ago?

Speaker 4 (22:04):
I think it has a lot to do with how just the pet industry has shifted. I think we have a lot more pets that we consider are fur babies. They live in our homes and I think we're just more in tune with these changes, whereas previously, I think a lot of dogs were maybe outdoor dogs, maybe more so work, animals on farms, things like that. And I think that now that we are spending a lot more one-on-one time with our pets, that we are more in tune with the changes and the nuances that are happening.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
I would completely agree with that. We are paying so much more attention to our pets now, and speaking of paying attention, we're live here on June 4th, one month away from the most stressful day of the year for pets. So we got the 4th of July coming down the pipeline and it's America's 250th, so I doubt the fireworks are going to be limited to July 4th. Why do fireworks affect so many dogs and what can we do as pet parents, especially with this one coming up where we could expect more like a week rather than a day of stressful activity for our dogs and cats?

Speaker 4 (23:14):
So noise aversion is definitely one of the big things that we see can be triggering for pets. It's among one of the triggers, right? It's not the only thing, and it's very personalized for each pet, but noise can definitely be a big one. As Debbie had mentioned earlier, with thunderstorms, those kinds of things, an abrupt loud noise or prolonged as we were probably going to see can definitely be pretty fear inducing for a lot of animals. And with anxiety in general is important to be proactive like you miss it, what can we do to avoid it being something that is going to be impactful for their day-to-day life? And what I would personally suggest is definitely have them be seen by their veterinarian so that we can plan ahead because we know that those fireworks typical really don't start just the evening of. We want to be able to plan ahead and have maybe some supplements or medications already at hand at home that we can preemptively get a few days ahead to plan and make sure that everything's nice and calm at home.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
Yeah, that's great advice. And you're with Chew Yvette Care, is that correct?

Speaker 4 (24:24):
Correct,

Speaker 2 (24:25):
Yes. So when do you typically see people bringing their dogs in about noise phobia? Is there a seasonality to it? I mean, you would assume there's a seasonality to it, but do people wait too late to bring their dogs in or I guess talk to us about when you should bring them in?

Speaker 4 (24:44):
Yeah, so there's definitely some seasonality to it. While we see anxiety year round, I would say around the holidays, like 4th of July and New Year's is probably the heavier seasons, and I often do find that, especially for new pet parents, that they wait too long, which is why I often have those conversations as it kind of leads up to the holidays. If they come in for vaccines or things like that, we already touch on those points to prime the idea. If you do start noticing sometimes let's get ahead of it because once that anxiety really starts building up, it's really tough for those medications or even the behavior modifying plans to really be effective. We have to get in and really calm everything down before that trigger happens so that we can mitigate those situations beforehand. If the thunderstorm is already there and they're already cowering in the corner, or as Debbie said behind the door, a lot of times we're not going to be as effective with our intervention.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, sometimes it's a little too late to provide real help. Besides noise, which we've covered vastly in this interview, what are some other triggers that you see in dogs and cats that can cause a similar reaction? I think everybody has grown to appreciate that fireworks are a big no-no for their animals, but are there other common practices or things that happen in our everyday life that can trigger those types of reactions in our pets?

Speaker 4 (26:20):
Absolutely. I think because we oftentimes, especially for adopted animals, don't necessarily know their full history, sometimes it's really tough for us to immediately understand what those triggers could be, right? I've seen some patients that don't respond as well to one versus the other gender if they've had some abuse in their past. There's also, of course, separation anxiety if they're really attached to one person, even if they're not home alone necessarily. If that one person is gone that they're attached to, they're more triggered by noise and other events. Then definitely as Debbie had already mentioned, car rides or even just traveling, moving, those things can definitely oftentimes be fear inducing just because the change in environment, the change in pace can sometimes be triggering. So those are things that we often see.

Speaker 2 (27:09):
Can you talk to Dr. Williams about, we talk a lot about dogs, but with cats specifically, what are some of the signs that a cat may be distressed emotionally?

Speaker 4 (27:20):
Emotionally? Yeah. Cats are incredibly sensitive actually, and they're very observant and triggered, I want to say by changes in their environment. And that can be as simple as a routine change within the home. But I've also seen cats that start having anxiety signs because there's a construction across the street or there's a new neighbor or a new neighborhood cat that kind of entices them through the window and seems a bit of a challenge. Cats are often a little bit more difficult to assess because they tend to hide more when they're feeling unwell. So sometimes it be hard to tell, but oftentimes things like overgrowing, inappropriate urination are really big signs where owners do start noticing they're losing hair, they're peeing outside of the litter box, they're hiding, not coming for their food, they're changing behavior with their housemates, litter mates, or even with their humans are often big signs that cat is not feeling great.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
I want to pivot a little bit and talk a little about Chewy Vet Care. I think a lot of people know about Chewy and they know that Chewy will send you to the dog food and the cat litter and that kind of stuff, and Chewy is well known for their service and the relationships that they build with their customers. So tell me a little bit about Chewy Health and these Chewy telehealth and some of the offerings for the pet parents out there who may not be aware that something like this even exists and it is available for them.

Speaker 4 (28:53):
So Chewy is absolutely, like you said, known for our online platform on online stores, but we do have in-person hospitals now, and we're national, so we're kind of throughout the us, but we're not in every state just yet. And that's where the online platform really comes in because you can still get a lot of access online with our Connect with the Vet, where you can have a virtual consult with a veterinarian, kind of a triage basis to kind of just voice your concerns and get some feedback on next steps and best practices. But also our Pet MD website is a wealth of knowledge for any kind of concerns that you may have. If you want to just get an overview and deep dive into some topics that allows us to really kind of see from a pet parent's perspective, what are all the things that are a possibility here in one, give you some peace of mind, but also give you a directional where that next appointment could go.

Speaker 1 (29:46):
And as a human with anxiety, that peace of mind. Woo, it's great.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
Dr. Williams, we are coming up on time. We want to thank you so much for joining us for this pet Anxiety Awareness is special, and I'm glad that we talked a little bit about Cats in the Vet because I want to remind our viewers and listeners to be sure to watch Understanding Pet Anxiety, which is the show that we produce with Dog TV for this special month, five different chapters, and one of them is specifically about cats and travel and veterinary visit anxiety. So that's a great one to watch if you are a cat parent that has trouble getting your cat in the carrier to get in the car to go to the vet. But yeah, and you've also agreed to stick around to answer one of our viewer questions later. So we'll say goodbye for a few minutes and we'll bring you back when it's time for the questions. Okay, sounds good. And where can we find more information about Chewy Vet Care?

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Oh, absolutely. So if you go to the Chewy website, you'll find a lot of information just about all of our platforms that is Chewy Vet care about, connect with the Vet Pet md. We'll be all there online, but if there's any issues, usually a quick search within the website will get you in the right direction. Awesome. Alright.

Speaker 2 (31:01):
Thank you Dr. Williams. We'll see you in a few.

Speaker 4 (31:03):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
Alright, those are our guests and I want to remind all of our viewers, if you have a question about your dog or cats anxiety, feel free to put them on any of the platform's chats. And I think we have a little clip from the show that Kristen just made that was cinematic. I feel like it needed the movie voice guy like the, in a World, in a world where pets are more anxious than ever, it's

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Like, and that's looks special. It's so cool, and you can watch it on any of dog TV's platforms, their app, their fast channels, their YouTube channel, and then I'll be releasing the different segments each week on the Pet Living YouTube channel. So there's no excuse to miss it. You can find it in many, many places. And so next up, we have a very special edition of the, do you want to say it Chris?

Speaker 1 (32:14):
Let's get the jingle going first.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
The product of The Weak Product of the Weak,

Speaker 2 (32:24):
I like that. Start Strong and in stop

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Like a

Speaker 2 (32:28):
Little innuendo for our friends that are regular listeners and watchers on the Pet Side podcast that we do two products of the week, but this, since we're doing a special today, we thought we would include all of the pet products that are participating in the Pet Anxiety Awareness Month program because without them, we could not have produced all this incredible content and brought all these incredible experts together to do so. So Chris, I'm going to, oh, let me tell you about a giveaway first. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Tell 'em about the giveaway. Give them the good stuff,

Speaker 2 (32:59):
They'll get the good stuff. Okay. We are doing a giveaway, not just a giveaway, but we're going to draw a winner every single week in the month of June leading up to July 3rd, I think July 3rd is the last day you can enter and we're giving away a prize package of all the products that we're about to tell you about. So every week you have a chance to win that prize package. We are also giving away four different prizes, a free 30 minute consultation with Ease Pet Bet, which is an online platform that connects you and your vet with either a board certified veterinary behaviorist or a behavior specialist. I think Debbie Martin might work with them. I need to confirm that with her when we bring it

Speaker 1 (33:44):
Back. She was wearing the logo.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Oh, okay. Perfect. Glad you saw that I

Speaker 1 (33:47):
The logo.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
So

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Either she's a fan or she is works with them

Speaker 2 (33:53):
Either

Speaker 1 (33:53):
Way, either way. You divorce either

Speaker 2 (33:55):
Way. But to enter the giveaway, go to pet anxiety awareness.com. There's a little link to it at the top or you can just scroll down and find it there. You've got eight chances to win. So this is June flu that this show is being actually that we're live during this show. So you have several weeks and if you're listening to the show after the 4th of July holiday, we're still going to have resources for you to gather there. So, alright, Chris, I'm going to let you take the first three I think products

Speaker 1 (34:22):
That are

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Included in our giveaway.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
I'm going to be talking real fast. Normally I only have to do one product in my allotted time, but I want to do a good job for all three of these incredible supporters of Pet Anxiety Awareness Month. So the first product I want to talk about is the Calmer Canine. It uses T-P-E-M-F technology. If you have to ask what it is, it means you can't afford it, but it's basically electromagnetic frequency technology to directly influence the amygdala, the part of the brain responsible for processing emotions. So it is essentially this harness with a literal halo that sort of sits on top of your dog's head. And this thing has been clinically studied and show that two thirds of dogs achieved a 100% improvement after four weeks. That study was done back in 2021, so they've been around for a bit. It is, think of it as like an advanced thunder shirt, right? You could wrap your dog up in it. It has this little halo that does its sciency magic on your dog and helps them calm down. Thank you Calmer Canine for supporting Pet Anxiety Awareness Week. My next one, I'm flowing through a million tabs here is Chuck It. We all know it, we all love it. It's the chuck it.

(35:48):
We've seen 'em before. It's those sticks with the tennis balls and you can launch it so you don't have to touch those slobbery tennis balls. Outdoor time, who would've thunk? Outdoor time is great for your dog's mental and physical health. So this is a great toy to help your dog exercise. They have a bunch of new launchers including a double ball launcher. They have a giant tennis ball that your dogs could play with. Now they even have, and I saw this at Global Pet Expo and I'm so sad I didn't get to try it. It's like a Nerf gun tennis ball launcher. Yeah, I saw

Speaker 2 (36:23):
That.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
Think t-shirt cannon type stuff. Super cool. Great. If you have a nice large backyard or a dog park to go to and enjoy that with your dogs. Thank you Chuck it for sponsoring Pet Anxiety Awareness Month and finally Dog tv. If you don't know about it yet, how you're probably watching us on it, but Dog TV is your television station streaming service for your dog. A lot of research by Ron Producer Ron, who would've thunk Ron had a good idea. Once went into designing the programming for your dogs to help them stay focused and calm. The color is shifted to be better for their eyes. It's the proper amount of stimulation and the finds that the things that they find stimulating. There is even a free version of Dog TV where you could access pause and relax. There it is. No credit card required. I actually turned it on the other night because I wanted to see if my face was on there. Not quite, not as much exposure as I would expect, but hey, it could be worse. Everybody else gets a spotlight. Chris gets his thumbnails is graphic design and that's fine. Thank you dog TV for letting me scream into a microphone for 120 episodes and of course for allowing us to do this type of content to support Pet Anxiety Awareness Month. And those are my three products of the week. Kristen, what do you got for us?

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I got a few more to add to it. Keep in mind you can win all of these products.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
All this stuff is going to be in the package. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
The next one is called, well, the company's called Signs Labs, but the product is called Secure Dog and Secure Cat. These are pheromone products based on maternal appeasing pheromones. We've talked a lot about pheromones on the show. These are the natural calming signals that puppies and kittens receive from their mothers. And here's what's really cool about this particular brand. It was founded in 2018 by Dr. Patrick Peja. He's a renowned French veterinarian and expert in animal. I hope I get this right. Ethology and Chemical Communication. And it was his research many, many years ago that led to the development of some of the most widely recognized Falon brands Today. What I like about Secure Dog and Secure Cat is they have a patented diffuser so you don't have to plug it into the wall. It's like in one of those pretty little glass bottles with the reeves that stick out of it.

(38:55):
It's really cool. And then they also have a spray for travel or you can spray your pet betting, that sort of thing, drug-free, scientifically validated. Next up, we have a company called Fresh Patch. These guys were featured on Sharp Tank. I'm pretty sure this is real hydroponically grown Natural Grass. It's delivered straight to your door and this has a lot of use cases, but the ones that are relevant to the show today is they're great for anxious dogs who won't leave the house during storms or fireworks to go potty. It's also great for high rise pets that maybe you can't get them down for a walk because of the weather. And obviously also great if you're working long hours and your pet struggles with potty predictability. So thank you so much to Fresh Patch. They're part of our prize pack and I think this is the last two are Ease Pet vet.

(39:46):
We just talked about them briefly. This is a telehealth behavior consultation with certified experts that work with your vet. You can win a free 30 minute consultation through our giveaway. Here's the catch though, in order to win the free consultation, you have to share your story about your dog or your cat's anxiety condition. We want to make sure we understand what the problem is, and then we're going to put all those stories in a whatever Tumblr and choose randomly for winners. And then lastly, ENC this in a show that you're going to hear in the future Atomic bubbles. These are actual bubbles for dogs and cats. The cat one has, what did I say last catnip? I think it was catnip

Speaker 1 (40:27):
In

Speaker 2 (40:27):
The bubbles. And then the dog version has lavender. It's a great enrichment toy for you and your dog to play with, and that also has those calming effects. Okay. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (40:40):
It's a lot harder to do four or five of these than just one.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
Oh my gosh, way harder.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
All

Speaker 2 (40:45):
But just as a reminder, enter the win at pet anxiety awareness com and you can enter anytime between now and July 3rd.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Excellent, excellent, excellent. We got to move on. We're going over time and we are going to move on to our favorite part of the show. That's right. Questions q and as we have been scouring our socials and acquiring questions from our lovely audience, and I'm not going to do my usual spiel because we're running behind on time. So we're just going to go ahead and jump into some of the questions that we received from viewers. And I believe we are going to start with on my little spreadsheet here, Kristen, we're going to start with number one and bring in Debbie. Yeah,

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Let's do it.

Speaker 1 (41:33):
Alright. So we're calling in a pink hitter here.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
We're phoning

Speaker 1 (41:39):
A

Speaker 2 (41:39):
Friend,

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Phoning a friend for a very special live episode. So thanks again for hopping back in. Debbie, your expertise is appreciated because nobody wants to hear me answer these questions. So our question comes from Jessica in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Jessica asks, my dog seems perfectly happy when we're together, but the moment I leave the house, he starts barking, whining, and sometimes he even destroys things. How can I tell if this is true separation anxiety, and what are the best steps to help him feel more comfortable being alone?

Speaker 3 (42:15):
Hey Jessica, great question. And you're not alone. First of all, lots of dogs struggle with being left home alone. It does sound like with the barking and whining and some destructive behavior, one thing I would really suggest is getting some video of the behavior and determining how long it lasts. Sometimes if we're not watching for it, it could be they bark a couple of times, then they lay down, but then there's something else that triggers them to get upset. Again, someone's knocking on the door and then they start to scratch at the door, the windows and they do destructive behavior. And it wasn't really associated with you being gone. Needless to say that something else we would want to address because it is problematic, the destructive behavior. And then quantifying how long the barking, the whining, maybe the restlessness is happening would be really important for a diagnosis.

(43:11):
Simple things that you can do are the pheromones that they were just talking about. Calming pheromones in the environment can be helpful. Also, dog TV or other calming music. So having some background noise to help soothe your pet, something familiar for them to have in the area that maybe smells like you. So it could, as long as they're not chewers, going to chew up some of your stuff, you could leave something that smells like you in their bedding area or the area that they frequent during the day and having a very set routine with them. Dogs really thrive on routine and knowing when they're going to have social interactions with their people. So having a set routine of meeting your dog's needs through some short walks and routine meal times and short little training sessions, I usually do those all around the same time every day so that the dog knows I'm going to have my person time. And then I may have some alone time too as well. If those quick tips aren't helping, really senior veterinarian, getting a referral if needed for further assistance would be something I would recommend. It's hard to comfort them when you're not there. And what we have found in studies is that if there is some kind of panic behavior that using medication along with behavioral medication to help get them learning to be comfortable alone and then possibly weaning that medication over time.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
That is a great answer, Debbie. Much better than I could have done.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
Okay, so we're getting a message from the producer to keep things moving, running over time. Thank you, Debbie. We're going to bring in Dr. Williams now for our next question, and this one comes in from one of our YouTube viewers. We'll wait for Dr. Williams to get here. There she is. Hi. Thanks for coming back.

Speaker 1 (45:06):
Welcome back.

Speaker 2 (45:07):
Yeah. All right, so we have a question from YouTube viewer. Her name is Lizzie B on YouTube. She says, my cat has been licking himself so much that he's starting to lose his hair. We've ruled out a skin condition and fleas. Could this be anxiety? And if so, what can I do?

Speaker 4 (45:27):
Absolutely. So it's a really good question. I think it's something that a lot of cat owners are experiencing over grooming or fur mowing is sometimes also called. It's definitely a sign of anxiety. I love that she already got her kitty checked out, so great job there because we'd always want to make sure we rule out other underlying conditions because skin allergies, skin infections, fleas, all those things can sometimes also lead to over grooming and behavior is oftentimes what we call a diagnosis of exclusion, meaning we make sure that there's no underlying physical ailments that could be contributed to that behavior. And once that is completely ruled out, then we want to focus on how do we adjust our behavior? And for kitties, that oftentimes means maybe a little bit of environmental adjustments, right? Environmental enrichment, something that is calming like the Fair Mills that were already mentioned are oftentimes really helpful. But in some cases, we also have to go to medical management. And as Debbie mentioned earlier, really the only way we see success with that is a combination of behavior modifying strategies and the alongside with some medication that help us to calm and maybe lower that anxiety threshold.

Speaker 1 (46:42):
Absolutely. Incredibly succinct and direct answer from Dr. Williams. Thank you so much for coming back and answering that question from our viewer. Again, way better put than I would've ever been able to say. I would've said, yeah, probably. Definitely. Maybe. Of course.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
Thanks so much, Dr. Williams. We appreciate you.

Speaker 4 (47:01):
Thank you. Wow.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
All right. That's the end of our show. I think that's a

Speaker 2 (47:05):
Wrap.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
Yes. Thank you to our two wonderful guests. Thank you to all of the wonderful sponsors providing that amazing giveaway. Don't forget to check it out. Kristen, what's that website? One more time where people could find the giveaway,

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Pet anxiety awareness.com. And I want to send a big thank you to Dog TV for partnering with me on this initiative this year, on this milestone 10th anniversary. We've got some incredible context, some incredible board certified bet behaviorists, so don't miss it. And I'm sure in the show notes, we'll put the links for you. Again,

Speaker 1 (47:34):
We're running clips over here. We're running clips of some of the amazing content that's going to be on dog tv. Thank you so much for joining us, all of the lovely fans out there, hopping on this live. And we'll be back on Tuesday with another episode of Pets Ad Life, pets Ad Life, your guide to the latest in Pet Trends products, and the joy of the Human Animal Bond with Kristen Levine and me, Chris Bon, powered by the American Pet Products Association and Dog.