The Furbabies Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

In this episode of the Pet Question of the Day, Stephanie discusses how to keep your pet safe in cold weather and shares top tips on how to do it!

Hi everyone!

My name is Stephanie Goodman and I am your host of the Furbabies Podcast and the upcoming Furbabies Summit. I’m here with the our Furbaby Question of the Day! How can I keep my furbabies safe during cold weather?

1.First and foremost: Keep your pets inside.

Cats and Dogs are just as susceptible to frostbite and hypothermia as people are. They may have fur but that doesn't preclude them from being affected by the cold and it can happen a lot faster than you think. Yes There are some breeds who are bred for colder climates and can handle cold weather better but they should still not be left outdoors in freezing and sub freezing temperatures. Smaller breeds and animals closer to the ground feel the effects of cold and snow much faster and need to be sheltered indoors. A good rule of thumb to remember is: If you're cold, They're cold. Bring them inside!

2. Keep them dry! If you are providing outdoor shelter for your furbabies here are a few tips. Make sure to pick a dry spot. For the ferals or neighborhood cats outside during the cold, we set up a storage tub with a hole cut into one side and insulate it with straw. I know it's tempting to use towels or blankets but they can get wet and actually cause the animal to freeze to death while sleeping. We definitely don't want that. If you use sweaters or coats on your furbabies make sure to take them off if they get wet. It's easy to get caught up and forget but a wet sweater can drop their temperature really quickly, especially if they have certain medical conditions. Other companies also make insulated houses you can set on your porch or patio for your dogs and cats, and there are even outdoor heat mats you can use. Sometimes a sock full of warmed up rice or a hot water bottle also does the trick. With any heat source make sure you have it on a low setting with something as a buffer so they don't accidentally burn their paws and keep an eye on it.

3. Speaking of paws, Take care of their paws! When you take your dogs outside check their paws when they come back in and wipe them down. Lots of things can hurt their paws in extremely cold weather. They can pick up chemicals like antifreeze or de-icers that are toxic when ingested. We look for pet safe products that aren't poisonous so if our furbabies lick it off while cleaning themselves they're okay. They can also injure their paws from the cold so check for cracked pads or any bleeding. Watch out for accumulation of ice between their paw pads as you're outside as well.

4.Check your cars! Animals will seek shelter in any area they can find to stay warm and dry. Often a cat or kitten will crawl under the hood to get warmth. The problem is when you crank the engine they can be seriously hurt or killed by belts and other moving parts. We make sure to go out and check before starting the engine. How? We bang on the hood, we honk the horn a few times, we even raise the hood to double check if we know there are critters out there at night. These things can alert them and get them to jump on out.

5. Make sure to set out food and water and keep an eye on it so that it doesn't freeze. Your furbabies may need extra food during extreme cold too, as their little bodies burn more calories trying to stay warm. It all depends on their size and weight, but an extra can of food is always a welcome blessing.

These are our favorite tips for weathering the cold with your furbabies.

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show?

Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

Rarely do animal lovers adopt a pet with the thought that they will one day have to rehome their loved one. And there is often a stigma of failure or backlash that comes when an emergency or an unknown situation arises that causes us to have to look to rehome our furbaby. Stephanie Goodman discusses this stigma that plagues animal lovers who have had to find a new family for their four-legged children and how to overcome this loss and feeling of guilt that can plague us.

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

On this episode of the Pet Question of the Day, Stephanie shares the signs you may see if your cat is anxious or stressed out and what you can do to help.

How do I know if my Cat is Anxious? There are definite signs your cat will give you that shows they are feeling stressed out or anxious in their environment at home. Some of the top ones involve issues like peeing outside their litter box, or hiding from you, responding aggressively to you, scratching things they shouldn’t or normally wouldn’t, or fighting with other members of the household. There are many reasons why your cat may be suddenly acting out of turn but one thing we do know is that it is rarely, if ever out of spite. When a pet owner thinks their cat has responded out of spite or to be ugly, this is a form of anthropomorphism where we apply human characteristics to an animal. We do it to objects all the time, but we shouldn’t to our furbabies when something is going wrong.

Usually when a cat is displaying the kinds of behavior above the best thing to do is assess the environment and get them checked out by their veterinarian. Think about any changes you might have had in your home recently? Have you moved, or has someone moved in or out? Have you added new furniture or taken a piece out? Have you changed foods on your kitty? Do you have a different type of litter or a whole new litter box? Do you notice if your cat is also acting differently like they just don’t feel good? Signs of that include lethargy, vomiting, hair pulling, over grooming, hiding or fighting just to name a few. Or they are fearful of something. Perhaps there was an emotional trauma you are unaware of or it takes time to figure out.

The key is knowing that your cat is trying to TELL You something, to communicate to you that something is different, or something is wrong. They live their lives in our homes 24/7/365 so they KNOW when something has changed. Getting a health check up is key just so you can safely rule out any illness or health issues. These can range from a urinary tract infection or a problem with a tooth! There are a lot of logical reasons why your cat may be suddenly acting stressed or fearful or anxious. We recommend taking a notepad and jotting down anything you might think that is different in the prior month and also as you change things.

If your cat is fully healthy, it may be behavioral, and those issues are solvable. Sometimes we figure it out by trial of elimination. The notes help as they establish a baseline for what we know was pleasant versus the issues at hand. Give them more love, try some calming diffusers like the feliways, see if that helps to reduce the stress level. Try calming music for them or more play to work out excess energy. Definitely get them checked out. It may just save their life because you were able to get in front of an illness before it became life-threatening.

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

Have you ever wondered why your dog gives you the head tilt? You know what we mean right? You’ll say something to your dog and suddenly your dog will tilt their head to one side. You’re dying to know what they’re thinking right? Well, we’ve wondered too!

So we set off to find an answer to this lifelong question in the series of “Why does my dog do that?”, and we found some really interesting information!

Now, we KNOW our dogs are smart, and we know that some are smarter than others. What we learned from a study performed last year was that as dogs began to learn a new word for their toys or an object, they would tilt their heads either to the left or to the right while listening! The study data suggested that dogs who were able to learn words faster tilted their heads more often. They call these dogs Gifted Word Learners, or, GWLs. The dogs that didn’t learn as quickly and who didn’t learn above chance levels were classified as Typical dogs based on their learning ability.

The study was comprised of 3 experiments during a 3-month duration with testing intervals at each month. As the dogs learned the names of the toys, they would be tested each month with the goal of retrieving the right toy from another room by a verbal command from their owner. The toy request was random and at testing points the dogs would be choosing between 2 and 13 different toys. Their owners would sit before them and verbally request the toy, and the dog would head off to the other room to bring it back. The study showed that the GWL dogs consistently gave their owners a head tilt when their owners were speaking in front of them. The typical dogs did not. So, they think it could also be a sign of increased attention from their dog because they are hearing something meaningful. The researchers wondered if the head tilts might also be related to the dog making a memory match from the visual to the spoken word of the object. They call that a cross-modal match. All of the dogs were exposed to the same toys and the spoken object names so they were equally familiar with them, so this went above chance learning. Now, while the dogs in this study were all border collies, the researchers stated that it’s too soon to say that border collies as a breed are more inclined to be GWLs and do the head tilt with that.

The researchers were intrigued by their findings and data, and now want to do more studies on this to see how different breeds learn and perform! I We do too! But I think we can take away from this story that the head-tilt does have solid implications that your dog is a smart cookie and is actually listening to you!

How many of you out there have dogs who give you the lauded head tilt and what have they learned? Feel free to share in the comments! We love hearing about our dogs!

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

In this episode of the Pet Question of the Day, Stephanie discusses the reasons why your dog might be eating grass and what to do!

Have you ever wondered why your dog eats grass? We have too and we’ve certainly witnessed it ourselves! So we went looking for some answers to this. Vets say that there are several reasons why a dog might be eating grass. One, they may just like it! Some dogs have been noted to even prefer grass at different times of the year than others, like spring. Vets say that dogs may also be looking to fill a gap in their diet. Their ancestors hunted but they also ate grass and scavenged to fill their diet as needed. Dogs are somewhere in between carnivores and omnivores, meaning they eat both meat and plants. In the wild they would get everything they needed from their prey, such as meat, bones, organs and whatever was in the stomach which usually included a mixture of plants or grass. In the commercial era they may need more fiber or roughage and seek out grass as their wild ancestors did. Vets said that dogs do still like to scavenge, and eating grass may satisfy that craving for them.

Now, most of the time your dog will be fine if they eat grass. We do have to watch out for pesticides and herbicides that might be sprayed in the area and also watch out for parasites. When dogs pull up grass they can also pick up worms like roundworms or hookworms left behind from fecal matter. We definitely don’t want that so make sure to be up to date on parasite prevention for your dog.

Vets say that grazing may also stem from boredom, anxiety or a craving for more attention from their owner. If that’s the case, it’s usually remedied by spending more quality time with your furbaby. You can gift them a new toy or a piece of clothing that smells like you for comfort. You can take them out for more walks or physical activity. You can also take the time to train them from doing this, in a positive way. More time with your best friend is a win win across the board and they will appreciate the time together just as we do.

Has your dog ever been a voracious grass eater? What happened? Feel free to share in the comments! We love hearing about our furbabies!

So that's our question of the day. If its been of value, these kinds of questions and more are some of the topics we will be covering in the upcoming furbabies summit so, you can go to furbabiessummit.com to get signed up! We thank you for listening and for being the amazing furbaby parent you are! Sending purrs, wags, joy and love to all of you! Have a great rest of your day!

Watch the original video HERE!

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

Why does my dog scoot their butt on my floor? Have you ever wondered why? So have we!

Hi everyone! My name is Stephanie Goodman, and I am your host of the Furbabies Podcast and the upcoming Furbabies Summit. I am here with our Furbaby Question of the Day!

Do you have a scooter? No, I do not mean the fun little mode of city transportation. I mean our dogs! Little scooters! This is where you are going on about your day, when suddenly your adorable dog drops his or her butt to the floor and starts scooting across it? Yeah, THAT Scooter. If you have you know it can sometimes be messy, and it is often stinky! But why do they do it? We have wondered that too! So, we set off to find an answer to this question in the series of “Why does my dog do that?” and we found some interesting information!

If your dog is suddenly scooting across the floor, it is usually indicative that he or she is having a problem with anal glands. What? They have anal glands. Yes. 😊 If you have not heard of these before, they are two little pouches of tissue that are right under the skin. There is a little sac on each side of your dog’s anus. Why do they have these? Well, these glands make the scents that dogs use to mark their territory and identify each other! When it is outside, no problem. Indoors? On your floor? It can be smelly. Usually, dogs can empty them when they poop, as the internal pressures pushes out the secretions. Or they can be emptied by an external pressure, like scooting across a firm surface. OR, and this is the yucky one, they can be emptied spontaneously and unexpectedly! This can happen if your dog is afraid or is in some sort of distress. Hopefully it is not on YOU but do not despair, it has happened to a lot of us too! Yes, the smell will come out. 😉

Now normally these glands can be as small as a pea or the size of a grape depending on the size of your dog and how full they are. If they are ever unable to empty these glands, they can become impacted, and it can be painful for your poor dog! You may see signs like scooting or chewing their bum area as they are trying to empty them on their own. You may see redness or even pus around their anus. A smaller possibility but one we all worry about is the presence of a tumor. Of course, it can be benign, but we don’t know until it’s checked out. So, in these cases it is best to call your veterinarian so they can determine why the glands are impacted, or if there is even an abscess there, treat it and help your dog prevent that from happening again. This is one of those cases where you really want your vet or a vet tech to show you how to do this before trying on your own, as it can be unpleasant for your dog. Vets and techs can relieve the pressure externally or internally, via a cloth or a gloved finger that can gently squeeze the gland and push out the fluid. It is the massage you never imagined you would see yourself doing, but we love our dogs, anal glands are normal, and here we are. 😉

Your vet can help determine the cause of the impaction and work to create a solution for your dog. It may be due to a food allergy that is causing your dog’s stool to be less than firm, so your vet may advise to change their diet to rule out probable causes. Bear in mind it may be something that needs to be checked periodically or even routinely given your dog and your vet can educate you on that. We love our dogs so much and once they are feeling better the scooting should stop.

Watch the original video HERE!

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

In this episode of the Pet Question of the Day, Stephanie discusses the reasons why you would want to get your cat and dog microchipped! If you're looking for a Microchip company we recommend the following:

HomeAgain: https://www.homeagain.com/

Avid: https://www.avidid.com/

Here with our Furbaby Question of the Day! Should I microchip my pet? What IS microchipping exactly? So the resounding answer to this question is YES, if you can, you should absolutely get your pet microchipped. A microchip is the size of a grain of rice that your veterinarian will implant between your pet’s shoulder blades. Each chip carries a unique identification number that can be “read” by a special scanner, and that number is what directs your pet back to you. How do they find you? Well, it’s kind of like a serial number or a vin number but it is registered under a holding company that has your personal information on file. This includes things like your name, phone number, email, address, an emergency contact and – many of them have a spot where you can upload your pet’s health information and a photo! It’s safe to do and your pet may actually be awake when they do it. Sometimes the sight of the needle might be a little frightening but that’s in line with most pets so your vet will work to make that part of a distraction so your pet isn’t focused on it. The goal is to make it as easy on your pet as possible. And it works. If you’ve ever given fluids to a cat before, we generally use a needle that is an 18 gauge up to a 22 gauge. They’re pretty darn small. The needle for a microchip is usually a 12 gauge needle, and the chip can pass right through it. An 18 gauge is tiny, like a sewing needle, and the chip needles aren’t big enough to be worried about really. Often times the chips are implanted during your furbaby’s spay or neuter surgery so it’s under anesthesia and doesn’t bother them at all. Now I do believe in watching the side effects, so, very rarely, you might find that the chip migrates from that neck scruff area to another spot, or you might see some swelling afterwards, or a mild infection or some hair loss. I’ve not seen that but ask your veterinarian if you think your pet might have any reason to have an adverse reaction, and that’s a good thing to do with any procedure. But why should you microchip your pet? Let me give you a few examples:

#1. If your pet accidentally gets out of the house, or the yard, or the apartment a number of things can happen. They can be lost. They can be STOLEN.

#2. Another reason to microchip your furbaby: If something happens to you!!

#3. Something happens while you are traveling with your furbaby!

#4. You experience a natural disaster and your furbaby is lost!

Watch the original video HERE!

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

Stephanie Goodman talks with Joanne Silverman from FetchACure.org which is a 501 ©(3) non-profit organization focused on improving the quality of life for our pets. Their vision is simple: A common. Helping People. Helping Pets.

Watch the original video HERE!

In July 2006, Hannah Holland was diagnosed with nasal osteosarcoma of the skull. Little information about her condition was available, and what information her parent, Mike Holland, could find was hard to understand. So, Mike teamed up with Ryan Traylor and Tonie Stevens to create FETCH, a non-profit designed to raise awareness, to educate, and provide pet owners greater access to information about pet cancer, senior care, and treatment options. With Hannah’s prognosis of only two months left, Mike set out to do as much as he could to help Hannah fight this disease through various treatment measures. Hannah fought against the odds and lost her battle two years later. Her spirit lives on in the mission of FETCH.

Through community outreach by way of events, campaigns and fundraisers, FETCH a Cure is working to promote the need to help pets live long, healthy lives. FETCH continually works to raise awareness and further education about pet cancer, detection and treatment and senior care and aging issues.

We provide financial aid to families unable to bear the cost of the life-saving treatments for their pets that have been diagnosed with cancer through the Companions in Crisis program. FETCH continues to work towards providing more accessible treatment options for all within our community.

Through the Pixie’s Pen Pals program, FETCH is helping rescue dogs and inmates in Virginia correctional centers earn a second chance. By working cooperatively and bonding with the animals, the inmates learn responsibility, patience, tolerance and life-long skills, while the trained dogs find life-long homes.

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

In this episode of the Furbabies Podcast, Stephanie Goodman interviews the founder of Tanks Inc Cat Rescue, Cindy McCullough, about how Tanks was started and what goes into running a successful cat rescue and sanctuary. Cindy shares some of her needs and how she and her staff work with other rescue organizations to help them all succeed.

For more info on Tanks click HERE!

Watch the original video HERE!

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com

In this episode of the Furbabies Podcast, Stephanie Goodman shares her best strategies for preparing your pets and animals for emergencies.

Watch the original video HERE!

Tune into the Furbabies Podcast YouTube Channel at http://FurbabiesPodcast.tv.

Got a question or suggestion for Stephanie and the show? Book a call with Steph at TalkWithStephanieGoodman.com