Flea Season is Upon Us.

Flea season is upon us. What to do? Start with preventive measures. Keep the bugs out and the infestation can be managed. Once you have fleas, however, other actions must be taken. We need to treat our pets. We need to treat our homes. We need to treat our yards.

To prevent fleas, we use barrier treatments outdoors that are impervious to weather or will work even when wet. Often, the outdoor methods we use will need to be refreshed regularly, but by using them and refreshing them, the fleas have less of a chance to come into our homes. If we notice fleas outdoors, we can fog or spray for immediate eradication.

By treating our pets with drops, collars, sprays, wipes, powders or baths, we remove a major foodsource for the fleas. They won't be able to reproduce and our homes should be flea-free. We need to keep the animals free of fleas. At the first indication of scratching or biting, treat the animal.

Our homes require sprays and barrier treatments on a regular basis. Any fleas that get inside need to be eradicated immediately. Even with the barrier treatments and keeping our pets flea-free, the fleas can hop on our clothes as we walk through an infested area and get a free ride inside.

Keep your home flea-free this year and enjoy your pets.

Train You Cat to Do a Trick!

Clicker Training is a way to train your cat. You need to get a clicker at the petstore or from the links in the website to get started. You also need treats to reward the successful behavior.

Catch your cat doing something good that is part of what you want your cat to do. Use the clicker to mark the behavior, say a word to define the behavior, and give a treat to your cat. Your cat may do the same or related things to figure out how it got the treat. When the behavior repeats, click to mark it, use the word and give a treat. This will continue for a few times.

Once your cat will do the behavior using the word first, add the next step onto the behavior you want it to do and use the clicker again with a new word to define the two behaviors together, and then give a treat. Do not give a treat for only the first behavior when training into this new word. Your cat will figure it out and eventually do the behavior when you say the word expecting a treat.

Keep the training sessions short, about 15 minutes or less. You can reinforce the lessons throughout the day with two or three attempts, but then stop.

As you continue, when you get to the full behavior, (jump here, come, shake hands, roll over or whatever you are training) treat your cat only on completion of the behavior, or the full part of the behavior you are working on, and never just the components. Your cat will figure out what to do to get the treat, and that all parts need to be included.

For more information, see Phoebus shaking hands. As you get your cat trained in more complex tasks, you might want to enroll in the International Cat Agility Tournaments. What a way to bond with your cat!

Clicker training uses Operant Conditioning and positive reinforcement. There is no punishment involved, which makes this a wonderful experience with your cat. So often, trainers concentrate on stopping bad behaviors, and there is punishment involved. With Clicker Training, the emphasis is on the positive.

Folks, I want to answer your questions in this Newsletter! Please write with your questions or suggestions for topics.

Be sure to check the page telling you about my flea control regimen. I hope it helps to eradicate the fleas in your world.

For other flea control solutions, you can view the full offering of flea control preparations on this page.

There is a new page of behavior related advice.

New tips and training ideas are here.

There is a new area offering some specialty foods that are on the market. Most seem to tempt Beasley and Princess more than their regular fare. There are new treats from the same supplier that have an extreme tempting factor. Enjoy!

Seasonal savings and coupons are here, with this issue of the newsletter, just for subscribers.

Spread the word about For the Love of Cats dot com, forward this link to your friends.

Morgen

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