Owning a pet allows them to bring a large amount of happiness and companionship into your life; however, by understanding your pet’s behaviour and why they feel a certain way, you can help them when this becomes hard. Whether you own a dog who loves to bark or a cat who scratches your furniture, by understanding their acts of communication and behaviours, you can create a bigger bond to ensure they are feeling happy and living a healthy life.
Throughout this guide, you can explore the importance of understanding your pet’s behaviour and ways of communication with tips on how you can provide and respond to their needs.
Why Understanding Pet Behaviour Matters
Understanding your pet’s behaviour is an important factor that allows you to communicate effectively with your pet regarding both physical and emotional needs. Below are some factors as to why this is important.
- Better Communication: The importance of your pet’s behaviour from learning their signals allows you to respond to them correctly.
- Preventing Problems: Not understanding your pet’s behaviours and leaving them to not be resolved can result in your pet feeling different emotions and starting to become aggressive or even anxious when around your home.
- Improving Well-being: improving the environment in which you live allows your pet’s needs to be met along with their health, resulting in them becoming less stressed in their home environment.
- Deepening the Bond: Understanding how your pet feels ensures they are understood and supported, and wanting them to be around you in your home creates a trusting, loyal and loving relationship for your pets.
By developing an understanding of your pet’s behaviour, you can make their life better and enjoy a more friendly and rewarding relationship while creating a more comfortable and fulfilling environment for them.
Common Pet Behaviours and What They Mean
Every pet has its ways in which it expresses emotions and needs; by understanding your pet’s behaviours, you can provide it with the right amount of care when responding to their actions.
Dogs
- Barking
Every dog barks; however, understanding the different potential meanings is just as important when understanding how they communicate. For example, a pitch bark shows excitement, while a low and repetitive bark can mean a sensed threat nearby. - Tail wagging
Another example of how your dog can express their emotions and communicate is through tail wagging. A high raised tail allows them to express being alert or even aggressive towards their surroundings. Having a relaxed tail means they feel content and happy.
Cats
- Purring
When you can hear your cat purring, this is most commonly associated with them feeling content; however, in some cases, this can happen when self-soothing when they are in pain or feeling stressed. - Scratching
Seeing your pet scratch its claws more often helps maintain its claws and marks its territory, whether on the side of the sofa or the back of a chair. - Hiding
When you find your cat hiding around your home or even when they are outside, this is often a reaction to them feeling stressed, fearful or wanting to be in a quiet environment to calm themselves down.
Smaller Pets
- Thumping
Smaller pets, such as rabbits, start to thumb against surfaces, which they do to show a warning of dangerous or frustrating surroundings. - Bar chewing
Understanding your hamster’s behaviour allows you to understand that this is done through different factors such as boredom, stress or mental stimulation.
Understanding Triggers/How to Respond to and Manage Behaviours
When it comes to understanding your pet’s behaviour, there are many factors which are known to be classed as common triggers, such as:
- Environmental changes: When deciding to be home, meet new people you are not familiar with, or even hear environmental noises that create a feeling of anxiety.
- Lack of exercise and stimulation: Your pets may act differently when they become no longer physically or mentally engaged. This can be caused by a lack of exercise and enough movement.
- Health concerns: When your loved animal has suddenly begun to experience unusual behaviours, this can sometimes indicate underlying medical issues.
However, when it comes to responding to these factors and understanding your pet’s behaviour, there are different ways of responding, from positive reinforcement to rewarding them for their good behaviour, such as treats, new toys and affection, building the relationship of trust between you both.
Another example can be through the amount of consistency. This allows your pets to do well with a routine, whether this is from eating routines to walks. Sticking to a consistent amount of clear rules is able to reduce the amount of confusion.
Building a Stronger Connection Through Understanding
Understanding your pet’s behaviours is important if you are trying to maintain a strong bond with them, whether you own a cat, dog or smaller home pet such as a hamster or rabbit. This helps you gain a better relationship and connect with them more deeply.
Below are different examples of creating a stronger relationship with your pet.
Spending Quality Time
When spending quality time and engaging with your pet, ensuring you include interactive activities with your pet, such as going for walks, playing games, chilling on the sofa, and having some relaxed time, allows them to build a loyal bond with you.
Practice Patience
Recognising and changing behavioural changes in your pet does not happen randomly; it doesn’t happen overnight, so remaining patient and continuously being consistent will allow these behaviours to improve
Celebrating Small Wins
Understanding your pet’s behaviours isn’t just acknowledging the improvements, but it is also celebrating small wins, whether this is from a small reward of a new toy, cuddles or giving them a treat to show you are aware of improvements that have been made from consistently working on they will feel appreciated and determined to keep going.
Understanding your pet’s behaviours is an important factor in building trust, improving communication, and ensuring you and your pet are happy by you learning how to interpret their actions, what triggers them and how you can respond to them while creating a safe environment where they can continue to be happy environment. Small steps in understanding lead to a stronger bond and a more rewarding relationship with your furry friend.
