As Christmas looms and money is tight, just remember our pets really do not care about expensive toys or designer gear. Save your money and check the list below. Developed out of the Animal Welfare Act 2006, the 5 freedoms are the essential quality of life guide every pet owner should know and follow.
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst
2. Freedom from discomfort
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour
5. Freedom from fear and distress
At first glance the points may appear simple, even self-evident. However, freedom from hunger and thirst may not be the given it seems. Any animal given a plentiful but poor quality/unsuitable diet may still experience frustration and hunger. I have met pet owners who because they were vegetarian, insisted on feeding their cat a plant-based diet. Cats are obligate carnivores; they are designed to eat meat.
Think about the pet rodent or bird that lives with a cat or a dog, where it is eyeballed daily and hungrily by the other animal. The caged pet is probably safe, but because it cannot hide it does not feel safe. How free from discomfort or anxiety is the family dog that gets pulled around by the children it lives with?
Freedom from discomfort may be a simple matter of access to a safe, comfortable space, but to know what that really means you must be able to read subtle signs of discomfort in your pet and have an understanding of their idea of a safe space. Rabbits need the equivalent of a burrow, many dogs like a den, cats generally like high spaces. Too often, we humans miss ways in which a pet attempts to signal discomfort. How many of us chastise our dog for growling instead of trying to understand and remedy why the animal is upset?
Many animals are stoical in the face of pain, illness or injury. The instinct to survive prompts them to mask discomfort- the weak get killed and eaten, after all. Knowing and recognising subtle deviations from your pet’s normal behaviour, ensuring you can handle and inspect them for signs of illness or disease, is so important.
All pet owners should research and understand the species-specific needs of the animals they keep and respect that needs differ. For instance, it is not really fair to keep single rabbits- they always live in groups. It is hard to understand why someone might want to keep a type of dog developed over hundreds of years to guard, or to hunt and kill, in a city environment, and expect it to behave like the average dog in the park. Don’t buy an Akita and expect it to behave like a Golden Retriever.
We humans always like to frame pet behaviour in a way that works best for us. One regular assumption is that all cats can be left alone for days, so long as food is available. Not so. Some suffer terrible separation anxiety- they just don’t exhibit their distress in a way that is always easy to read. Many dogs are so sensitive to our every micro-expression that we easily forget how our moods, frustrations and routines impact on them, then wonder why they ‘misbehave’.
In a nutshell, you don’t need to spend lots of money on your pet this Christmas- just ensure you are meeting the 5 freedoms well and for your pet every day will feel like Christmas!
Leonie St Clair | www.londondogstraining.co.uk