Cats may make wonderful companions, but they can also develop habits that drive you crazy...like leaving wet spots on the carpet. A cat's natural instinct leads her to choose specific areas to use for "bathroom" purposes and to use only those areas. Normally, that area is the litter box. A number of issues can get in the way of a cat's usual habit, though, and cause her to start wetting in other places.

No matter how well mannered your cat's been in the past, something may cause him to start avoiding the litter box or start using the the carpet or bed as an alternative. And if you've adopted a cat from an abusive situation, a cat with health problems, or a former outdoor cat, you may be in for a challenge. The good news is that no matter why your cat's urinating in the house, there's always a solution that doesn't involve covering everything in the house with plastic.

Making Sense of Cat Behavior
A cat doesn't wake up one morning and decide it'd be nice to pee on the sofa instead of in the litter box for a change. There is always a reason a cat "goes" outside the box. A health problem is to blame, especially if your cat's never had litter box problems before. This could be something as serious as a blocked urethra, an emergency requiring immediate medical treatment, to a food allergy, which won't kill the cat, but still requires proper management.  

A more likely cause, though, is something going on around the cat. Stress is a fairly common reason for a cat to start urinating in the house. Cats can become stressed due to new people, animals or even new furniture in the house, increased activity like spring cleaning, and boredom from lack of attention and play time. Using the wrong training methods on a cat can also confuse and stress her.

If it's not practical to get rid of the source of stress, try creating a little hideaway for kitty with food, water and bedding where she can escape when she's stressed. Feline pheromone products may also help your cat calm down and adjust. So can providing kitty with her own little private den in an always-open closet or on top of a cupboard where she can hide out and relax.

Multiple-Cat Households and Other Problems
Problems can arise in multiple-cat households when one cat bullies another and doesn't let her use the litter box. The bullied cat ends up going elsewhere. Other cats dislike sharing a litter box, either for cleanliness or other reasons, so they establish their own "private litter box" in the corner of the living room or somewhere. In these cases, you'll probably need one litter box for each cat.

Just keep in mind that there's always a reason a cat urinates in the house, which means there's always a solution to the problem. The first thing a cat who's suddenly started peeing in the house needs is a vet check up. If kitty checks out healthy, a comprehensive list of causes and solutions for litter box problems can help you pinpoint the problem and correct it.

Attracting Your Cat to the Litter Box
Whatever the reason your cat's started avoiding the litter box or showing preference for other locations, making the litter box as attractive as you can helps get kitty back into the habit of using only the box. Most cats prefer a large-size, uncovered litter box filled with fine-grained, gravel-type litter. Cats' preferences vary, though, so you'll need to know the potential problems with litter boxes and how to correct them.

Put the litter box in a quiet, fairly secluded location (away from foot traffic and noisy appliances), but one that easily accessible (not down in the basement). Cats, unlike dogs, won't let you know when they need to go out for a bathroom break. Even if your cat goes out periodically, she still needs an indoor litter box if she spends time indoors.

Older and disabled cats may not be able to get into a standard litter box or be able to hold it long enough to reach the box. For these kitties, solutions include leaving a small amount of litter on a flat tray or place puppy training pads on plastic in places your cat's been wetting. Of course, this requires frequent clean-up, but that's all part of having a special needs cat.

Get That Smell Out
Cats decide which locations are bathroom areas based on the smell of cat urine. A perfectly healthy, totally unstressed cat will still piddle wherever she smells that scent. That means if you don't remove all the traces of odor where your cats have wet, they'll continue to go there. Some pet urine odor removal products work well enough to remove odors humans can smell, but still leave a trace the cat can smell. To get all the urine odor out, you'll need to know which enzyme or bacteria-based cleaners or homemade cleaning solutions really work.

You can solve your cat's inappropriate urination problems and get your home completely free of cat urine odors, but the solutions may not always be obvious. Learn more about how to stop your cat's inappropriate urination habits and eliminate cat urine smell from the author of CatUrineProblemsEliminated.com
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Are you training your cat and do not seem to be able to get too far with him. This is the time to look at the constructive training for training your cat or animal.

First things first, NEVER USE PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT on your cat or any animal. This it appalling behavior on your part and can be punishable by law. This type of punishment will not have good affects on the cat. You will harm the cat or animal with them fearing you, you will cause pain, usually ends up with biting and violent behavior. This is why sometimes when children play with the pet, if there is no supervision; a child will act out towards the most the time in hitting. This will in turn case the cat to respond that way towards the children because the cat believes this is how they play or because they hurt them and the fear or hostility towards that person is real. Supervise the children with the pet and teach the children how to respond towards the subdued behavior.

Do you use words that would mental harm a friend, your cat really does not know what all this means, cats and animals that are close to you, in time will have the same feelings are you do. If you are upset when you are punishing your cat, can become stressed and will feel this type of behavior. Your cat is your friend and we should not treat our friends this way.

Constructive support will help you and your cat with training that both of you will share. Correct timing is needed when using constructive support. Reward the cat with a treat when there is the training and good behavior.

Behaviors that are not constructive use a constructive word towards your cat. A very stern no followed by the cat's name, with the behavior, is the great way. Cats are like children you can only tell them simple things until they learn. Example; no fluffy, you cannot chew on that cord, or no Toby, you are not allowed on the counters. With saying the word no stern and continue in positive tone, your cat will stop at the word no. Use this for attracting their attention on the bad behavior.

Some times cat will use bad behaviors for attention. Sure enough, it did get your attention. You will need to find out why your cat is using the bad behavior for your attention. This is the time to reinforce the constructive support training for your

Treat rewards are constructive support with training your cat. As you start to train a cat, having treats are good for training. Treats should be small cat food items that your cat has not had before. Make sure, when you look for a treat that it is a healthy treat, small, and tasting to your cat, liver treats are the best for a cat, unless you know your cat is not a liver lover.

Treating a cat when you are training him will not make him fat as long as exercise is included daily. Once the training is over you will want to decrease the treats for the good behavior until they only need one for a reminder in case they have a bad thought.

Do not use the cat food for training the food that they would eat for a normal meal. This will confuse your cat, in the training, and will eat all the time. This is not healthy for a cat. Over eating with a cat will cause serious illnesses that will lead to high cost in vet bills. A cat can become a lazy cat due to the fact there is to much weight on them. A cat will then just lie around and not want to participate in any activities.

Training will take time, patience, understanding and sometimes for us to train a cat or research on how to train and the steps to take. Some behaviors will take time to train where other can take no time at all.

Training for your cat or animal will help both you and your cat to healthy relationships.

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They are one of the greatest bloodsucking parasites which can cause lot of damage. These different types of fleas live by sucking blood from mammals and birds. Some of the very common fleas are the cat flea, dog flea, human flea, northern rat flea and oriental rat flea. You may suffer from an allergic reaction and may also get transmitted with severe diseases due to these fleas. Because of the warm, humid and readily available environment in your home, these fleas easily survive without much hindrance.

They procreate in huge numbers which makes them next to - indestructible. Many a times these fleas just become a nuisance other than anything else. Their small fish like structure goes unnoticed which makes it difficult to detect. Presence of pets in your house is another reason for fleas to attack humans. Having a spick and span environment keeps them off from your mattresses. The growth rate is so high that it becomes next to impossible to end the reign of terror. Some of the common affects fleabites have on us is loss of hair, severe allergic reaction - rashes, itchy skin and severe diseases.

Home Remedies for Fleas

Keep your house clean by regular vacuuming as well as cleaning and bathing your pets to avoid any circulation of these parasites.

One of the most natural repellents which we have come across to fight fleas is the eucalyptus leaves. Somehow the smell is a major turn off for them.

You can use borax, which works great against the fleas. Spread it across your house; let it sit for some days and later vacuum your house to remove those fleas.

Spreading cedar chips along your fence line or in your room can keep the fleas at bay. You can also have a tansy plant outside your dogs' pen to keep the fleas away.

Make garlic an important part of pets

If you are an asthma sufferer and particularly if you are diagnosed with allergic asthma, it can seem at times that even the treatment or treatments you are receiving through conventional sources can sometimes seem somewhat experimental. You try one medicine and see how it works. Then you talk to your doctor about your malady and he might give you something els to elevate some other aspect of your symptoms, until you find what works and what doesn't and in what combination they should be used and at what dosage.

Then there is the tests and diagnosis you go through to determine what you are actually allergic to and how it can be controlled or eliminated. It is important to understand that a doctor is trained in the medical process of elimination and fully understands the effects and side effects of the drugs he is screening you for during this process. So when the treatment that works best for you is finally determined and your schedule treatment is having positive effects, one might be led to belive that further trials might bring even more relief.

So you might start thinking about the natural or alternative medicines you might have heard about. What can be the problem? They are only herbs and natural herbs at that. You use herbs in cooking every day and you are just fine. Before you grab a handful of any medicine,herbal, or conventional, you should think twice before brewing it up in a cup of tea. herbal medicines can be very powerful and some can have toxic side effects. Some may have a negative reaction to the medicines you are taking now.

Opium is an herbal derivitive and a spoon full of it can kill you. I make this point only to point up the potential for strength and potency in herbal medicines. Never ever discontinue your prescribed medicines you doctor has given you without having a serious talk with your doctor. There are herbal remedies for bad breath that can be purchased at your drug store and might actually work but not as good as a tooth brush and dental floss. No one has ever died as a result of bad breath though. No matter what you hear about any herbal treatments always consult your doctor and let him or her explain what exactly it is in the medicine you are thinking of consuming.

There are other complimentary or alternative medicine therapies that are out there. As long as you consult your doctor some are no risk at all. Acupuncture is one. The only risk here is having to walk around with sore spots on your body, as long as you continue your prescribed medicine. If you are going to experiment with food avoidance it is also important to let your doctor know what you are doing so if you begin to suffer from malnutrition he knows what the cause is. If you suffer from food allergies it is wise to have a medical professional supervise and document your food elimination program.

If you are a severe asthma patient you can at times feel desperate and might be willing to try anything at times. It can leave you alone and isolated and unable to do the things you like to do. Many asthma patients have found relief from group therapy. Being able to talk with others who have the same problems is always a help and has no risk of side effects other than possibly making some new friends. So never underestimate the power of positive thinking as a part of your treatment and before you ever consume any type of herbal concoction, talk to your doctor first.

If you have a cat and a dog or are planing to have both, you need to know how to make them coexist. The phrase "fighting like cats and dogs" didn't come up as someone's idea of a joke just for cartoons (Tom and Jerry comes into mind). Dogs are often territorial and will fight not just new cats but other new dogs as well. They tend to mark their territory and will fight anyone who invades their space. Cats have the same tendencies and even if they are smaller than to dogs, they will scratch and fight for their territory.

Most pet lovers who have both a cat and dog have a hard time making their pets coexist with each other. The usual response to this is separating the two pets and making sure they won't meet. This is not really a practical solution to this problem as both pets tend to wander around the house and there will come a time when they will meet. This will also cause a lot of wasted time if you have to allot twice the time for playing with your pets. Another response would be to cage both pets but this method is frowned upon by most pet lovers. The best thing to do is to train both cat and dog to coexist peacefully. In this article is a series of steps to finding harmony between cats and dogs.

Perhaps the hardest thing for pet lovers to do is the introduction. Introducing a new pet requires both time and patience as both cats and dogs requires time to adjust to something new. Both cats and dogs take up to 30 days to adjust. It is even longer if you have older pet, but with proper retraining you can teach your old dogs and cat's new tricks.

The first step is obedience. This is necessary especially for the dog which is usually the aggressor in this kind of situation. You have to train your dog to obey when you say "no". This can be done by showing him some treat and every time he looks at it you say "no" you stop him from eating it. Do this every day and reward him every time he obeys.

While doing this with your dog, make sure the cat and dog are isolated from each other, allowing your cat to wander around the house. Cats love to roam and this will make her scent scattered in your home. After doing this, lock your cat in one room and let your dog wander around the house sniffing for the cat's scent. This will make your dog acquainted to your cats smell and train the dog that the cat is part of the household.

Once you've done this for about a week, it's time for them to see each other physically. This part requires that you have someone to help you. Have someone who can hold your cat safely and that knows how to react quickly and get your cat to safety if the dog is showing aggressiveness. Your part is to be able to restrain your dog and making sure that if he starts lunging for your cat, you'll be there to stop him.

Dogs usually start barking whenever they see some other animals in their territory, hoping to scare them away. They won't really lunge at something immediately. Once he starts barking, this is where the obedience part starts to come in. Say "no" and make him realize that the cat is also a pet.

If your dog starts to calm down when in the presence of the cat, then it's the time to let him sniff the cat. Once your dog starts to decide not to bark at your cat you know that you've done the introduction part successfully.

The final step is making sure that both pets have the time to coexist. This part is usually the cat's fault. Cats have the tendency to be aloof and stay away from the dog and other people. It's not because they are afraid of the dog but more because it's their nature to be alone. Be sure that your dog sees your cat as often as possible. You can allot some time nightly where you can do some activities with both your cat and dog.

This will allow them to play with each other and you'll have the confidence that they won't start fighting when they're unsupervised. As they say, knowledge equals power, so continue to read information on this topic until you feel you are adequately educated on the subject.