Jill Bowen

Jill Bowen has practiced veterinary medicine in England and Texas and has taught at Texas A&M. She lives with her veterinarian husband and two cats in Blacksburg. If you have a question, please write to her in care of The Roanoke Times, P.O. Box 540, Christiansburg, VA 24068, or send an e-mail to mjbowen@radford.edu

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• Invisible fences aren’t best option for every dog
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• Column archive

My Lab steals towels from the bathroom. Whenever we come home, she rushes to the bathroom and fetches a towel and shows it to us wagging her whole body in excitement. Failing towels, she steals clothes from the dirty clothes basket and offers them to us and guests. How do we stop this embarrassing trick?

Apart from the obvious solution of keeping the doors to the bathrooms and bedrooms closed, make sure she has toys of her own to fetch. Labrador retrievers, as their name suggests, are bred to retrieve, and your Lab is only showing you how pleased she is that you have returned and even brought friends. Most Labs will select one toy as a favorite, so encourage her to find that one when you return by praising her whenever she appears with it. Do not chase her when she grabs a towel or an item of clothing, because she will then view it as a game instead of a misdemeanor. Instead say, “Go find your toy” and praise her lavishly when she selects the toy over other items.

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Our Pug sheds constantly, I thought being a short-haired dog this would not be a problem. Which grooming tool is best to use to get out the dead hair?

Owning a short-haired dog can be a mixed blessing. While these dogs do not need hair cuts, shedding can be a big problem. Pugs are notorious for being very heavy shedders and need to be groomed several times a week to keep the hair loss within bounds.

Rubber grooming tools hold on to the dead hair well and pull it out of the coat better than wire brushes. Gentle brushing against the hair grain will also help to loosen any dead hair.

Some breeds are renowned for being heavy shedders and will shed heavily twice a year as the seasons change. Breeders call this “blowing” their coats. Any breed with a big heavy undercoat will have a heavy shedding cycle. Shetland sheepdogs, German shepherds, malamutes, chows, huskies and collies blow their coats at least once a year. There are special grooming combs available that will strip out the dead undercoat, keeping mats from forming. This is important because mats can trap oil and moisture against the skin, leading to skin problems such as “hot spots.” If you need to cut out a mat with scissors, slide the teeth of the comb under the mat and cut over the top of the comb. This way there is no danger of cutting the skin.

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How can I tell if my cat is happy or upset? You once said that the ears would tell me. Please explain.

It is not just the position of the ears that will tell you what mood your cat is in. The overall demeanor plus the facial expression — a combination of the eyes, whiskers and ears — as well as the position of the tail are all important signs. When your cat is relaxed and happy, the ears are held in the normal position, and the whiskers stand straight out from the face. The tail is relaxed or standing out straight, and the fur is sleek.

When a cat is frightened, the ears are pulled back against the head, the eyes and the pupils are widely dilated, and the hair is all fluffed up over the body and tail. Annoyed cats have their whiskers very flat against their face, and their ears are flat against the head. The cat that is feeling aggressive will have narrowed pupils, ears flat and rotated backwards, tail bristling and wagging. Cats that are unwell will have the eyes half closed, the tail tucked between the legs, and the ears and whiskers will appear limp. Many cats purr not only when they are happy but also when they are frightened or sick, especially when stroked.