With our Cat Psychology Online Course, you’ll learn to understand cat psychology and apply that knowledge to manage and influence the behaviour of cats.

Learn to understand how cats think and the relevance of cat psychology to people. How cats communicate; and formulate an understanding of possible ways that a human may communicate with a cat. Understand behaviours that are natural, hence predictable in cats; and learn to read signals that cats give. How cats develop behavioural characteristics throughout the various stages of their life. Learn to read the commonly occurring behavioural problems in cats and the techniques for training cats with understanding the measures necessary to manage the behaviour of cats. This distance learning/ home study course provides the knowledge needed to run your own pet care business.

Lesson Structure:  Cat Psychology and Training BAG222

There are 8 lessons:

  1. Nature and Scope of Cat Psychology

• Introduction
• Terminology
• and more!

2.  Cat Senses and Communication

• Understanding Cat communications
• Sounds made by the Cat
• and more!

3. Understanding Natural Behaviour in Cats

• Aggression
• Scratch Fever
• and more!

4. Behavioural Disorders/Abnormalities

• Nature or Nurture
• Sensitive Periods
• and more!

  5. Basic Training

• Aggression
• Redirected Aggression
• and more!

6.  Obedience Training

• Forming Habits
• Train them Early
• and more!

 7. Cat Behaviour Management

• Cat Doors
• Microchipping and Registering
• and more!

 8. Operating a Cat Business

• PBL Project

To keep a cat in the pink of health, good knowledge about cat behaviour, food and general maintenance is essential. Cats are adorable and very affectionate, but they require a level of commitment and maintenance to keep them happy.

The first step is to consider whether you want a kitten or an adult.  Kittens have so much energy and are very active.  Fully grown cats are often more passive and calm than a kitten, however, they may have a disposition that is not appealing due to their earlier adult life.  They could also have physical conditions which might be ongoing and require the services of a vet, adding an additional expense to their maintenance costs.

Before taking delivery of your new cat, study its physical features first.  Look for physical conditions and enquire about their medical history.   Sometimes the breed of a cat has to be taken into consideration, as some breeds require more attention. Genetic medical problems are more prevalent in purebred cats as opposed to non-pedigree cats.

Cats are active pets and require companionship, attention and lots of play.  Cleaning up after a cat is also time-consuming. The cleaning of their eating bowl and litter box is ongoing.

Cats can be purchased from Pet shops, bought privately and from various shelters, such as the RSPCA, Tree Tops Animal Rescue and Kingdowns Cat Santuary, to name a few. For those concerned with animal welfare, try to purchase your cat from a shelter.

So if you are serious about finding out more about how to care for your domestic cat, the ADL online Domestic Cat Care course will provide you with the knowledge and skills necessary to keep your cat healthy and happy.

What does Brexit mean for Animal Welfare

In the week follow the Brexit vote, the media has been buzzing with discussion of EU animal welfare standards. The story started when Caroline Lucas of the Green Party asked that the UK accept one of the provisions of the EU Lisbon Treaty into national law (that animals are sentient and laws about them should take that into account). Lucas’ amendment was rejected by the House of Commons. Since then the story has blown up, partly because it plays into the narrative of anti-Brexit newspapers who give the impression that, without the civilising impact of the EU laws, Britain will soon become a barbarous dystopia where the veal-eating rich pit dogs against foxes whilst sat in their thunderdomes. But is there some truth behind the hype? Let’s put on our critical thinking glasses and put all this in perspective.

First, the UK is a country of animal lovers. According to the Pet Food Manufacturers Association (2017), the UK has 8.5 million dogs, which is more than any other single European country except Germany (8.6 million) and Russia (16.5 million), both of which have higher human populations. Historically the UK has actually been on the forefront of animal welfare standards, especially because of the campaigning of charities like the RSPCA (arguably the very first animal welfare charity) and the RSPB (the biggest wildlife conservation organisation in Europe). In the UK, it is
illegal to be cruel to captive or domestic animals (under the Protection of Animals Act, 1911) or any wild mammal (under the Wild Mammals Protection Act, 1996). Only certain traps are legal under the Spring Traps Approval Orders (2011-12), and trapped animals must be cared for, and not made to fight under the Animal Welfare Act (2006). These are our national laws, not laws given to Britain by the EU. Britain’s love of animals is the reason why this week’s news has been so shocking to the public, but it is also the reason why Britain’s animal welfare standards are safe.

However, there is another side of the story. The reason conservationists are worried about Brexit is because, although the UK has traditionally had strong animal-welfare standards, it has also traditionally had poor environmental and wildlife conservation standards. The Industrial Revolution started when British inventors began burning vast amounts of coal to create steam power. This had such an extremely negative effect on the environment that it forms the start of its own geological epoch, the Anthropocene. More recently, when the UK adopted the EU Habitats Directive into UK law in 1994, the UK’s version of the law was so weak that it was officially challenged by the EU. Even in 2015, very soon after Brexit, there was a lot of media publicity after business owners asked the UK to abolish this very same EU law, as I discussed previously. Britain has a poor reputation for conservation and environmental standards.

The reason that the government voted against the amendment is mainly financial. The animal sentience clause makes it harder to justify the most profitable animal husbandry methods (like battery farming and animal experimentation) by large companies. It would also affect the chance of repealing the Hunting Act (2004) which banned fox hunting with hounds, an practice that is associated with rich landowners. With these facts in place, it is hard to argue that the rejection of the amendment is anything but the government refusing to put animal welfare and animal conservation before the profit and enjoyment of the rich.

So, the real danger here is not that Britain will lose all its animal welfare standards and embrace human-centric utilitarianism, as the anti-Brexit newspapers would have it. Britain doesn’t rely much on the EU’s animal welfare laws, because it has its own. There is chance that, without the sentience principle, Britain’s future legislation will not be as strong, but that is decades away from becoming a problem yet. The real danger is that this vote might signal a return to the bad old days for wildlife conservation and environmental issues generally. Our environmental and conservation laws do come from the EU, and there is a real chance we might lose them. We need to watch carefully and critically to make sure the government doesn’t let our environmental legislation slip away in the Brexit negotiations.

If you want to protect the UK’s current system of animal laws, you need to learn about them – why not try studying UK Wildlife Law at ADL? We understand our learners are busy people. Our course materials are available 24/7 online, and learners study at their own pace. Best of all, Wildlife Law comes with a complimentary short Critical Thinking module, teaching you to see through the media hype to the real issues.