Printed by: Ingrid King. Final Up to date on: October 31, 2022 by Crystal Uys
Daniel “DQ” Quagliozzi is the cat marketing consultant behind Go Cat Go, a San Francisco primarily based consulting service for cat conduct recommendation. With over 15 years of frontline expertise in animal welfare, sheltering and one-on-one conduct counseling, DQ provides cat recommendation that people can relate to and apply to their very own lives, permitting them to “Dwell within the Meow” with a greater understanding and stability.
I’m delighted that Daniel agreed to reply some questions on his background, a few of his instances, and his personal cat.
How did you get began turning into a cat behaviorist?
I might not be the cat marketing consultant that I’m in the present day, had it not been for the collective experiences of my 12 years working for the San Francisco SPCA. I had the distinction and privilege of working with a few of the best and most compassionate minds in animal welfare, and positively the frontline experiences that we shared collectively every day had a huge effect on my imaginative and prescient for what I’ve all the time needed to perform in stopping cats from being surrendered.
For nearly half of my profession, I used to be concerned in cat consumption, behaviorally assessing the cats that might enter the shelter for adoption. A big a part of the job is interviewing the guardian about why they’re surrendering the cat and what their experiences have been like with the cat of their house setting. You may discuss to somebody who was emotionally distraught and actually feeling the lack of surrendering their greatest good friend… or… you may discuss to somebody fully impassive and indifferent from the state of affairs. I might attempt to accumulate as a lot data as I may so as to pave the way in which for a profitable adoption going ahead. I knew that I needed to be the voice for the cat, so so as to seize the knowledge wanted to vary the end result for the higher, I needed to decipher what was related data, so as to totally perceive the wants of the cat in our care.
Aside from private or monetary points, cats that have been being surrendered for causes of conduct may have been simply prevented, if somebody the place there to supply recommendation to the guardians, earlier than they made the choice to surrender. Numerous occasions, folks name shelters to give up their cat, and so they’re not keen to take heed to recommendation about their cat’s conduct, as a result of their minds have been already made up. I needed to get forward of that nook that individuals flip of their thoughts.
These very emotional and draining interviews with cat guardians took their toll on me. I might intently equate consumption and give up interviews to grief counseling. I used to be fatigued and knew that I needed to get forward of this subject in my very own means. Giving conduct recommendation to folks on the telephone or writing emails to them was not an efficient resolution to the issue. There’s simply a lot that you just CAN’T see you whenever you’re not in somebody’s house with them, seeing how they really feel and stay stay, however most significantly seeing how their cat reacts to the setting round them. I knew that I needed to exit of my very own, create a profitable model and a relatable philosophy, which might serve to teach folks on a one-on-one foundation and in addition attain out to the cat centric lots in a snug language that they perceive. Thus far, 4 years in, Go Cat Go is gaining some severe momentum and is turning into extensively recognized throughout the nation.
You provide each in house consultations within the SF Bay space, and distant consultations. How do you strategy an in house session?
My strategy to in home-consultations is to maintain the cat-mosphere informal and get to know my human shoppers first. A lot of the recommendation that I give to vary a cat’s conduct is tailor-made to the guardian’s involvement, so it’s important that I have the ability to meet my shoppers the place they’re snug and capable of be themselves and take heed to what they’ve skilled. Folks will dictate their actions or how they handle their cat’s behaviors by the emotional element they really feel from it. In different phrases, folks are inclined to really feel damage, unhappy, offended and even depressed when their cats are in a spot of imbalance within the relationship. I take heed to my shoppers and take a look at my greatest to empathize with their emotions, even when I do know the cat’s conduct has completely nothing to do with it. It’s important to see the place the guardian turns that nook of their considering first. Most significantly, you need to be a compassionate listener. As soon as I get that reference to my shopper, then we will begin deciphering why the cat could also be peeing in a sink as a substitute of the litterbox.
After I first enter a shopper’s house, I hardly introduce myself to a shopper’s cat first…. until it isn’t my selection. I sit down, get to know the folks, after which I look forward to the cats to return in and introduce themselves to me. This provides them time to dimension me up and see how my go to might profit them. Cats all the time have to be the one which makes the selection. So, I permit them on a regular basis they should make that call. I’ll have the icebreakers going, like taking part in with toys they’ve by no means seen earlier than and gaining their belief with some treats and non-invasive social interplay.
I have a look at my in-home shoppers by way of the eyes of their cat, paying additional consideration to the setting that everybody lives in collectively. As soon as I do know a cat’s persona and get some details about how they make their decisions, I look to see the place I would need to spend essentially the most time if I used to be the cat. Does the panorama line up with their preferences? Is the setting already maxed out and desires some dialing again?
Generally…to be frank…I would go away a home, having solely requested my shoppers to tidy up somewhat. Your setting is symbiotic collectively. The life-style decisions that you just make in your house can immediately mirror on the dynamic that you just and all of the animals sharing the identical setting have collectively. I have a look at the stability between aesthetically pleasing and realistically practical, and attempt to pay tribute to my human shopper’s type and décor with out compromising the cat’s high quality of life. That’s not all the time straightforward to do in a metropolis the place life-style trumps sensibility.
For extra details about Daniel and Go, Cat, Go, and to schedule a session, please go to his web site. You may also discover Daniel on Fb and Instagram.
Coming tomorrow: Interview with Cat Advisor Daniel “DQ” Quagliozzi, Half Two: Daniel talks about a few of his instances
