Sniffing Out Friendship
The importance of scent in cat social relationships

Instructor

Course created by Dr. Kristyn Vitale for Small-Paws Education. Dr. Vitale is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and an internationally recognized expert in cat behavior.

About the Course

From birth, kittens rely heavily on their sense of smell to interpret the world around them. As they mature, scent detection and other olfactory cues continue to play a critical role in their behavior, welfare, and social interactions. This course explores how scent shapes the formation and maintenance of feline social relationships. The first lesson introduces the feline olfactory system, including how cats produce and detect olfactory cues such as odors and pheromones. It then examines the role of scent in cat–cat interactions, highlighting how olfactory cues shape social relationships in both early development and adulthood, which includes the role in adult cat relationships and bonding between kittens and their mother. The course then explores how scent influences social relationships between cats and their human caregivers. It concludes by considering practical applications of this knowledge to promote cat welfare, including improving social introductions between cats, providing effective scent enrichment, and fostering healthier human–cat interactions.

Runtime: Approximately 1.5 hours of recorded content, plus supplemental resources and check your understanding questions.

Cost: $35.00

Learn More and Register Here!

Link to the Sniffing Out Friendship Course at Small-Paws Education