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Learner Reviews & Feedback for The Truth About Cats and Dogs by The University of Edinburgh

4.8
stars
2,263 ratings

About the Course

What is your cat revealing to you when she purrs? What is your dog expressing when he yawns or wags his tail? Understanding your cat and dog’s behaviour and the way they communicate with you, will enable you to better understand their needs and strengthen your relationship with them. This MOOC is divided into five topics, the appliance of science; behaviour and body language, senses and perception; challenges for the human-animal relationship, including pet problem behaviour; and how to improve the quality of life for cats and dogs in our care. At the start of the course we ask you to consider what you feel is important to your cat/dog and what your cat/dog means to you? We explore the world of cats and dogs and how our relationships with them vary around the world and have changed over time. We ask if we can really know what our animals are thinking or trying to communicate through their facial expressions and behaviours. From our beloved pets to street dogs, shelter dogs/cats and welfare challenges, we explore the world from their perspective and examine how their genetic make-up may influence their behavioural responses and choices. We dispel common behavioural myths by looking through a scientific lens, asking questions about the function and development of their behaviour.. We explore how their senses help them to interact with their world and how they communicate with each other and us! Finally, we ask whether we impose unrealistic expectations on our cats and dogs and how this affects their ability to live alongside us. We ask, what can we do to be more responsible pet owners and to ensure the welfare of all cats and dogs in society? This MOOC explores different scientifically validated methods that can help you to better understand your pet, to enrich their lives and help you to be a more educated and confident pet owner. We hope you enjoy the course!...

Top reviews

AA

Jun 23, 2021

It gives you the basics about owning a pet and what you need to know for their welfare.

I don't see a need for certification for this course.

Recommended for general knowledge and resources

LR

Mar 26, 2020

I learned so much about how to decrease stress for my pets and increase their happiness. I also learned how to better communicate with them. Thank you for helping improve my pets quality of life!

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551 - 575 of 636 Reviews for The Truth About Cats and Dogs

By Srigokilamani M

Jun 22, 2020

Ok

By Peggy F

Sep 7, 2021

s

By Isabelle V

Jul 24, 2017

E

By Mary M

Sep 14, 2018

,Thank you for the useful course. It provided me with valuable information about cat and dog behaviors and practical ideas for catering for my own cats. My experience with dogs is limited so it was a good opportunity to get some education on dogs. The only thing that I would have liked to see more of is a bit more focus on cat outdoor behavior, like how to train cats to take them for walks ( if possible) and whether it is a good idea or not, training cats to be more fearless. I just think that there was more focus on dogs in this area.

Thanks again for the excellent course!

By KANOKLADA K

Apr 21, 2020

I do study in veterinary medicine school, at first i didn’t expect much about this course but it turn out really good i found what i miss, i think in nowadays most vet do concentrate so much about treating the animal while taking care of it at first start is important too, for the example there a so many people who love to have a pet but did get one that don’t match them cuz they didn’t where else to ask beside the internet that is not better than a vet who more specialize in this kind a thing.

By SREEPARNA ( R

May 24, 2020

Extremely helpful. Being an animal lover myself, the course helped me delve deep into the psyche of cats and dogs and helped me understand them better.

I have cats at home, and so it was easy for me to relate to the modules based ob cats. The modules on dogs were however new. Nonetheless, it helped me know their behaviour patterns, likes and dislikes and their overall health and wellness requirements.

Overall, a very helpful course. Thank you!

By Shirley G

May 19, 2020

I feel better in understanding a dog's perspective in training and ownership. I would like to have a review of the different kinds of dogs and their traits since I am looking for a dog that hopefully likes my cats. Adopting a dog would be the only way to obtain one, but I am afraid their past could be a problem if they were mistreated. I course was very interesting and would recommend it to my fellow animal lovers.

Shirley

By Ange R

Jun 11, 2017

A little stronger slant regarding dogs than cats, but still very educational about both. Great review of the basics as well as lots more details (and amazing resources) to learn a lot more! I'm a little embarrassed that I didn't know nearly as much about my cats as I thought I did when beginning this class. It's a fun and light course that provides solid information on exactly what it says: cats and dogs.

By Sheng-Ting L

Apr 28, 2020

Fun and informative, though I was hoping to get more in-depth knowledges. This course is more suitable for people who have limited knowledges of cats and dogs and would maybe consider to get a cat/dog. If you have been educating yourself about knowledges and facts about cats and dogs, you may find this course relatively basic. Anyways, I still appreciate the instructors' efforts of forming this course!

By Vi T

Oct 11, 2022

Very usefull and in-depth information on cat and dog behaviors and body languages. However I'm a bit dissapointed by the fact that in Week 5, Training and Enrichment part is only about dog training because you can train your cat and have better communication/bonding with them through training. I was expected to see cat training using clicker training method as well but it wasn't mentioned there.

By Amelie K

May 25, 2020

The information in this course is excellent. The only thing I didn't like were the quality of the quizzes. Our comprehension wasn't really tested. I wish the quizzes/tests were more about the content and were actually graded. I feel like i could have written anything and would have "passed". Also, I feel there should be a warning about some of the videos shown where animals are in distress.

By Himal k

May 1, 2020

I'm feeling very fantastic and awesome to do this course because i learned vocabularyies,idom and phareses ,word cluster and many many other thing i learned for this course i feel very proud to complete this course and it is very helpful to many students, people to burden their life and Bright life..these courses are life changing couserA....thank you

😊🥰😍🤗

By Camila S N

Oct 22, 2021

A tradução para o português (Brasil) não está boa, porém conseguimos entender muita coisa. Há um vídeo (não me lembro de qual semana) que a tradução não aparece toda, e nem o texto. Fora essas observações, o curso é muito bom para iniciantes em Medicina Veterinária e até mesmo para quem quer adquirir conhecimento sobre os cuidados dos gatos e cachorros.

By Sam H

Oct 14, 2019

Overall the course was great. I gave it 4 stars because although I am not in the animal field, I do have quite the extensive knowledge. A lot presented I was already aware of but I did learn a few new things which is great. This course is great for anyone wishing to learn more about the common pets of dogs and cats and hopefully they can teach others.

By Royston J

Jun 19, 2020

Training like this should be compulsory in schools. The introduction to street dogs was the most interesting part but had too little depth. The idea of returning healthy dogs to avoid an influx of unhealthy or antisocial ones just left me wondering whose responsibility those outcasts are and what is their long term prognosis?

By Ada L Y

May 8, 2020

nice course on science behind pets and promote awareness for animal welfare. Very good start as an introductory course. I would like to have deeper learning about pets and this course is too beginner for me in that aspect. Some reading material links are no longer working. would be good to have them updated!

By HELENE T

Mar 7, 2021

Fort intéressant. Léger accent mis sur les chiens par rapport aux chats. Malheureusement, plusieurs hyperliens ne sont plus fonctionnels: une petite mise à jour serait requise. Dommage aussi qu'il n'était plus possible de participer aux questions aux experts ou de répondre au sondage. Merci pour ce cours.

By Gwendolyn U M

Jul 21, 2020

I like how this course focuses on how we can be better pet owners. I just wish they could have expounded more on common behaviors that we see among cats and dogs and how better we can respond because the statements are mostly general. I guess it's for us to dig deeper.

By Santiago Y

Oct 5, 2017

Good, I had not finished it and am excite of finish it, the only problem is the language because I don't know some words but equal is good and interesant,

Thanks Edimburg´s University and Coursera for giving this opportunity to increase our knowledge

By Claude J

Dec 31, 2020

Although I read several books on dogs and cats, I have learned quite a lot in this course. I only wish there were a bit less repetitions from one week to the next, and that a step by step training for dog video was shown as a practical guideline.

By Alexandra B

Jun 11, 2020

The information provided was helpful and good information. However, it seemed as if most of the course was spent with the speakers telling us that they would provide the information in later videos. This could have been far more concise.

By Johana S

Jul 18, 2020

This class is decidedly a public service announcement for people acquiring their first pet. This course could be the introduction , the first class in a Specialization compromised of the uni's offerings on animal welfare.

By Timothy S

Jul 10, 2017

This course has a lot of information about cats and dogs. I learned a lot of different things in this course I didn't know about cats. I learned all about the three different 'areas' a cat has around the yard, why cats like

By C. W B

Jul 28, 2021

Interesting. Helped me learn about ways to care for my old dog to better improve his mental wellbeing and how to recognize behavior and body language in my new cat as well as arrange his physical needs to better help him.

By Natalia V

Oct 10, 2017

I found it helpful, entertaining and easy to understand.

I would have loved to have found more information about cats (interaction, adaptation, health problems...) since information about dogs is much more widely spread.