Issue 26 | February 2023 — General
SMARTER Goal Setting for Animal Professionals Part 2
Summary: SMARTER is a mnemonic used to define measurable goals. This article builds on the concept of SMARTER goals introduced in part 1 and gives examples of how trainers and behavior consultants can give their clients goals that meet the last 4 criteria (Relevant,...
By Elisheba Fay, CDBC, CPDT-KA
Issue 25 | February 2023 — General
SMARTER Goal Setting for Animal Professionals Part 1
Summary: SMARTER is a mnemonic used to define measurable goals. This article introduces the concept of SMARTER goals and gives examples of how trainers and behavior consultants can give their clients goals that meet the first 3 criteria (Specific, Measurable,...
By Elisheba Fay, CDBC, CPDT-KAMake the Most of Your Lane: Why to Stay Involved in Medical Cases
Summary: When veterinarians and behavior professionals work together, everyone can benefit. Clients and their animals can develop deeper relationships through continuity of support, behavior professionals get the chance to network and expand their business, and...
By Dr. Denise Johnson, DVM, CCBCIssue 23 | October 2022 — General
Ask the Ethics Committee
The IAABC Ethics Committee is a team of volunteers that adjudicate on ethical matters for the IAABC. Their role is to evaluate complaints about violations of our Professional Code of Ethics, as well as offer original thought and guidance for the future of our...
By IAABC Ethics CommitteeIssue 22 | February 2022 — General
A Message From IAABC’s New Executive Director, Kathrine Christ
I am deeply honored to have been offered the role of Executive Director of the IAABC. Thanks to the dedicated service of our prior directors, the IAABC has grown into an organization that has global influence in the animal behavior community. I can’t express how...
By Kathrine Christ MIA CTC CDBCIssue 21 | December 2021 — General
When Cute Is Not Enough: What Behavior Consultants Should Know About Exotic Animal Pets
Summary: Behavior consultants are well-placed to offer advice to clients if they see signs of poor welfare in any of the pets in their home, not just the ones they have been called in to help. This article outlines the scale of exotic pet-keeping in the United States,...
By Camille King, EdD, CDBC,Issue 20 | September 2021 — General
What is The IAABC Foundation? How is it Different From IAABC?
The IAABC Foundation is a new, non-profit charity with the mission of bringing education, events, and community science to both IAABC members and the public alike.The IAABC and the Foundation both support and advance the field of animal behavior consulting, but how...
Why a Multidisciplinary Approach to Animal Behavior Research Is Critical
Summary: Using the knowledge and expertise of a multitude of disciplines makes animal behavior consultants better at what we do. Mixed methods are adaptable to many research designs with numerous method pairings that elucidate more information than can be obtained...
By Erin Jones, MS, IAABC-ADT, CPDT-KA, CDBCIssue 17 | May 2021 — General
Documentation Made Easy!
I am sure you did not become an animal behavior consultant to spend hours writing behavior plans and other reports. However, for most of us, it is part of what we do and, I think, a necessary part of our work. It helps us stay focused and track progress. What if I...
By Beth FriedmanFive Ways to Protect Your Behavior Consulting Business
Are you thinking of opening your own business as a behavior consultant? Maybe you already have, or you are working as an independent contractor? Being your own boss has a lot of advantages, but there is heavy responsibility as well. As many have learned from the...
By Christina Schenk-Hargrove, Esq., CPDT-KAWhy Animals Need Trainers Who Adhere to the Least Intrusive Principle: Improving Animal Welfare and Honing Trainers’ Skills
A typical debate about negative reinforcement is something like a train wreck — you don’t want to stare but you can’t look away. Some trainers argue negative reinforcement has a place in animal training; others say it does not. With some recent interest in the animal...
By Susan G. Friedman, Ph. D.Separation-Related Problems: Anxiety Is Not the Only Cause
Separation anxiety (SA) is the term commonly used to describe the collection of behaviors exhibited by a dog who is significantly distressed when left alone. It is one of the most well-studied behavioral disorders in dogs, and yet there is still no consensus of...
By Sharon Carroll CDBC, CHBCIssue 16 | July 2020 — General
Reinforce This!
As trainers, one of the key skills we have to learn is reinforcement delivery. It looks like the easiest part of training but, in fact, it’s one of the parts that can cause the most frustration for teacher and learner! Errors in delivery can reinforce the wrong...
By Tiro Miller, PhD and the IAABC Editing TeamBoo! Training a Bear 2019
Readers were introduced to Boo, a male grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horriblis), in the Winter 2018 and Winter 2019 issues of the IAABC Foundation Journal. Born in 2002, Boo weighs around 550-600 pounds in the spring, and up to 750-850 pounds in the winter before...
By Cindy Peacock, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, KPA-CTPExperiences from CICA 2020
With great enthusiasm, I traveled to Mexico City to participate in CICA 2020. I arrived two days earlier to meet my IAABC Mexico colleagues and to finally get to know some members of our volunteer team in person. Along with Sandy Guevara, Paola Morali, and Hugo Bravo,...
By Uli GrodekeChronic Pain, the Brain, and Behavior
What is pain? Pain, simply defined, is an aversive sensory experience. In general, it can be broadly categorized as either nociceptive or neuropathic. Nociceptive pain is caused by a noxious stimulus, associated with actual, or in response to potential, tissue damage,...
By Nicole RibeiroIssue 15 | April 2020 — General
A Behavior Consultant’s Tips for Training Yourself Not To Touch Your Face
“It took a coronavirus outbreak to remind us that we touch our faces way too many times. And cutting down on that will help stop the spread of the virus, health officials say. In 2015, a Sydney university observed medical students on video and recorded how many times...
By Adria KarlssonHow to talk about….
Everyone has different strengths in how they communicate with clients, and one way to approach a situation won’t work for everyone. In our “How to Talk About…” series, IAABC members talk about the strategies they use to approach tricky situations in their behavior...
Looking Back on Research Experiences
CHBCs Catherine Bell, Suzanne Rogers, and Debbie Busby recently published an equine welfare paper in the journal Animals. Titled “Improving the Recognition of Equine Affective States,” it represents a few years’ worth of work, completed independently of our...
By Catherine Bell, CHBC, Suzanne Rogers, CHBC, and Debbie Busby, CHBCIssue 14 | February 2020 — General
Getting Over That Paywall: Accessing Research When You’re Not An Academic
As animal behavior professionals, we should all be committed to keeping up with the scientific basis for our practices, and we want to know when new discoveries about how animals think, perceive, and learn are made so we can critically appraise them and decide how to...
By Tiro Miller, PhDHow to Talk About…
In this regular column, we ask animal behavior consultants how they approach some of the most common challenges in working with clients. This issue, we’re covering two subjects. Lisa Ackerman discusses her approach to working with a family where one or more members...
Puzzle Feeding for Snakes
Environmental enrichment and focus on animal welfare are now common practice for many pets. Some companies have started producing toys specifically designed for foraging. It’s even becoming standard in zoological facilities to provide such opportunities for many of...
By Peter AmeliaIssue 13 | October 2019 — General
Ask the Ethics Committee
The world of animal behavior consulting is always changing—we’re seeing new clients in unique situations, working with individual animals, learning about innovative techniques and cutting-edge research, and trying to navigate business, marketing, and social media....
By IAABC Ethics CommitteeIssue 12 | July 2019 — General
From Skinner Box to Show Biz and Beyond
When Marian Kruse entered the University of Minnesota in 1938, her ambition was to major in Latin and minor in Greek. Marian later wrote of “harboring the strange notion of becoming a Latin teacher in Alaska.” Before matriculating and heading to Alaska, however, even...
By William Van NostranRebecca Park Scholarship Winning Essay
Twice a year, IAABC holds a contest for a Rebecca Park Scholarship, which grants the winner a free place on the IAABC Animal Behavior Consulting: Principles & Practice online course. The following essay was the winning entry for Spring’s scholarship, and was...
By Allison Hunter-FrederickIssue 10 | April 2019 — General
Your Questions about the Joint Standards of Practice
On September 11th, 2018, IAABC, APDT, and CCPDT announced an agreement called the Joint Standards of Practice. This document, adopted by all three organizations, lays out the principles we believe should govern competent, ethical animal trainers and behavior...
By The IAABC Foundation Editing TeamPig behavior in videos on social media: Cute, but concerning
I’ve been working with companion pigs for years, and I find them endlessly fascinating. Pigs are still increasing in popularity as household pets after the “mini pig” craze started up about 30 years ago, in part because they make captivating video stars that people...
By Laura BourhenneTort Reform: On Training a Tortoise in Nose Work
I began training dogs as a teenager almost 40 years ago, and my interest in other species has been expanding as I continue to learn and grow as a professional. I have also worked with cats, goats, pigs, horses, birds, rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, chickens, ferrets, and...
By Linda BrodzikWhat is Cooperative Care?
Cooperative care involves training an animal to not only tolerate handling and husbandry procedures, but to be an active, willing participant in these experiences. Cooperative care is quite common in zoos, where large or potentially dangerous animals cannot otherwise...
By Sarah Dixon, CDBC, Lauren Fraser, CHBC, and Stephanie Edlund, CPBCIssue 9 | October 2018 — General
Career Paths: Jessica Fritschi
One of the most common questions IAABC gets is about how to get started working with pets and their people. The truth is, there’s no set career path, and no single qualification that prepares you for this uniquely challenging, endlessly fascinating work. In this...
By IAABC Editing TeamSpotlight on Research: Dr. Tammie King
Dr. Tammie King works at the WALTHAM Centre for Pet Nutrition in the U.K., the fundamental science centre for Mars Petcare that is engaged in a variety of behavior-related projects, in addition to conducting research on pet health and nutrition. Tammie has published...
By IAABC Editing TeamIssue 8 | July 2018 — General
Thinking About Adding Swine Training and Behavior To Your Training Business?
Pigs are highly intelligent, easy to train, and so much fun! More people than ever are buying miniature pigs. and more cities are allowing them to live in homes as pets. Just as we deal with the apartment-dweller who purchases a Belgian Malinois puppy after seeing the...
By Tabitha Davies, ACDBCManifestations of Allergies in Domestic Animals: What Behavior Consultants Should Know
When you meet a client and their animal for the first time, your evaluation can be made more comprehensive by recognition of outward and behavioral signs of disease. Physical problems affect both the animal and the interaction between the animal and their family, so a...
By Jess ElliottIssue 7 | April 2018 — General
Boo! Training a Bear
Boo is a male grizzly bear (Ursus arctos), born in 2002. He weighs 550 to 600 pounds in the spring, and up to 750 to 850 pounds in the winter before hibernation. We came to take care of Boo after he and his brother Cari were orphaned at approximately 5 months of age,...
By Cindy Peacock, CPDT-KA, KPA-CTPPerspective: IAABC’s Aggression in Dogs Seminar in Chile
So, this is huge. When the APDT Chile announced its intention to become part of the IAABC and to host a congress on aggressive dog handling techniques with Trish McMillan Loehr and Michael Shikashio in Santiago de Chile, I pricked my ears: the IAABC’s presence here in...
By Uli Grodeke, CDBCCareer Paths: Katenna Jones
Animal behavior consultants come from all walks of life. One of the most common questions IAABC gets is about how to get started working with pets and their people. The truth is, there’s no set career path, and no single qualification that prepares you for this...
By IAABC Editing Team