Issue 15 | FEBRUARY 2020
A Behavior Consultant’s Tips for Training Yourself Not To Touch Your Face
Don’t touch your face. It’s everywhere. On the front pages of the major news outlets, shared widely on social media, and even turned into gifs and memes in record time....
How the Clever Hans Effect Leads to Errors in Canine Scent Detection
Dogs are experts at human body language, but communication is a two-way street. Since you’re reading this article, you have probably gone to great lengths to understand their nonverbal communication,...
The Effects of Environmental Enrichment on Dog Behaviour
Environmental enrichment (EE) is a technique designed to enhance the quality of life of captive and domestic animals, by providing environmental stimuli to promote psychological and physiological well-being....
Training Cats to Become Therapy Cats
“I’m so happy to see my favorite cat!” the older gentleman said as Rainy and I entered his room at the senior retirement community. He held out his shaking hand...
Scratch This, Not That!
Cats scratch for many reasons such as nail care, exercise, tension relief, and communication that includes both physical and chemical messages (DePorter, 2019). Scratching behavior is so innate that even...
How 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...
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...
[SPONSORED] BabelBark’s BizBark Program: An Integrated Approach to Solving Canine Behavior Problems
Canine training and behavior problems don’t always come with a single, easy answer. These are frequently complex issues that can be impacted by a number of things.
So There’s a Pig in Your Shelter! What to Know, What to Do, and How to Help Them Thrive
Pigs are highly intelligent creatures. As a professional animal trainer, I will say pigs are more intelligent than dogs in many respects. They are also very emotionally sensitive; I’d compare...
Lyviera’s Journey
Lyviera is a Selle Francais mare who was initially bought by a riding club’s owner to be his personal competition horse. While she excelled in show jumping and was very...
What Are We Going to Do With These Cats?! Case Studies in Difficult-to-home Shelter Cats: Murray
Murray was probably the scariest cat I had met in my five years of working one-on-one with shelter cats. The handsome 5-year-old neutered male Nebelung (a breed I’d never heard...
Working from a Distance: Online and Remote Consults
My animal training and behavior clients are often surprised to hear that I’ll be working with them from my home in Puerto Rico. At first this might seem like a...
One Dog at a Time: Enriching the Emotional Lives of Shelter Dogs
The animal sheltering world is an emotional one for all stakeholders: the animals who live with the stress of an imperfect and unpredictable environment; a shelter organization that is constantly...
Empathy, Antecedent Arrangements, and Fun! What to Think About When Working with Youth Clients
Many of us working in the animal field do the work we do because we love animals. But we often don’t realize how much we really rely on interacting with...
A Spoonful of Sugar: The Trials and Tribulations of Medicating Your Pet
“Give one and a half tablets twice daily for 2 weeks” I’ve lost count of the number of times I have said this to my clients across my consult room...
Skateboarding, or, What I Learned from the Chickens
It was December of 1999. A few of us were sitting around complaining about how hard it was to get our students to let go of food - luring. Someone...
Service Dogs, Students, and Environments They Access
Service dogs are working more and more with students. Those present in schools, colleges, camps, and other similar environments often struggle to understand the laws defining service dogs, what to...
The Gift of Sam
I close my book, place it on the bedside table, and turn off the light, the signal for Sam, my yellow Lab, to jump up on the bed for one...
The Dog’s Nose in Prostate Cancer Detection
Puppies are born blind and deaf, and stay this way until approximately 14 days of age, so their lives depend on finding the mother’s nipple through smell. This early stimulation...
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