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....

By Adria Karlsson

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,...

By Carla Simon, MD

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....

By Rebecca Hunt and Dr Helen Vaterlaws-Whiteside

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...

By Allison Hunter-Frederick

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...

By Denise Johnson DVM

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...

By Catherine Bell, CHBC, Suzanne Rogers, CHBC, and Debbie Busby, CHBC

[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.

By Erica Boling, PhD

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...

By Tabitha Davies ACDBC and Laura Bourhenne CDBC

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...

By Alizé Muckensturm

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...

By Cheryl Kolus, DVM

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...

By Terrie Hayward, MEd, CDBC

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...

By Dr. Nee Kang, PhD, CDBC, Elisa Ang, and Jaipal Singh Gill

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...

By Paula Ferrel

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...

By Judy Puddifoot, MRCVS

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...

By Dani Weinberg, PhD

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...

By Kristin Hartness

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...

By Skye Anderson

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...

By Raul Maroto

Issue 15 | FEBRUARY 2020