Issue 2 | November 2016

The Human-Avian Bond

According to the 2015-2016 American Pet Products Association survey, 6.1 million American households own an estimated 14.3 million birds, making birds the fourth most common pet following dogs, cats, and...

By Patricia K. Anderson, PhD

Enrichment for Small Animals and Birds in Shelters: Often Overlooked But Much Needed

Animal shelter staff members often find themselves caring for (and rehoming) many animals besides cats and dogs.

By Dot Baisly, MS, CPDT-KA

A Circle of Friends Makes the Difference for Chiquita: A Video Case Study

Chiquita was living with two other under-socialized dogs in the previous home. Their owner was starting cancer treatment, and could no longer care for all three dogs. We ended up...

By the Humane Society of Silicon Valley

Case Study: Raisin

An abandoned, adolescent, block-headed terrier mix arrived at the shelter with little impulse control, biting at clothing and jumping on people as they passed by. Reactive to other dogs, barking...

By Amy Schindler

The Future of Compassion Fatigue Education: Working Partnerships with Mental Health Professionals

The concept of compassion fatigue (CF) has received increased attention in the animal care and welfare professions in recent years. This is a positive trend. Today, thanks to courses such...

By Kristin Buller and Jessica Dolce

Case Study: Linda and Joe – Part Two

The first part of this case study, covering Joe’s initial presentation, background, and history was presented in the June 2016 issue of the IAABC Foundation Journal. The following information covers...

By Renee Hall

Drama-free DRA for Barking

A dog barking and charging at the front door is by no means a new or unexplained phenomenon. Many of them do it with encouragement from their owners as “protectors,”...

By Adria Karlsson CDBC

FeBARQ: Applied Research on Domestic Cat Behavior

Over 10 years after the release of the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire (CBARQ), cat owners finally have a feline version of this behavioral assessment tool available online. The...

By Miranda Workman CCBC

Health And Welfare Benefits Of A Varied Diet For Horses

The New Forest pony is a native breed of the British Isles. Many of them are domestic horses that are ridden and worked, but free to roam and graze across...

By Justine Harrison, CHBC

Interview With Dr. Alexandra Protopopova

“I was actually planning to be a veterinarian.” And so were declared the earliest professional aspirations of Alexandra (Sasha) Protopopova, PhD, a scientist whose work is finding a varied and...

By Barbara Davis CDBC

Interview with Brennen McKenzie, the SkeptVet

Complementary and alternative veterinary medicine is a multimillion-dollar industry that encompasses everything from reiki to ...

By the IAABC Editing Staff

The Science of Finding Lost Pets

If you were to ask me to spend the day searching a remote, wilderness area like the Cascade Mountains for a missing person, but you gave me no details about...

By Kat Albrecht

Writing for the Internet

The Internet has offered us a wonderful means of communicating with each other. Whether you want to write for pet dog owners or other dog trainers, or even produce more...

By Eric Brad

Best Practices in Husbandry and Handling

It has been a very busy and exciting time since the inaugural journal issue. Video submissions have been pouring into my email from talented trainers and veterinary professionals from around...

By Laura Monaco Torelli — Husbandry Content Editor

How Do You Spell Behavior? At Darwin’s Dogs, We Use Gs, Cs, Ts, and As.

There are approximately 3 billion bases—represented by the letters G, C, T, or A—in a dog genome. A majority of these are the same across all dogs—these are the bits...

By Jesse McClure

The Ethics of Medicating Dogs with Behavior Issues in a Shelter Setting

Each year, millions of pets are surrendered to humane societies, county pounds, and private rescue groups. While a survey of the research shows broad variation nationally, it is fairly well...

By Susan Cullinan

Why Do We Train Sit? Should We Reconsider Its Relevance?

As far as I can tell, training a dog to sit originated in regulations formed for competition obedience around the 1920s. Before then, dogs were primarily used for sporting and...

By Kama Brown

Pet Rabbits: Further Research Warranted on Behavior and Husbandry

The domestic rabbit is a popular choice among keepers of small and exotic companion animals.

By Jessica Fritschi

Service Dogs: Ethics and Education Part Two—Certification, or Common Sense?

A persistent myth exists that service dogs have been granted rights to access places where pets are not allowed. No government agency grants such access rights to dogs; it is...

By Barbara Handelman

IAABC News for October 2016

This Summer we’ve been focusing on developing high quality educational resources for animal behavior consultants, animal trainers, and the general public.

An Interview with Tara Gifford

It’s simpler to ask Tara Gifford what type of animal she hasn’t trained—from dogs and horses to sharks and tigers, Tara has worked with them all. Currently, she owns a...

By Patience Fisher

Pawsimony: Oh, Deer

A Facebook group shared this video claiming the deer “intuitively” knew to keep still so that the man could rescue it.

By Tiro Miller, PhD

Sit Means Play!

It was a second training session with an adorable Labradoodle puppy and his family. He lay patiently at their side while we began talking through solving the issues that come...

By Lisa Desatnik

Panic and Pain as Complications of the Cat-Dog Relationship

You have—or your client has—a dog who is completely non-reactive to the household cats; in fact, she may even appear to love them.

By Jessica Elliott

Case Study: Dog-directed Food Aggression

A three-year-old neutered collie mix dog had recently aggressed to a level three bite onto two other dogs while in a home boarding facility. The family also reported were two...

By Sally Foote

Therapy Animals

One of the very first things I learned when I started visiting hospitals with a therapy dog was that the people I visited were touched by what they perceived as...

By Patricia Tirrell

Equine Video Ethogram

Understanding body language is one of the core skills anyone living with animals needs in order to make the best decisions about their care.

By Lauren Fraser

Clicker Training for Horses: A Video Series

Clicker training is slowly gaining ground in the equine world. Please join me in a series of videos that discuss and demonstrate foundational lessons for both horse and human.

By Sue Bennett

Rehabilitating an Umbrella Cockatoo

I adopted a male cockatoo from an animal shelter in February 2007. His name was Charlie, and he had obviously been neglected physically, emotionally, and socially.

By Debbie Winkler

Canine Neurobics: A Curriculum to Improve Brain Health

Canine problem behavior can stem from issues related to anxiety, impulse control, and boredom. Applied animal behaviorists often

By Camille King

What Is Clicker Training Horses Actually Good For?

Clicker training is one of the recent success stories of equestrianism. It makes use of a bridging signal to indicate the moment of the

By Catherine Bell

Stats Trek II: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics

The next few articles in this space will deal with the dissection of scientific papers, and how YOU, dear reader, can make ...

By Jess Fry

What Do Trainers Know About How Horses Learn?

When the June 2016 issue of the IAABC Foundation Journal ran an article on eliminating the use of aversives in equestrian training, I felt inspired to offer a summary of...

By Gina Garey

Human Centered Design as a Framework for Successful Canine Treatment Plan Implementation

As the applied animal behavior profession continues to grow and innovate, how can human-centered design methodologies be applied to increase the implementation of successful canine treatment plans?

By Luisa Ruge

Compliance and Manipulation in the Dog Training World

As behavior consultants, we know that it’s important that our clients get on board with the plans we make, and follow through with what we’re trying to teach them. Usually,...

By Nan Arthur