Issue 4 | May 2017
The Cognitive Revolution and Everyday Dog Training: The Case of “Look at That”
If you love dogs and haven’t yet heard about the canine “cognitive revolution,” you’ve been living in a bubble. Sara Shettleworth broadly defines cognition as “an array of mechanisms by...
Counter-Conditioning a Parrot: Kokoda’s Video Diary
Kokoda is a 16 month old female Eclectus Parrot. She was purchased from an Eclectus Specialist breeder in New South Wales and flew to me in Western Australia at around...
Communicating with Clients: “Why do People Pay me for my Advice and Then Tell me I’m Wrong?”
A veterinary behaviorist friend of mine once asked me, “Why do people pay me for my advice and then either ignore it or tell me I'm wrong?” I don't think...
IAABC News for Spring 2017
Stand by for #IAABC2018! More than 200 people attended our 2017 conference in Los Angeles last month, and we were overwhelmed by the energy and friendship that developed between people...
Toward Greater Awareness of Welfare in Animal Assisted Interventions: The Animal Assisted Play Therapy™ Model
The broad field of animal-assisted interventions (AAI) has grown in popularity and publicity in the past decade. One hears more and more reports in the media about the value of...
Training Bite Inhibition in the Dark
The idea that, through certain socialization protocols, we can train a dog as a youngster to inhibit its bite as an adult is the foundation for many aspects of living...
Simple Solutions for Common Behavior Issues in Shelters
Since 1990 I have been volunteering in or working with a variety of shelters and rescue groups, until 2013 when I accepted a full-time position at Best Friends Animal Society...
Identity Crisis (It’s a Good Thing to Have One): Discovering the Heart of Your Behavior Business for Sustainable Success
In our first article in this series, we tackled some of our collective industry assumptions about financial obstacles. We talked about the important reasons why we need to start to...
K9 Nose Work® in Shelters
The winter months are cold and damp in Kansas. During this time, a lot of our dogs do not get out for enough exercise. At the Lawrence Humane Society, we...
Evaluating Research
Every behavior consultant knows not to rely on a client’s description of a pet’s behavior—you have to see that behavior yourself. Trained eyes see differently. This is just as true...
Pawsimony: Pitch Please
This video pops up every so often on social media as new groups find it and, um, chime in. The claim is, this is a demonstration that dogs have “perfect...
Enrichment Involving Human Interaction Saves Lives
As I walked through the intake room of a large county animal shelter in Dayton, Ohio, evaluating dogs to enroll in the Behavior Modification and Enrichment Program (BMP), I stopped...
Cat Social Lives: Current Knowledge and Future Directions
Although cats are stereotypically thought to be aloof and unsocial, domestic cats display great flexibility in their social behavior. Cats have the ability to live solitarily, to live in extremely...
Why Is My Dog This Way, Does It Matter If We Know, and What Can We Do?
As we all know, clients almost always want to know why their dogs are having problems. Many hasten to blame themselves (often citing certain TV shows and their failure to...
Shelter Canine Behavior Evaluations: Why The Animal Rescue League of Boston Uses MATCH-UP II
Over the past 15 to 20 years, behavior evaluations have become the standard of care in shelters for identifying dangerous and potentially aggressive dogs that may not do well in...
Helping an Overachieving Horse Relax
One of the benefits of training with positive reinforcement is eagerness in training. Getting an experienced animal to come to you or stay with you is not usually a problem....
Birds Need to Fly
One of the benefits of training with positive reinforcement is eagerness in training. Getting an experienced animal to come to you or stay with you is not usually a problem....
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. If you can see that what...
Spotlight on Research: Parrot Enrichment
This issue, we caught up with Joanna Berger, who recently graduated with Distinction from the University of Edinburgh’s Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Medicine. As part of her Master’s project,...
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