by Laura Donaldson
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 which animals acquire, process, store, and act on input (information) from the environment . . . ”
by Kristyn Vitale Shreve
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 gregarious colonies, and to live socially in homes with humans and various other species. So what does the social life of a cat look like?
by Jane Jackson
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. Yet the pendulum swings both ways. We must train our animals what they should do instead of being underfoot. One of my horses has taught me the importance of paying attention to emotions while doing this.
by Laura Donaldson
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 which animals acquire, process, store, and act on input (information) from the environment . . . ”
by Lee Stone
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 14 weeks of age, after she was fully weaned and fledged.
by Emily Strong
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 in Kanab, Utah.
by Risë VanFleet
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 animals involved in visitation programs to hospitals and schools, reading-to-animal programs shown to increase children's reading scores, and a wide range of programs for military service members struggling with reintegration and post-traumatic stress disorder. These developments are separate from those in the assistance dog world.
By Kim Brophey, CDBC
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 overcome them, about the connection between company success and our ability to reach the animals and people who need our help as behavior consultants. Now that we are all on the same page and have gotten all that “why” stuff out of the way, it’s time to get to work.
by Jessica Hekman, DVM, MS
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 she really expected an answer. She was just expressing her frustration with clients who resisted changing their views about the utility of certain training approaches, particularly those based on dominance theory or force.
by Patience Fisher
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 for analyzing research studies. It is important to understand the underlying principles of research to see what the research really shows. In this article, I explain that causation and correlation studies seek different answers. I also discuss the inherent limitations of even a well-done study.
