A member of our Behavior Education Network, Peggy H., set us on to this video from Animal Planet. After watching it, we thought it presented the perfect opportunity – or a teachable moment as some people call it – to help you better understan...
A recent Associated Press poll reveals that more people like dogs than like cats. In a survey of just under 2000 people, 59% of who were pet owners (mostly of dogs or cats) 74% said they liked dogs “a lot” but only 41% said the same thing abo...
Some behavior problems are rooted in, or at least influenced by, a dog’s emotional arousal in response to certain events. The sight of other dogs, people walking by their territory, a ride in the car, a new cat in the house, may all cause dogs to r...
Most dog owners know what a "play bow" looks like. If you don't – here's a picture of a play bow – Have you ever given any thought to the purpose of play bows and how they might have evolved? The play bow is a r...
We thought you would enjoy this short video clip of our Irish setter, Coral, doing what we call "Setter snow angels". Coral runs as fast as she can during her walks, so we think in the winter she does this to cool off. She'll als...
We were reading a popular mail order pet supply catalog and came across some confusing descriptions of training products. We suspect such confusion is widespread and worth discussing. ...
If you are familiar with us and our pet family, you know that Suzanne has been very attached to our Irish setter, ever since we acquired Coral as a 7 week old puppy. Suzanne has sometimes – against her better judgment as a behaviorist – let C...
When we first acquired our Irish setter, Coral, it took longer than we expected for her and our cat Buffett to learn to get along. At first, Buffett was clearly afraid of Coral's bouncy, enthusiastic puppy antics. He'd hiss whenever she got too close, ...
A while back, we had a case that involved a younger dog attacking and seriously injuring her older housemate when the older dog went into a seizure. The dogs had lived together without conflict for years, until the older dog began having the seizures. The owne...
As many of you know, from time to time we both serve as expert witnesses in animal injury - usually dog bite – cases. Dan has evaluated dogs from several dog fighting cases (including the Michael Vick case) and Suzanne has served as an expert ...
