Cortisol Vacations For Our Pets?
We recently ran across a blog post by a trainer titled “The Cortisol Vacation.” She was writing about the dangers of chronic stress in dogs and how best to handle it. She pointed out that when dogs become distressed, an adrenal hormone, cortisol, is released. To handle chronic stress, she says, we should first…
Celebrating Adopt A Cat Month
June has been Adopt-A-Cat Month – and we almost did. But after visiting a beautiful Siamese mix who needed a home, and a tearful conversation between the two of us, we decided the time just wasn’t right. This is about the third time we’ve come to that conclusion since losing our great Buffett cat a…
Preventing Re-directed Aggression in Cats
Redirected aggression problems between cats that have previously lived together amicably is a problem we see fairly often. One case involved two female Siamese littermates who had been best friends and playmates for 2 ½ years. Subsequent to a visit to the veterinarian, both cats began hissing and growling at one another, with one cat…
Dog Bite Prevention Week Resources
This week is dog bite prevention week. Veterinarians, human physicians, animal behaviorists, trainers all have created messages about the dangers of dog bites and how to avoid and prevent them. To best know how to prevent dog bites, we need comprehensive data about the situations in which bites occur. Unfortunately, this information is hard to…
Three Ways to Become a Better Trainer
We go through cycles of following discussions about behavior and training on various social media sites. We become passionate for a few days about commenting on particular subjects, but often get frustrated, by the mis-information that is still so prevalent and decide to take a break. In recent weeks we’ve encountered discussions focusing yet again…
Attention-Getting Behavior Or Something Else?
We were at a dog club meeting recently and were chatting with our friend Sue about her dog. She was relaying how he had recently developed an “attention-getting behavior” problem.Seems she taught him to go get his ball when people came to the door instead of standing and barking at them. He was rewarded with…
Apps For Cats – New Uses for Tablets and Smart Phones
Computers have insinuated themselves into every part of our lives, from work to home life and entertainment. Now there are new apps designed specifically for our cats.
Preventing Cops from Shooting Dogs
Have you seen the recent headline in the Denver Post "Colorado Senators To Introduce Bill to Require Cops Take Dog Training"? Makes me want the Rocky Mountain News back more than ever. What a misleading headline! If the goal was to spark controversy and debate rather than reporting in an information-only manner about a problem…
Critical Thinking and Dog Training
We happened to see a post on Dog Star Daily where Dr. Dunbar said “there’s something about dogs which tends to short-wire some people’s critical thinking skills.” As we write this, we are immersed in delivering our course “How To Be an Expert Witness in Dog Bite Cases” so critical thinking skills have been on…
The Expert Witness Role in Dog Bite Cases
Expert witnesses in animal injury cases – particularly ones that are high profile or controversial – must be able to step back from the media whirlwind, evaluate events and the dog’s behavior objectively, be meticulous about fact checking, and not take anything for granted. A good example is the current case in our home state…