After years of making excuses, I’m finally emerging from my semi-Luddite state in response to requests for a web site from clients, students, and friends. Add two sons with the necessary know-how and here I am, dragged middle-aged, kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Because both my upbringing and my veterinary education occurred at a time when self-promotion morally ranked only slightly above exposing one’s self in public (with self-promotion possibly ranking as the more offensive of the two), this site will focus on providing what I hope those who visit will consider quality educational, provocative, and entertaining information plus beneficial services related to various aspects of the human-animal bond and animal behavior.
In one way or another everything you’ll find on this site reflects my belief that the human-animal bond inextricably links animal and human physiology and thus their and our health and behavior. Consequently, in order to properly analyze any animal physical, behavioral, or bond problem, I contend that we need to consider all three. Admittedly if you’re an animal lover outside the animal-related professional community, the idea that we should do this probably strikes you as so infinitely sensible you can’t imagine that it isn’t done already. Nonetheless, it rarely occurs. Animal medical problems are routinely diagnosed without any consideration for their effects on the animal’s behavior or its relationship with the owner. Those who study, diagnose, and treat behavioral problems may pay little attention to how these may relate to the animal’s physical health and the human-animal bond. Those who study the human-animal bond often focus only on the way this affects people rather than on the many ways different human-animal relationships may affect an animal’s health and behavior.
Although ignoring the other aspects of the powerful medical, behavioral, and bond triad enables researchers to eliminate a lot of pesky variables that can wreak havoc with data, the fact remains that we live in a world where these three influences constantly govern the activities of human and nonhuman animal alike. Because of this, taking an integrated rather than segregated approach offers a more realistic view of what actually occurs. Not only does such a unified view offer an enhanced appreciation of human-animal interactions, it also provides us with more comprehensive ways to diagnose, prevent, or treat problems when they arise.
After years of making excuses, I’m finally emerging from my semi-Luddite state in response to requests for a web site from clients, students, and friends. Add two sons with the necessary know-how and here I am, dragged middle-aged, kicking and screaming into the 21st century. Because both my upbringing and my veterinary education occurred at a time when self-promotion morally ranked only slightly above exposing one’s self in public (with self-promotion possibly ranking as the more offensive of the two), this site will focus on providing what I hope those who visit will consider quality educational, provocative, and entertaining information plus beneficial services related to various aspects of the human-animal bond and animal behavior.
In one way or another everything you’ll find on this site reflects my belief that the human-animal bond inextricably links animal and human physiology and thus their and our health and behavior. Consequently, in order to properly analyze any animal physical, behavioral, or bond problem, I contend that we need to consider all three. Admittedly if you’re an animal lover outside the animal-related professional community, the idea that we should do this probably strikes you as so infinitely sensible you can’t imagine that it isn’t done already. Nonetheless, it rarely occurs. Animal medical problems are routinely diagnosed without any consideration for their effects on the animal’s behavior or its relationship with the owner. Those who study, diagnose, and treat behavioral problems may pay little attention to how these may relate to the animal’s physical health and the human-animal bond. Those who study the human-animal bond often focus only on the way this affects people rather than on the many ways different human-animal relationships may affect an animal’s health and behavior.
Although ignoring the other aspects of the powerful medical, behavioral, and bond triad enables researchers to eliminate a lot of pesky variables that can wreak havoc with data, the fact remains that we live in a world where these three influences constantly govern the activities of human and nonhuman animal alike. Because of this, taking an integrated rather than segregated approach offers a more realistic view of what actually occurs. Not only does such a unified view offer an enhanced appreciation of human-animal interactions, it also provides us with more comprehensive ways to diagnose, prevent, or treat problems when they arise.