The brief interludes of humming and chirping soundtrack you’ll hear with this podcast are the constant sound of of the river in the valley below the house and the seasonal brook flowing across the back yard, all punctuated by birdsong. And below are pictures of the intrepid mini-crocuses. The pale lavender ones were the first to show themselves beneath the snow in their usual location. But the yellow ones came as a complete surprise as few days later. Had I not slipped when I jumped off the stone wall near the woodpile, landed on my behind in a mound
Read more →For supporters of the Yellow Dog Program who think that someone ought to tie a yellow ribbon around my neck to warn other people to stay away from me, alas that could backfire for the same reason it could backfire in dogs. That said, I’m the first to admit that my take on this easily could be biased by my work. I’m not a big fan of the Rub-Their-Noses-In-It approach to training that advocates putting dogs in situations that cause them behavioral pain to teach them to accept it for our own convenience. As a veterinarian, I’m also not
Read more →When I was editing this podcast, I realized it also includes one disservice and a behavioral phenomenon of interest (I hope) that may occur in domestic animals which I failed to mention when I recorded it. The disservice was to my dogs for focusing primarily on the cat’s ancient repertoire when their own “divide and confuse” strategy is pretty ancient too. The behavioral phenomenon I failed to point out is how the dogs’ strategy—moving to opposite sides of the perceived threat—was a display that also occurred in the cat’s behavioral repertoire. In wild canine and feline species living in
Read more →Surely every culture has a saying comparable to “Do as I say, not as I do.” And most likely such sayings persist over generations because the desire to tell others what to do while we do as we please remains a common human short-coming. But while we may worry most about our peers or, gasp!, superiors pointing out this inconsistency and thus may be more mindful about displaying such behavior in their presence, somehow we convince ourselves we can fool kids and animals. And sometimes we may succeed. But other times when we think we’re fooling them, they wind
Read more →In retrospect I think my parents had a built-in system that prevented them or I thinking that my various talents conferred maturity: siblings. Whatever sense of entitlement my sibs didn’t (sometimes literally) beat out of me, spending 4 years in vet school with others who were as if not more “special” than I took a good chunk out of the remainder. Toss in finding myself looking at the testicles of a thoroughbred stallion rearing in the confined space between me and the locked stall door… Well, let’s just say that in that moment my grades and musical talent meant
Read more →Moving on with our overview of crippling parental strategies imposed on kids that may create problems for our animals, this podcast looks at guilt. I’ve never decided to my satisfaction whether owner guilt is the result of its position as the driving force in the marketing of many pet-related products and services or the opposite. That is, is guilt such an obvious motivator in so many human-companion animal relationships that clever marketing types immediately recognized how capitalizing on this emotion could induce us to spend more money on our pets? Whatever the answer, there’s no denying what a potent
Read more →Have you ever found yourself in a situation in which you performed a task that required a minimal amount of physical or mental ability and someone went on and on about how fabulous you were for doing this? Did you bask in their praise and wish it would never end? Or did you accept the first 30 seconds or so, but after that find it uncomfortable and then flat out annoying? Observations of animals indicate that they may experience similar responses.
Read more →Continuing with our exploration of the parenting approaches that trouble Dr. Tim Elmore* as these same strategies also may undermine the ability of companion animal to succeed, this week we look at the downside of being too anxious to rescue. In some ways, the desire to rescue flows naturally from the desire to coddle rather than permit those we perceive as lesser to take risks. We tell ourselves we’re motivated by love. But is that always the case? * The author of Artificial Maturity: Helping Kids Meet the Challenge of Becoming Authentic Adults
Read more →Although I don’t usually talk much about how parental strategies affect humans, I will in the next few podcasts because some of these can and will affect how we will relate to animals when we grow up.This opening podcast explores the need to strike the right balance between safety and risk-taking in ourselves and our animals. Click here to read the blog about Dr. Tim Elmore’s work regarding kids that triggered the thoughts that precipitated these meanderings. An ad will come up when you open the Forbes site, but be patient. The article will eventually appear.
Read more →In some ways this podcast this podcast builds on the previous one in that both look at factors that may influence the way scientific data is presented to the public. To see an example of this as it relates to animals given as gifts and the recipients, first click here to see how the results of a study are presented to the public by an organization that seemingly wants to encourage this practice. Then download the study and read it here.
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