Using animal symbols to spread misinformation has been a common human activity for thousands of years. But does it work for the animals?
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Making the training-ethology mental transition may be the most challenging part of changing to an ethological approach to help our animals.
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Few studies have shaped my understanding of companion animal behavior and the bond as much as the decades long Russian Farm Fox study.
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What do naked mole rats, dogs, cats, have in common? Many people most likely would say, not a darn thing. But that’s not the case.
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Do wild animals display social distancing and other self- and group-protective behaviors when contagious diseases occur?
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As I found myself migrating closer to Grinchness thanks to an injury, it seemed like a good time for the podcaster to take a break. After all, if my body tells me to take a break, who am I to argue? In place of a podcast I give you some sweet holiday photos, the likes of which studies suggest will make you smile no matter how Grinchy you may feel. It worked for me. Have a wonderful, extended holiday season. There are so many holidays representing so many different cultures and religions this time of year, some unanticipated downtime
Read more →This podcast celebrates Retro-Thanksgiving, a perfect celebration for those of us separated from our loved ones Thanksgiving 2020.
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Never heard about doomscrolling and its effect on companion animal behavior? Tune in to this podcast to learn more about this subject.
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Because Halloween signals the start of the holiday season for many, it’s a good time to think about tricky treats for dogs and cats.
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Most of us don’t think of pet cats and dogs as they relate to landraces. But that could change as time goes on.
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What is the fundamental role of companion animal problem-solving? What help do they get in this regard from us? Tune in to learn more.
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Animals and science inevitably will inspire the creation volumes of first but not last words on related subjects. Like Monique the elk…
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When summer gives way to fall here in rural NH, the resident companion animals succumb to the migration effect.
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Using energy to decode animal behavior makes analyzing problem displays much easier. Once I learned that lesson, everything fell into place.
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Think of going au natural in a changing environment as a local phenomenon. A very local phenomenon. One that happens around your own home.
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What does normalizing the bond in abnormal times mean? When the COVID-19 quarantine began, the answer seemed obvious. Now, I’m not so sure.
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Cats aren’t little dogs, but that doesn’t mean that no domestic canine-feline behavioral overlap occurs. We ignore this at our peril.
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This week’s podcast presents a brief update of human-animal-planet news. It reminds us that there’s a more complex world out there than ours.
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Animal interactions may play a critical role in times of human crisis. Some of these may trigger profound changes in the quality of the human-companion animal bond.
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Would you kill an animal messenger? Especially if the animal’s behavior said something about your own behavior that made you feel inadequate?
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An epiphany regarding the nature of the evolving bond in a dynamic human-animal world hit me like a ton of bricks when I gave my dog a bath.
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Do you consider some animal behaviors unspeakable? This week’s podcast explores their possible role in species survival.
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Normally we don’t think much about companion animal behavior adaptability in our relationships with our dogs and cats… Until sudden changes make us. Then we may think about it a lot.
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I initially began creating my COVID-19 Dream Team to save my sanity. Knowing these unsung medical professionals are there and always have been in one form or another makes the world a better place for everyone.
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Like other forms of contagion, semantic contagion related to companion animals may have positive or negative results. It depends on what we communicate.
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Evaluating and upgrading the human-animal physical, mental, and emotional environments first enhances the resolution of problem animal behaviors. But that’s not always easy.
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The start of primary elections got me thinking about politicians using animals to make political hay. This is hardly a new strategy.
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Like all other seemingly magical cures, those for companion animal problems require the presence of multiple factors. Can you guess what they might be?
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Learn how the telephone game and problem animal behaviors relate to the quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”. Tune in…
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It’s understandable that kids and dogs could fall prey to our society’s love of labeling, regardless of any negative effect on the kids’ or dogs’ learning.
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Happy Holidays from the podcaster who’s taking the holiday off to enjoy family and friends, make new memories and enjoy those from the past.
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I think that the qualities of the bonds my successful clients form with their animals would make a good human-animal bond holiday mantra. What do you think?
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This podcast explores the growing human-canine trust deficit that’s evolved over the years. Do you trust your dog? If not, what are you doing about it?
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Ecologists worldwide increasingly recognize the relationship between keystone species and habitat destruction. Lose one and an entire ecosystem collapses.
Read more →Are any companion animal ghosts haunting you and your animals and your relationship? If so, this time of year is the perfect time to think about them.
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Does the idea of normalizing problem animal behavior strike you abnormal? Even so, normalizing some problem behaviors may speed their resolution.
Read more →Most of us don’t give much thought to the burden of canine domestication…until it creates problems for our dogs and us.
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In Episode 497, I pondered the effects of human-induced rapid evolutionary change or HIREC in wild animals; but could this occur in purebred dogs too?
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Content from two newsletters got me thinking about balancing the costs and benefits of canine companionship in public settings.
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Did you ever encounter a dog who left you with mixed feelings? This podcast explores some of the mixed feelings that resulted when I had such a canine encounter.
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When most people think about wildlife evolution, the interface where today’s modern metropolis meets Darwin’s Galopagos Islands seldom comes to mind. This podcast may cause you to rethink that.
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Just as the confidence and bourgeois effects influence wild animal behavior, they also influence companion animal behavior and the bond. But as so often happens, how these effects play out in companion animal behavior may differ a great deal. This podcast explores some of those differences and how these my influence our bonds with our animals too.
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Human habitat destruction paradoxes take surprising forms. Like human habitat destroyers and preservers working together to help endangered species.
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This podcast explores some of the most common training mistakes that can contribute to problem behaviors that I’ve encountered during my career. Often those who made these mistakes became so wrapped up in what a particular training approach said about them, they lost sight of what it and they were communicating to their dogs.
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Writing this month’s commentary about equine learning got me thinking more about how inductive and deductive learning plays out in dogs and cats.
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Do behavioral seizures occur in companion animals, specifically in dogs and cats? This podcast considers this possibility and the challenges diagnosing and treating such seizures present.
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Do you catastrophize animal behavior and the human-animal bond? This podcast compares the effects of castastrophizing on wild and domestic animals and the quality of the bonds that result.
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The human-vulture-dog bond does exist as does the human-vulture-rat bond; but what about the human-vulture-dog-rat bond, the subject of this week’s podcast? It, too, is real and rather scary for reasons that may surprise you.
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While many people think about daffodils, robins, and mud season in early spring, I think about chronobiology, animal behavior, and the bond. This podcast explores a few of the many natural cycles that influence our animal’s behaviors and their bonds with us.
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How do structured and unstructured animal learning environments affect animal behavior and the bond? Thoughts about that relationship triggered this podcast.
Read more →Talk to many dog people long enough and the subject of companion animal cognition and intelligence eventually will come. Most of us are aware of our own animal’s cognitive and intellectual ability. But what, exactly, does that mean?
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What pops into your mind when you think about women who sleep with their dogs? This podcast explores some of my thoughts after reading two studies of this population from a human-animal bond perspective.
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Are you a pet-food snob? Do think that people who don’t feed their dogs and cats what you consider a quality diet don’t care about their animals? Or that they just aren’t as educated as you are about their animals’ needs?
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The title of this podcast, Unwanted Children and Canine Transport Parallels, is a play on words. The “unwanted” could refer to the children and dogs in the podcast. Or it could refer to the parallels between how a group of people or society deals with unwanted kids and dogs. Or both. This podcast will consider both.
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What kinds of thoughts pop into your mind when you hear the phrase “regrettable human-companion animal rituals”? That’s the subject of 2019’s first podcast. And for as bizarre as some of the regrettable rituals described in this podcast may sound, all have befallen real animals belonging to real people I’ve encountered over the years.
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While the podcaster takes some time off, she leaves you with this lovely example of a safe, pet-friendly holiday decoration–even for high-energy cats.
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This week’s podcast considers a completely different kind of human-companion animal bond experience. Creating it may not be easy, but I think it’s worth it.
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Our expectations routinely change, but sometimes our changing pet expectations may have consequences for them that we don’t think about. Until these cause problems for them and us.
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Do you consider yourself a pet owner, guardian, or parent? What does that label mean to you and your animal? It may not mean what you think it does.
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Do placebos exist, and can they benefit pets and the bond we form with them? That depends on whether you consider yourself among those who perceive placebos as ancient myths believed by weak-minded folk, or are among the growing population of scientists who recognize this effect as real.
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Do you get human-training lessons from your dogs? I get such lessons from my dogs and they never cease to amaze me.
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At this time of year, weeds filled with bees dominate the landscape and create a moral dilemma for me. So much of a dilemma that I dedicated a podcast to it in hopes that the solution would come to me.
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How do you feel about selfness and otherness as it relates to the human-animal bonds you form with your pets? This podcast considers that subject with help from a jellyfish and a snail.
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On-line surveys companion animal behavior and bond surveys can teach us a lot, but some pose data-collection challenges too.
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What do speciesism, sentience, and the human-nature bond share it common? It turns out, quite a bit.
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Did I mean animal voodoo communication instead of animal do-do communication? No, but animal do-do communication does confer its own special magic on all kinds of wild and domestic animals. Even chickens, rats, and little Ollie.
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The co-evolution of dogs and humans is a recurrent theme of mine, but where does the evolution of domestication fit in? This podcast resulted from my ruminations on that subject in my favorite think tank: the great outdoors. The more I thought about it, the more outrageous and yet somewhat logical my thoughts seemed to me. I’ll let you decide…
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Companion dog hubris is alive and well withing the American pet-owning community. But this podcast explores the relationship between a tribe of Native Americans and their free-roaming dogs, one far more ancient than the kind most of us have with our pets.
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Companion animal ick is also known as pee, poop, barf, farts, and perceived deviant sexual behaviors. Consequently, it’s a subject that generates more than its share of mixed human responses.
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Super caregivers can work well for humans and animals alike–until problem animal behaviors occurs. This podcast explores how perceptions of super caregivers have changed and how these may affect the resolution of problem animal behaviors.
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What do you think of when you think of dogs and religion? If you’re from New England you might think of the chapel at Dog Mountain, Vermont. But sometimes our relationships with our dogs take on religious attributes, too. For better or worse.
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Does anxiety effect animal learning? If so, how? This podcast considers what science and experience can teach about the effects of anxiety on learning.
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When you think about animals, do you take a magical or a more mindful approach? Or does it change depending on the situation? This podcast explores these two orientations and how they shape our bonds with our animals and influence our animal’s health and behavior.
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If you think this is yet another podcast/article about the horrors of ticks, you’re in for a surprise.
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Proposing animal legislation has become another way for politicians to woo voters. What should you know about these laws?
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Can you think of anything you taught your dog or cat to do that you later regretted? Do you think this could never happen to you? This podcast explores both situations.
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Does anything cross your mind when you look at this image? For years, I would have said, “Nope. Not a doggone thing.” This week’s podcast explores why this benign space-occupying lesion suddenly commanded my attention.
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Dog-rental is a topic that generates a lot of opinions, some of them more heated that others. This podcast considers the pluses and minuses of the concept.
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We all want to periodically revert to childhood with its lack of responsibility. But when we choose to get an animal, that option disappears. Or it should.
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Most of us who had pets as kids periodically long for the companionship of a special dog or cat we remember from our childhood. The temptation to make that memory real may tempt us. But doing so isn’t without its problems.
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Do you think that canine cognition obviously exists? What about dogs’ capacity to experience mental states such as knowledge, beliefs, desire, and imagination, and attribute these to others?
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In spite of how much transport animals may complicate human lives, these animals do display some thought-provoking behaviors.
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What do migrating marine life, a grey squirrel, and a butter nut tree have in common? Stay tuned…
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Just because a medical term sounds impressive doesn’t mean it’s relevant to a particular animal’s behavioral problem.
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Do you use as animals as buffers against life’s harsh realities? Does it always work for you and them?
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Does your tone of voice and body language change when you talk to your animals? Do you communicate with all animals that way? Then this is the podcast for you.
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This week’s podcast explores animal problems unique to more affluent parts of the world.
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Wheras scientists study individual facets of animal or human-animal communication, real life communicating is a much more complex and sometimes seemingly magical process.
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Nothing beats sharing positive emotions with our animals. But sharing negative ones can be a real downer.
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Sometimes the most basic features like life span and mobility can have dramatic effects on behavior and physiology.
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This week’s podcast explores human-companion animal communication, beginning with dolittling.
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Helping dogs with behavior problems involves human mental adjustment first. Working through this list of human factors that can sabotage behavior change is a good place to start.
Read more →What’s your immediate response when your pet develops a behavioral problem? How much worrying about it do you?
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Does the thought of fulfilling your dog or cat’s needs overwhelm you? Maybe technology has an answer–or maybe not.
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Does the thought of failure make your feel queasy? Perhaps a more natural view of the process will help.
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Do you have a stock response when people ask you what kind of puppy or dog they should get? I used to, but…
Read more →Changing problem animal behaviors isn’t easy. But for those who stick it out, it’s more than worth the effort.
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