Cats in Conflict
Jane Ehrlich examines some of the many types of feline aggression, one of the most common behavior problems in cats, and tries to shed some light on this complex issue. This article was first published in BARKS from the Guild, March 2015, pages 24-28. Inter-cat aggression is one of the most commonly reported behavior problems by cat owners, second only to feline marking behaviors such as urine spraying and middening (Magnus, Appleby & Bailey, 1998; Overall, 1997). The only cat owners likely to have not experienced this often convoluted… Continued
Lives of Streeties – A Study on Free Ranging Dogs
This Christmas I gave myself a gift. I finally permitted myself to publish my study on street dogs in Bangalore, India. I have been working at it for a year and I am thrilled to present it finally. The idea for the study was sparked when my colleagues and I were mulling over the question of how much exercise dogs need. We decided that we needed to do a study. The premise was simple – animals inherently know how much exercise they need. Animals in the wild don’t need to… Continued
Happy New Year! Happy New Life!
First impressions are often lasting ones and so it was with my first behavior case involving a two-year old Australian Shepherd named Ranger. He was in the custody of a breed rescue and was deemed beyond hope. Ranger was destined for euthanasia due to behavior problems that were imposed upon him through no fault of his own. Ranger began life as a puppy with an elderly lady who did not exercise, train or socialize him. He was not even allowed outside to relieve himself. By his second birthday Ranger’s behavior… Continued
One of the Most Important Things to Teach Your New Puppy
By now, your new puppy is adjusting well to his new family. You probably already have started him in a good, positive puppy training class. After all, you have heard time and time again, that you should be socializing your puppy. Puppy socialization is a process in which you gradually introduce your puppy to a variety of people, places and things in the early stages of their lives. The opportunity for making the best impact on your puppy’s socialization is between 3 weeks and 4 months of age and continues until your… Continued
Does Size Matter?
A dog’s size influences his or her behavior. We sort of know this don’t we. What about people? Our stereotype of a hyper and talkative person who is constantly on the move would be a small person, and a slow-talking, slow moving thinker someone much larger. This has always been my own stereotype for dogs too, but is it purely genetic or the way we treat them? Is it possible we treat small people differently and it affects how they behave? My own smallest dog, my working cocker spaniel Pickle,… Continued
There’s Nothing Simple about Dog Play
Dogs’ play behavior has, over time, been attributed to a variety of factors. It provides puppies practice for adult behaviors. Play with humans is about “dominance.” Play with other dogs is about “dominance” or “status.” It’s a replacement behavior for hunting and killing prey. It’s a way to learn about your environment. Etc. Turns out they are all wrong. Or partly right. Play can be any of these — depending on which dog is playing and when. “Why Do Adult Dogs Play?” an article published by John Bradshaw in Behavioural… Continued
Cats in a Dog’s World
Cats communicate in a variety of ways. Those of us who are most familiar with canines can often have difficulty differentiating the signals that cats send in attempts to communicate their intent. While many of us prefer to work with dogs, it is often the case that the canines with whom we work come from homes with a variety of pets, including cats. Therefore, it is advantageous for even “dog people” to understand feline communication. Like dogs, cats will often communicate through the use of the position and motion of… Continued
Rio Goes to Tampa
I was so excited to attend the PPG Summit in Tampa, Florida last month. Tampa is just a bit more than a 2 hour drive for me. And for years I’ve wanted to take one of my dogs to a professional training conference. All the locations have been too far to drive and my dogs are too big to fit under the seat of an airplane. So while I have been fortunate to attend many conferences, this was the first time I was able to take one of my pets.… Continued
Do No Harm!
That maxim is one of the fundamental principles that health care providers are taught in school which roughly means that given an existing problem, it may be better not to do something or do nothing than risk causing more harm than good. I believe as positive reinforcement trainers and other dog professionals, we also have a duty to do no harm. The type of harm I’m referring to has nothing to do with using aversive techniques, but rather the harm when we unwittingly pass along advice that can have serious… Continued
A Laser Light and OCD
It’s really strange how it all started. My clients have had the little Bichon Frise for just a few weeks – he came over from Ireland with an unknown past – and the young lady quite unwittingly bought him a laser light thinking that he would enjoy chasing it. Just a few seconds triggered something in the adorable and affectionate Buddy that has been unstoppable since. The slightest shadow or reflection starts him off, as even do flying birds. On a walk recently some swallows swooping about overhead had him leaping… Continued
Learning from Real Dogs
I read a lot of academic studies of dogs. My students often enjoy dissecting these studies and figuring out better ways to investigate the same questions. Oftentimes, their ideas come from their extensive observation of real dogs doing real dog things — with other dogs. Researcher and writer Carl Safina makes this point convincingly and with regard to many more species than dogs. His wonderful book on animal communication and thought, Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel, gently skewers academics for some of absurdly human-centered studies and the equally… Continued
Taming the Dreaded Oreckosaurus Rex
Some dogs run and hide at first sight of the vacuum cleaner or unleash a barrage of barking, lunging and biting at the dreadful thing. Others quickly identify the vacuum cleaner’s lair and the fear response begins as soon as the person reaches to open the closet door. Cleaning house soon becomes stressful for dog and owner alike. Imagine what a vacuum cleaner appears like from a canine perspective. Dogs are conscious of height, size and elevation as it relates to their sense of security. With more sensitive hearing than… Continued
Seven Stages to a Bite
It’s sometimes good to remind ourselves of what our dogs are. Dogs are relatives of the modern day wolf, both having evolved from a common ancestor. Is it not fascinating that when we chose to domesticate an animal, we chose a predator and welcomed him into our homes. Irrespective of the form the current dog takes, he does share genes with a predator and those instincts will expose themselves in extreme conditions. What I am getting at is that all dogs, if pushed far enough, can bite! When a dog bites, it’s rarely… Continued
What You Think Is One Dog’s Punishment May Be Another Dog’s Fun Game!
I was first introduced to a positive reinforcement instructor many years ago when I adopted my shelter dog, Freddie, an adolescent dog who was very enthused about EVERYTHING! As the instructor explained how to reinforce our dogs, and even as I was seeing results, what I really wanted to hear was how we were going to punish our dogs when they did “bad” behaviors. While I look back on that kind of thinking with laughter, it got me thinking about how humans are “wired” to want to correct a “bad”… Continued
Do Cats Really Like Music?
By Jane Ehrlich According to a study by Snowdon et al., ‘cats may ignore human music—but they are highly responsive to music written especially for them’ according to their study published in applied Animal Behavior Science. Professor Charles Snowdon, of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, is the lead author of the study. In the study, 27 males and 20 females ‘took part’. ‘The cats were significantly more positive toward cat music than the classical,’ according to the report. I spoke to Prof. Snowdon about the study by phone. JE: ‘Why… Continued
Accidental Punishment
I charged straight into a positive punishment scenario by accident recently. I’ve been somewhat in the training doldrums lately, probably because I am putting so much energy into finishing my book. I have several training activities that I fall back on when I don’t have much energy. They are fairly unchallenging for me (read: I can’t mess them up too badly) but still fun for the dogs. Even those have been hard to do lately. But the other day I had some time and energy and decided to play a shaping game with each dog. We don’t… Continued
The Importance of Socialization for the Young Animal
Humans take years to learn socialization skills. In the process of growing from infant to adulthood, the human takes more than 20 years for his or her brain to fully develop. Yet during this time there is much socialization that is taking place. How different it is for animals that have far shorter lifespans than their human counterparts. Typically smaller dogs have a greater life expectancy with some breeds living more than 15 years –and some living into their 20s. Larger dogs, however, have a shorter life expectancy. Great Danes… Continued
A Freddie Moment
Freddie passed away on October 4, 2014. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of him and all that he meant to me in his brief life. He changed my world significantly since our first meeting at the adoption fair, and without him, I never would have discovered the joy in helping other people and their special canine companions. But rather than be maudlin, I’d like to share an excerpt from an article I wrote for a magazine years ago, highlighting “volunteer activities with your dog.” While unpacking… Continued
Is Fetching Really All That “Fetching” for Dogs?
As science sheds more light on the popular game of “fetch”, it is fascinating to learn that “fetch” may not always be that “fetching” after all for some dogs. Stressed dogs in particular may take longer to recover if they are playing fetch. This article discusses how this game affects a dog’s body. Fetch can ignite the hunting instincts in some dogs. This becomes evident when one considers that many dogs do not need to be taught how to run after a ball, but only how to return it. Sometimes dogs… Continued
The Prodigal Dog
It is so hard not to be cross when Rex runs off. You call him, and without even a backward glance he keeps on running towards something he would rather be doing than keeping you company. I think of the parable of the prodigal son where in essence the younger son is a waster who leaves home and the older son is a good boy. After many wrongdoings, the younger son eventually comes home prepared for trouble, but instead of punishing him, dad celebrates his return because he was lost… Continued
Why is Empathic Practice Important?
While historically empathy has perhaps been seen as a fluffy, feel good emotion with little relevance to science, or science based practice, our lack of empathy has, arguably, led us into the dangerous territory we entered in decades gone by. Those beliefs include the view that animals are non-sentient, unfeeling and non emotional; all ideas prompted through the historical views of Descartes, Malebranche & La Mettrie (Brown, 1995) then, Kant’s later view that animals possessed sensation but no reasoning. In much the same way as Watson’s original behaviorism led to… Continued
Progressive Zoos Never Use Aversive Punishment — Should You?
This series of blog posts recounts topics drawn from the Pet Professional Guild Radio Show, featuring Linda Michaels (2). Question: What are some of the benefits of using Positive Reinforcement (+R)? Answer: The benefits of using Positive Reinforcement training with our companion animals are pretty much the opposite of the drawbacks of using aversive punishment. Goodness, today, all progressive zoos and wild animal parks use management and positive reinforcement ONLY even with large and potentially dangerous animals. (See Video from San Diego Safari Park and the San Diego Zoo). Surely, we can train our… Continued
A Dog’s World
Do dogs see in color or black and white? How did my dog know that a thunderstorm was coming? Why does my dog bark when no one is there? How curious the dog’s world must be for them to respond so differently to their surroundings than we would often expect. Though we share the same surroundings, dogs perceive their environment quite differently than humans do. To begin to understand these creatures, we must try to wrap our heads around how they perceive their environment. Having a clear concept of the… Continued
Defining Empathy
Over the last decade there has been an increasing awareness of the need to think, and act, empathically within healthcare settings; this information could be very useful for us. Helen Reiss MD of Harvard Medical School reports a variety of benefits to both patients and clinicians by including; greater patient satisfaction; better medical outcomes for patients; greater job satisfaction and reduced burnout for professionals; better adherence to treatment recommendations. The research has been so influential an organization called E.M.P.A.T.H.Y ™ has been founded to educate healthcare professionals in how to… Continued
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