Companion Animal Psychology

Photo: Jaromire Chalabala / Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD We wish all our readers a happy and healthy 2015! These are our most-read posts of the year. There's been a lot of competition at the top of this chart! Which stories were your favourites? And which topics would you like to read more about in future? Please let us know by leaving a comment below, or on twitter or facebook . 1. How Does a Dog's Brain Respond to the Smell of a Familiar Human? New fMRI research shows that the smell of a familiar person elicits a strong response in the canine brain. 2. Do Dogs get that Eureka! Feeling? Does successful problem-solving make dogs happy? Research by McGowan et al investigates if dogs prefer their rewards to be earned. This post was our Companion Animal Science News of the Year for the Science Borealis Blog Carnival . 3. Dog Training, Animal Welfare and the Human-Canine Relationship Observations of dogs at training classes using eith...

 Photo: gurinaleksandr / Shutterstock Season's Greetings from Companion Animal Psychology Blog! We wish you Happy Holidays and all the best for a wonderful 2015. By Zazie Todd, PhD Zazie Todd, PhD

It’s not a case of ‘any puppy will do’ - the whole package counts. Photo: DragoNika / Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Surprisingly little is known about how people choose a new dog considering how popular they are. While it’s a personal choice, it has wider implications – humane societies would really like to know how to increase adoptions from shelters and decrease purchases from puppy mills. Could relocation programs, where dogs are brought in from out of town, be part of the solution? A new paper by Laurie Garrison and Emily Weiss (ASPCA) surveyed 1009 people who had either acquired a dog in the last year or were planning to get a dog. People were shown fake profiles of dogs and asked to say how likely they would be to choose it. The results showed people take many factors into account, and while specific details are important – such as wanting a puppy an...

Dogs love learning. Eureka! By Zazie Todd, PhD Science Borealis challenged Canadian science bloggers to write about the most important science news of the year in their field. It’s incredibly tough to choose one single study. Every week we cover fascinating research about people’s relationships with their pets, and every one of those studies deserves to be chosen. But there was one paper that really captured our readers’ imagination. It’s one of our most shared stories of the year and it was picked up by the Daily Mail too! The paper, by Ragen McGowan et al (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), suggests that dogs experience intrinsic motivation when they complete a task . It’s an important finding because the feel-good factormatters for animal welfare . And it mirrors a trend towards positive psychology in humans which aims to find out what makes people happy. I asked Dr. McGowan about the implications of the research for ordinary pet owners. She said, ...

New research investigates the effects of abuse on domestic dogs. Photo: GeorgeMPhotography / Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD The paper, by Franklin D. McMillan (Best Friends Animal Society) et al, looks at the behaviour profiles of 69 dogs with a very strong suspicion of abuse, and compares them to 5,239 pet dogs. The abused dogs scored significantly higher on various problem behaviours including aggression and fear to unfamiliar people and dogs, attachment problems, attention-seeking, and repetitive behaviours. At the same time, there was no single profile that reflected all abused dogs. The research is an important first step in understanding the effects of abuse on domestic dogs. The scientists say, “Animal abuse is a world-wide problem causing an incalculable degree of animal suffering. A better understanding of the characteristics of abused animals is essential for developing the most effective interventions at every chronological point: before, during (in cases o...