Fellow Creatures: A New Post

-
I have a new post at my Psychology Today blog Fellow Creatures on how we can help overweight dogs.

Typically when dogs are overweight, changes are made to the diet, but perhaps the owner is an important part of the equation too. For overweight dogs, owner behavior matters looks at a review of the literature on interventions designed to change owner behavior. The results show they can be an effective way to improve the body condition of pet dogs.

Photo: danbar44/Pixabay

By Zazie Todd, PhD

This page contains affiliate links.

Zazie Todd, PhD, is the author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy. She is the founder of the popular blog Companion Animal Psychology, where she writes about everything from training methods to the human-canine relationship. She also writes a column for Psychology Today and has received the prestigious Captain Haggerty Award for Best Training Article in 2017. Todd lives in Maple Ridge, BC, with her husband and two cats.

Useful links:

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As an Etsy affiliate, I earn from qualifying Etsy purchases.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Don't Punish Your Dog for Peeing in the House

-
Image
Why punishment is the wrong approach for house training mistakes, and how you should house train your dog or puppy instead. Photo: mannpuku/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   How should we house train puppies, and deal with the inevitable mistakes that puppies and adult dogs can have? Suppose your dog suddenly starts to pee in the house. You clean it up the first time but it happens again…. And then again. Or your new puppy keeps having accidents indoors even though you take her outside often. In this situation, some people will yell at their dog. Some might even try physical punishment like hitting the dog or an alpha roll. And we’ve all come across the advice that you should rub their nose in it. Don’t do it. Whether you're toilet training an adult dog or house training a puppy, here’s why that’s the wrong approach, and what you should do instead. On
Read more

What Is Positive Punishment in Dog Training?

-
Image
Everything you need to know about the use of positive punishment in dog training. Photo: JJ Photographer/Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD If you are a new dog owner, or even if you’ve been around dogs  for a while, this article is for you. It covers the technical definition of positive punishment, examples of what it is, what we know about the risks of using it and what professional organizations advise. Let’s get the technical definition out of the way first. This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you     What is positive punishment in dog training? You’ll have noticed I said positive punishment instead of just punishment. In everyday language, we often say punishment when what we technically mean is positive punishment. We can also have negative punishment, but that will be the topic of another post. Punishment means something that reduces the likelihood of a behaviour happening again i.e. the behavi
Read more

What is Negative Reinforcement in Dog Training?

-
Image
A user-friendly guide to understanding negative reinforcement in dog training – and the three alternatives you should know about. Photo: Angyalosi Beata /Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD If you are new to dog training, or want to understand some of the language of dog training, this article is for you. It covers the technical definition of negative reinforcement in dog training, examples of how it is used, what research tells us about negative reinforcement, and alternatives that you can use instead (along with some common mistakes people make, so you know how to get it right). This article is part of a series of guides that also covers positive reinforcement and positive punishment in dog training. Let’s start with the technical definition. This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. What is negative reinforcement? Negative reinforcement is one way to train dogs (and other animals). Negative rein
Read more