Companion Animal Psychology

Photo: alexei_tm/Shutterstock The self-imposed stress of signing up for new dog training endeavours and how a berry U-Pick helped me to get over myself.  By Kristi Benson CTC PCBC-A, Special Correspondent This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Fear of Failure “I didn’t know there was going to be a test.”  I picked another haskap and dropped the dark blue berry in the plastic clamshell on the ground beside me, leaving a tell-tale fingerprint in its dusky bloom. My wife groaned in that not this again way and said “just pick the berries and try to have a good time, ok? It’s a perfect sunny day and there are no bugs.” We were at a haskap U-Pick, and it’s true, it really was a beautiful day. But the U-Pick maître d’ had shown us to our picking location and given us some unanticipated instructions: please only pick the ripe berries. “There are two harvests”, she said. She pointed out a ripe berry, and then pointed ou

But don’t despair. Help is out there, and every small step gets you closer to resolution and to more fun adventures with your pet. Photo: dezy/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. In a recent podcast with Daniel Mills , I talked about how I came to dogs late in life. I was a cat person first. Now, of course, I love both dogs and cats, and have lived with both for many years. But it led me to reflect on the journey I’ve come on since a dog first came into my life—and the journeys we all take with our pets, especially if they have a behaviour issue. For me, I never imagined, when I finally got a dog, that it would lead me down a path of blogging, becoming a dog trainer, and ultimately writing a book ( Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy ). I know I’m not the only one who got a dog with behaviour issues and ultimately became a dog trainer. I think it’s wonderful when people

Zazie Todd guests on the What Makes You Click?  podcast with Daniel Mills. Daniel Mills and Zazie Todd By Zazie Todd PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. I recently had the pleasure of being a guest on the What Makes You Click? podcast with Daniel Mills. We covered a range of topics including science communication skills and how useful they can be when talking about dog training, why I wrote my book Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy , and how I didn't come to dogs until later in life. You can watch the video on Youtube or you can listen to What Makes You Click? wherever you get your podcasts.  P.S. Join over 4500 animal lovers and subscribe to Companion Animal Psychology . As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. 

If you want a happy pet, you should pay attention to how you interact with them. Photo: Veera/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. I think every dog and cat guardian wants to have a happy dog or cat . But have you ever stopped to think about how the things you do affect your pet’s happiness? Since we spend so much time with our pets and are responsible for providing everything they need, it makes sense that our interactions with them can have a big impact. The important role of human-animal interactions is considered in a research paper that was published last year. The paper updates the Five Domains model of animal welfare . This framework tells us that as well as minimizing negative and harmful experiences, we need to make sure animals have positive experiences too.   The scientists single out some examples of human-animal interactions that are likely to cause positive or nega