Companion Animal Psychology

Zazie and Kristi find out whether dogs change their behaviour when someone in the home is pregnant and if they can use their noses to detect when someone is stressed, with canine scientist Dr Catherine Reeve. By Zazie Todd, PhD   This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Listen to episode 62 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation wherever you get your podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ) or below, watch on Youtube or below, or scroll down for the show notes. Can dogs detect changes like pregnancy and stress with Dr Catherine Reeve Zazie and Kristi chat with scientist Dr. Catherine Reeve about her research to find out whether dogs change their behaviour when their owner is pregnant and if they can use their noses to detect when someone is stressed. We talked about:     The survey that investigated whether women think their dog's behaviour changed when they were pregnant     The kinds of dogs that...

I am delighted to share the news that Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, will return in September 2026—and you’re invited. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. The original Bark! Fest took place in September 2024 as a launch event for my book Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog . Over 11 panels, we heard from authors of books about dogs and cats, with more than 1600 people signing up to attend.  It was a fun, friendly, and inspiring festival for people who love animals to hear authors read from their books and answer questions about why they wrote them. It was a truly special event. And it was planned as a one-off.  But people kept asking if it would happen again. So we decided that it would. The original Bark! Fest was a launch event for this book I’m just putting the finishing touches to the program, which for now is a closely guarde...

Zazie Todd will be the keynote speaker at this years Dog X, the premier conference for dog professionals in the UK, talking all about the science of happier dogs. By Zazie Todd, PhD I'm thrilled to be speaking at the Dog X conference in Winchester, UK, on Sunday October 18th 2026. I'm also really excited for the other talks. The other speakers are Anne McBride, Emanuel Oloyede, Jamie Pound, a charity spotlight on Bravehound, and live music from Grant Sharkey. This is a conference like no other that includes the opportunity to network with other dog professionals from the host PACT and from leading organizations across the UK, including major animal welfare charities. You can get your ticket here . I'll be talking about the science of making dogs happy. Dogs are sentient beings with rich cognitive and emotional lives, and modern models of animal welfare emphasize the need for positive experiences, not just preventing harm. The idea of making dogs happy is something that dog ...

Zazie and Kristi chat about the different types of research on dogs and cats, and how pet guardians can interpret it. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Listen to episode 61 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation wherever you get your podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ) or below, watch on Youtube or below, or scroll down for the show notes and transcript. How to evaluate the scientific research on dogs and cats: A guide New research on dogs and cats helps us to understand them better and give them better lives. But how do we know if the research is any good, and what about our feelings about the results? Zazie and Kristi chat about how to evaluate the science. We talk about:     Taking an ethical stance on dogs and cats that recognizes that they are sentient beings     How it can be tricky to assess research if you're not trained as a scientist     The...

Renowned dog trainer Jean Donaldson joins Zazie and Kristi to talk about what to do if your dog guards food, objects or locations, and why she wrote a second edition of her book Mine! By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Listen to episode 60 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation wherever you get your podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ) or below, watch on Youtube or below, or scroll down to read a transcript. Resource guarding in dogs with Jean Donaldson Jean Donaldson has just published a new edition of her book Mine! A Practical Guide to Resource Guarding in Dogs . If you have a dog who guards food, objects, people, or locations, you need this book! Jean joins Zazie and Kristi to discuss what to do if your dog guards food, locations, or other resources. We talk about:     Why it was time for a new edition of Mine! and what it was like to write it     How to decide if your ...