Companion Animal Psychology

With ever more opportunities to learn about reward-based dog training, comments from so-called balanced dog trainers are still concerning. Photo: Kseniia De Netto/Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD This post contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. There have been huge strides in positive reinforcement training over the last decade. While celebrating those changes, it’s also frustrating that there are still dog trainers who take people’s money to use aversive methods to train their dog. This despite the fact that aversives aren’t necessary and have some rather serious downsides. We’ve known for a long time that the use of aversive methods, like shock and prong collars and leash “corrections”, has risks for dog’s welfare and can affect the dog’s relationship with their human.  As well, punishing a behaviour out of a dog doesn’t teach them what to do instead or change their feelings about the situation that caused that behav...

Zazie and Kristi learn more about wasps, mosquitoes, vultures, sharks, and other unloved animals from Dr. Jo Wimpenny, author of Beauty of the Beasts . 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 57 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. Why we should love the beasties In our conversation with Dr. Jo Wimpenny, we talk about:-     why Jo wanted to write about the beasties     how everything is connected     the value of wasps and mosquitoes to the ecosystem     how sharks are not necessarily out to get people (even if sometimes they are)     whether some animals are over-rated     which animal Jo most loved writing about     and finally Jo told us which book she's been reading. Beauty o...

Spending just 5 minutes a day on games that involve social interaction, such as tug or rough-and-tumble play, is good for the human-animal bond. Photo: PeopleImages/Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD You might like to make more time for fun with your canine best friend, because new research finds that playing games with your dog for an extra 5 minutes a day is good for your relationship with them.  And before you say, Duh, of course joint activities improve your relationship, the study found that training doesn’t have the same effect. Importantly, fetch wasn’t included as one of the games that people played in the study, which is published in Royal Society Open Science . Instead, the scientists focussed on play that revolves around social interaction, like rough-and-tumble play, games of tug, chase, hide-and-seek, peek-a-boo, and “teasing” fingers that crawl towards the dog or a toy. As well, you should keep at your new play routine, because these results happened over a 4 week period...

Can pet dogs find the eggs of the spotted lanternfly with their nose? We find out from dog trainer and author Melissa McCue-McGrath. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission from qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Listen to episode 56 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. Can pet dogs find an invasive species? Citizen science with Melissa McCue-McGrath Can pet dogs use their nose to find the eggs of an invasive species, the spotted lanternfly--and what was it like taking part in citizen science to find out? Zazie and Kristi are joined by dog trainer and author Melissa McCue-McGrath to learn all about this fun project. We also learn about Melissa's book, Misadventures of the World's Okayest Dog Trainer . We talk about:     the nose work classes that Melissa teaches     why th...