ppga
Resources for attendees at the Pet Professional Guild Australia conference in Sydney, 14-16 June 2024.
My books, Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy, are now easily available in Australia, including from Amazon. At time of writing there are copies of both at Kinokuniya Sydney, and your local bookstore at home can order them for you if they don't have them in stock.
Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog will be published in Australia on 1st October. The Australian publisher is Scribe (based in Melbourne). You can pre-order it via your favourite bookstore.
If you'd like to follow me, you can sign up for my email newsletter (also by getting the checklists below). Or you can follow on Facebook Instagram Substack
Bark! Chat
After Bark! is published, I will be available for online chats with book clubs and dog training groups. Get in touch if you'd like to arrange this by emailing me on companimalpsych at gmail dot com.
Happy dog and cat resources from my books
At the end of Wag and Purr, there is a checklist for a happy dog/cat. I am making the checklists available to attendees at PPGA. You can get them by clicking the links below.
Checklist for a happy dog from Wag.
Checklist for a happy cat from Purr.
Feel free to share these links with your clients, or to print the pdf to use with your clients.
Getting the checklists will also subscribe you to my Companion Animal Psychology newsletter. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Webinars on demand
Again, feel free to share with friends and clients who you think might be interested. They are available until the end of June.
Resources for dogs
Most of the studies mentioned in my talks are discussed in Wag. On counter-conditioning, they are discussed in Bark! which will be published in October.
You can also find many resources on my website. These links are especially useful for fearful and reactive dogs:
Eight tips to help fearful dogs feel safe
Staying safe: Management for fearful dogs
What is desensitization and counter-conditioning in dog training?
Jane Sigsworth's videos on dog-dog play (the second one was included in my talk):
1) Dog-dog play part 1:
2) Dog-dog play part 2, consent tests
Resources for cats
Again, most of the studies mentioned in my talks are discussed in Purr, and you will find many useful resources on my website too. Here are some additional resources that may be helpful.
AAFP/ISFM Senior Care Guidelines (includes supplemental resources and quality of life instruments)
AAFP/ISFM Guidelines for Diagnosing and Solving House-Soiling Behaviour in Cats (includes customizable cat owner questionnaire)
Purrfect play every day from International Cat Care (included in my talk):
Purrfect play for senior cats from International Cat Care:
International Cat Care have many resources on their website and Youtube channel.
Mikel Delgado's Play With Your Cat is great for anyone wanting to know more about feline play and to play more with their cat.
Resources on communication and driving change
I have a number of blog posts in which I talk about how we can best communicate in order to persuade more people to use humane training methods:
To promote positive reinforcement dog training, teach, engage, and amplify
Saying the same thing over and over in dog training
Reasons to be positive about being positive in dog training
Why don't more people use positive reinforcement to train dogs?
Confidence and emotions affect people's use of positive reinforcement to train reactive dogs
References for strategies for the human side...
Bloch, S., & Antaki, C. (2022). How professionals deal with clients’ explicit objections to their advice. Discourse Studies, 24(4), 385-403.
Buller, K., & Ballantyne, K. C. (2020). Living with and loving a pet with behavioral problems: Pet owners’ experiences. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 37, 41-47.
Daniels, J. T., Busby, D., Chase-Topping, M., & Brown, S. M. (2023). I wish he’d listen: Client-centered interviewing approaches are associated with higher compliance with behavioral modification advice in pet dog owners. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 63, 22-30.
Roshier, A. L., & McBride, E. A. (2013). Canine behaviour problems: discussions between veterinarians and dog owners during annual booster consultations. Veterinary Record, 172(9), 235-235.
Williams, E. J., & Blackwell, E. (2019). Managing the risk of aggressive dog behavior: investigating the influence of owner threat and efficacy perceptions. Risk Analysis, 39(11), 2528-2542.
References for changing minds
Browne, C. M., Starkey, N. J., Foster, T. M., & McEwan, J. S. (2017). Examination of the Accuracy and Applicability of Information in Popular Books on Dog Training, Society & Animals, 25(5), 411-435.
Bush, J. M., Jung, H., Connell, J. P., & Freeberg, T. M. (2018). Duty now for the future: a call for public outreach by animal behaviour researchers. Animal Behaviour, 139, 161-169.
Chan, M. P. S., Jones, C. R., Hall Jamieson, K., & AlbarracÃn, D. (2017). Debunking: A meta-analysis of the psychological efficacy of messages countering misinformation. Psychological science, 28(11), 1531-1546.
Mai, D., Howell, T., Benton, P., Lewis, V., Evans, L., & Bennett, P. C. (2021). Facilitators and Barriers to Assistance Dog Puppy Raisers’ Engagement in Recommended Raising Practices. Animals, 11(5), 1195.
Mellor, D. J., Beausoleil, N. J., Littlewood, K. E., McLean, A. N., McGreevy, P. D., Jones, B., & Wilkins, C. (2020). The 2020 five domains model: including human–animal interactions in assessments of animal welfare. Animals, 10(10), 1870.
Payne, E. M., Bennett, P. C., & McGreevy, P. D. (2017). DogTube: An examination of dogmanship online. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 17, 50-61.
Todd, Z. (2018). Barriers to the adoption of humane dog training methods. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 25, 28-34.
Vieira de Castro, A. C., Barrett, J., de Sousa, L., & Olsson, I. A. S. (2019). Carrots versus sticks: The relationship between training methods and dog-owner attachment. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 219, 104831.
Williams, E. J., & Blackwell, E. (2019). Managing the risk of aggressive dog behavior: investigating the influence of owner threat and efficacy perceptions. Risk analysis, 39(11), 2528-2542.
Woodward, J. L., Casey, R. A., Lord, M. S., Kinsman, R. H., Da Costa, R. E., Knowles, T. G., ... & Murray, J. K. (2021). Factors influencing owner-reported approaches to training dogs enrolled in the Generation Pup longitudinal study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 242, 105404.
Ziv, G. (2017). The effects of using aversive training methods in dogs—A review. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 19, 50-60.
