Companion Animal Psychology

Dr. Cliff Redford, known as the “Worldwide Vet,” joined Zazie and Kristi to talk about his adventures and his new book, Far and Wild . By Zazie Todd, PhD  This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Listen to episode 69 of The Pawsitive Post wherever you get your podcasts , watch on Youtube , and read the show notes below. Far and Wild: Adventures of the Worldwide Vet with Dr Cliff Redford We talked about:     How Dr. Cliff started volunteering as a veterinarian     Dr. Cliff shared some of the stories from the book, including of a monkey that he helped in India     The street cats of Athens     One-eyed Jack     Helping Ukrainians to take their pets with them when they fled at the start of Russia's war on Ukraine     What it's like working with a wide range of species     Writing about veterinary procedures for a general audience   ...

Melina 2009—7 Oct 2026 By Zazie Todd, PhD On Wednesday we lost our beautiful tortoiseshell cat, Melina. She was 17. We adopted Melina from the BC SPCA when she was around 18 months old.  She was good friends with our cat Harley, and also with our Australian Shepherd Bodger, who she would sometimes tease by creeping up on him when he was resting. Her friendship with Bodger is immortalized in the Companion Animal Psychology logo, designed by Lili Chin, which depicts her sniffing noses with him.  More recently, she made friends with our Shih Tzu Pepper when he joined our family. In the morning after he’d had breakfast and been outside, Pepper would often go back to the bedroom, where he and Melina would snooze near each other for an hour or two. She was a very chatty cat and we could have long conversations together. After trips to the specialist vet, she would meow more than usual and it felt like she was telling me about her bad day.  One time at the emergency vet clinic, ...

Learn about cooperative care and animal training across species at the Behaviour Eh! conference--and use my promo code to get a discount on the registration fee. By Zazie Todd, PhD I'm excited for the BehavioUr Eh! conference in Calgary, Alberta, next year. It takes place March 5-7 for three days of learning about animal behaviour across species, with a particular focus on cooperative care. Whether you work with dogs, cats, parrots, or horses, this is an opportunity to learn from distinguished colleagues who work with those species (and grizzly bears, too!).  The speakers are myself, Dr. Eduardo Fernandez, Marine Laberge, Robin Horemans, Monty Gwenne, and Cindy Peacock.  We can learn a lot from our colleagues who work with other species and it's going to be really fascinating to hear the talks and take part in collaborative discussions about best practices. I'm delighted to be able to offer you a discount on the registration fee. Use promo code TODD10% to claim your disco...

What should we do when someone is wrong on the internet about dog training or cat behaviour, and is it worth trying a DRI for humans...  By Zazie Todd, PhD Listen to episode 68 of The Pawsitive Post in Conversation wherever you get your podcasts ( Apple , Spotify ), watch on Youtube , or listen or watch below. Being positive about positive reinforcement Kristi and Zazie chat about the need to be positive when talking about dog training and cat behaviour, and how they cope when someone is wrong on the internet. We talked about:     The value of positive reinforcement, and gratitude for the positive reinforcement we get for the podcast     How to cope when someone is badly wrong on the internet and the post takes off     The idea of a DRI for ourselves: differential reinforcement of an incompatible behaviour      The idea of a revenge blog and how we have both written some of them     The value of likes, comments, and shares...

We chat about the history of dog breeds and what makes dogs so successful with Tamsin Pickeral, author of The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds that Changed the World.   By Zazie Todd, PhD Listen to episode 67 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.  The Invention of the Dog with Tamsin Pickeral Tamsin Pickeral's new book, The Invention of the Dog: 75 Breeds that Changed the World is a fascinating, touching, and beautifully illustrated account of where our beloved dogs come from. Tamsin joined Zazie and Kristi to chat about the book. We talked about:     How the book came about, and what it was like selecting the artwork to be included in the book     Then we look at 3 very different breeds, starting with the history of the Shih Tzu     The history of the Bernese Mountain Dog     The history of the Yorkshire Terrie...