Companion Animal Psychology

Watch or listen to the recording of Pilley Bianchi talking about her book For The Love of Dog (illustrated by Calum Heath), Wendy Lyons Sunshine on her book Tender Paws, and Prof. Carri Westgarth on The Happy Dog Owner. Clockwise from top left: Zazie Todd, Pilley Bianchi, Kristi Benson and Apricat, Carri Westgarth, PhD, and Wendy Lyons Sunshine. Zazie, Pilley, Carri and Wendy are holding up copies of their books. By Zazie Todd PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.  Bark! Fest with Pilley Bianchi, Wendy Lyons Sunshine, and Carri Westgarth, PhD Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, took place in September 2024 with 11 author panels (and one tricks class from the amazing Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners Dog Training) . It was organized to celebrate the launch of my new book, Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog , which is out now and available wherever book...

Zazie chatted with Victoria Stilwell about how to understand and help fearful dogs. By Zazie Todd, PhD I'm a huge fan of Victoria Stilwell and recently I had the pleasure of chatting with her on her podcast, Positively Dog Training. You can listen to the episode here ( Apple , Spotify ). Here's the podcast description: "Victoria Stilwell welcomes Zazie Todd, PhD, an award-winning author, animal behavior expert, and founder of Companion Animal Psychology on the podcast to discuss the science of stress in dogs, how to identify signs of anxiety, and the role of medications in behavior modification. The conversation touches on cognitive bias in dogs, optimism vs. pessimism, and how early positive experiences shape a dog’s outlook.  Zazie shares insights on why fear and anxiety in dogs are on the rise, how counter-conditioning works, and why first-time experiences matter so much for a dog’s learning. Zazie also highlights the importance of finding properly qualified trainers w...

My book, Bark! , is featured in a reel from the Columbus Library. By Zazie Todd, PhD The Columbus Metropolitan Library has a history of making fun reels for their social media that encourage people to use the library. Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog was featured in a recent reel and you can watch it here  on their Facebook page (it's also on Instagram ).  They say, "Every 2 seconds, a book is rescued from captivity. Will you be a hero for a library item in need?" I was delighted to see my book included in the reel. There's actually a dog and cat theme going on throughout the video.  Did you know that borrowing books from libraries is a great way to support authors? If your library doesn't have a copy of Bark! , you can always ask them to order it in--libraries are very open to requests from their members.  Take a look at the video, and let me know what you think!

I've got a new post at Psychology Today. By Zazie Todd, PhD Do you ever wonder where most people get dogs from? So do I, so I went looking to see if more people buy or adopt their pet. It led me to a new study which I've written about on my Psych Today blog. Research published last year in Animals (Kremer and Neal, 2024) surveyed dog-owning Americans to find out where they got their dog from, and if they had lost a dog, what happened. The results show that as well as the official channels for obtaining dogs, networks of friends and family also play a big role. The importance of those networks is greatest for those with lower household incomes. Read more here: Where do people get their dogs from?

Watch or listen to the recording of Lili Chin talking about her book Kitty Language, Mikel Delgado talking about Play With Your Cat, and Lucy Hoile on the book your cat wishes you would read. Clockwise from top left: Zazie Todd, Lili Chin, Mikel Delgado and Lucy Hoile hold up copies of their books, while Kristi Benson holds up cat treats and some matatabi sticks.  By Zazie Todd PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.  Bark! Fest with Lili Chin, Mikel Delgado PhD, and Lucy Hoile Bark! Fest, the book festival for animal lovers, took place in September 2024 with 11 author panels (and one tricks class from the amazing Erica Beckwith of A Matter of Manners Dog Training) . It was organized to celebrate the launch of my new book, Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog , which is out now and available wherever books are sold. This is the recording of the panel Caring for Cats ...

I can't wait for the 2025 Dogs and the City conference in Toronto, Canada. By Zazie Todd, PhD I'm thrilled to be a speaker at the 2025 Dogs and the City conference. It takes place in Toronto, Canada, September 26th to 28th 2025. There are in-person and virtual options and you can register now with early bird pricing .  My talk is titled Helping dogs to thrive in the city and it's on the Saturday.  I'm super excited about the other speakers too. Tom Candy is talking about Thriving together: supporting dogs in challenging urban environments (and yes, that means there will be some shelter content!). Meanwhile Malena DeMartini's talk is City dogs, calm homes: strategies for successful separation anxiety resolution. The Dogs and the City conference is a little unusual in that you get to spend a whole day with each speaker. I think that's really special and I'm very much looking forward to it. They have an exciting new venue for this year's conference too, as ...

When you’re done with training your fearful dog to love something, it’s important to think about how to maintain your great results.  Photo: Esin Deniz/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.  Last July, the weather finally turned hot. It would have been an exceptional heatwave if it weren’t for the heatdome that we sweated through a few years before. It was really hot. So we set the air con unit up in the kitchen and in the morning, I went and turned it on.  I noticed Pepper, my Shih Tzu, was near my feet. This was a surprise because I didn’t think the aircon unit would be of much interest to him. He was looking at me expectantly and I felt like I was being slow on the uptake. What had just happened that had been of special interest to Pepper? I had turned the aircon unit on and—I was definitely slow on the uptake. It had beeped. Three little soft beeps to say it was...