Companion Animal Psychology

CAPB is on vacation: Photo: Shutterstock This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. If you want to catch up on any posts you've missed, there's the series on dog training (you can start at the beginning or skip to the end ), read about the long-term effects of puppy mills on breeding dogs, or find out why some owners don't walk their dogs . If you're more of a cat person, you might enjoy  the cat at the window or these reasons why two kittens is better than one . And if you like both cats and dogs , which should you get first? Back next week! By Zazie Todd, PhD Zazie Todd, PhD, is the award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy . She is the creator of the popular blog, Companion Animal Psychology, writes The Pawsitive Post premium newsletter, and also has a column at Psychology Today . Todd lives in Maple Ridge, B

Italian scientists have conducted a radiological examination of a mummified cat. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. In Ancient Egypt, cats were revered. It is thought that cats were first domesticated in Egypt about 10,000 years ago. The first mummified cats were buried with their owners. Over time customs changed, and mummified cats were made as offerings to the feline goddess, Bastet. From 332BC to 30BC, cats were bred specifically to be used as offerings, and cat mummies were available at different price points, ranging from ones containing a few bones, to more elaborate mummies containing the entire cat. Engraving of a cat on the outer walls of an ancient temple at Edfu, Egypt Photo: BasPhoto / Shutterstock A team of Italian scientists led by Giacomo Gnudi at the University of Parma, in Italy, recently performed a radiological examination of a cat mummy. The mummy is par

The best way to train a dog is by using rewards, but many owners continue to use aversive techniques. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. This is the final part of the series on the scientific research on dog training methods used by ordinary dog owners in ordinary situations. Over the last few weeks, we have looked at five separate studies. The conclusion of all of them is that reward-based training is best. Two separate questionnaire studies by Hiby et al and Blackwell et al found that dogs trained using only positive reinforcement are more obedient than dogs trained with punishment . Dogs whose owners used punishment were more likely to have behaviour problems such as fear and aggression. A study of training small dogs versus large dogs by Arhant et al confirmed that greater frequency of punishment is linked to aggression and excitability. These problems are even w

A past history of rewards-based training leads to more success in future training sessions. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. So far in the  series on positive reinforcement in dog training , we have found an association between the use of punishment in dog training  and unwanted behavioural issues such as aggression. The use of positive methods only is also more effective than using a combination of rewards and punishment, or punishment alone. However, all of the studies have relied on owner’s reports of their own dog’s behaviour. What if the behaviour is assessed by someone else? Does the training technique used in the past affect a dog’s performance at learning something new? That’s exactly what Nicola Rooney and Sarah Cowan set out to investigate. In this study, 53 dog owners were asked how they had trained their dog in the same seven everyday situations that were used

For dogs with problem behaviours, the use of aversive techniques can lead to an aggressive response. Part V of the series positive reinforcement and dog training.  Photo: SipaPhoto (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. Get Companion Animal Psychology in your inbox. In this week’s edition of the  series , we take another look at the use of punishment . However, while previous posts have looked at ordinary dog owners, this week the focus is on people who are having problems with their dogs . This is from a study by Meghan Herron and colleagues in the US. People who had a referral to an animal behaviourist were asked to complete a questionnaire. It asked about dog training techniques, whether the technique had worked, who had suggested it, and whether any aggressive behaviour resulted. The questionnaire was completed prior to the first meeting with the behaviourist, an

In this week’s edition of the series on positive reinforcement and dog training , I investigate whether small dogs are treated differently than large dogs. By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Get Companion Animal Psychology in your inbox. People often wonder if little dogs behave differently because people let them get away with more due to their size, but is it true? The answer comes from a large-scale study by Christine Arhant and colleagues in Vienna. Since Viennese dogs must be registered with the city, they posted a questionnaire to a random sample of registered dog-owners. They received 1276 responses from owners of pet dogs that lived in the home with them. For the purposes of this study, 20kg was the cut-off for small dogs; any dog that weighed more than 20kg was considered a large dog . The questionnaire asked about training techniques and dog behaviour, as well as characte

A study finds people who only use positive reinforcement report their dogs are less attention-seeking, aggressive or fearful. By Zazie Todd, PhD This is the third part in a  series about positive reinforcement and dog training . Photo: Christian Mueller/Shutterstock This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Get Companion Animal Psychology in your inbox. This week I’m looking at another questionnaire study of ordinary dog owners and the way they train their dogs . The study was conducted by Emily Blackwell and colleagues, and involved 192 dog owners that were recruited from three counties in the UK. They seem to be typical owners of typical dogs, as the sample included a wide range of breeds, a mix of genders (neutered/spayed/or not), and a range of different ages. Owners were asked whether their dogs had attended training or puppy socialization classes, the methods they had used to train them at