Companion Animal Psychology

A new study asks dogs to make the choice. Photo: Felix Rohan/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. A lot of people like to think they can reinforce their dog with verbal praise such as “Good girl!” But does it mean anything to the dog? We know that, given a choice, dogs prefer food over petting or praise ( Feuerbacher and Wynne 2012 ; Fukuzawa and Hayashi 2013; Okamoto et al 2009 ), and this is why food is so useful in dog training . A new study by Erica Feuerbacher ( Carroll College ) and Clive Wynne ( Arizona State University ) takes food out of the equation and investigates whether dogs prefer petting or verbal praise. In a series of two experiments, shelter dogs and owned dogs were given a choice between petting and praise. The results showed that dogs prefer petting. Now before you say this is not surprising, remember we just said many owners expect their

Researchers test the bond between captive wolf pups and the humans who rear them. Photo: Geoffrey Kuchera/Shutterstock.com By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. We all think our dogs form attachments to us, but previous studies with wolf pups have suggested they don’t attach to their caregiver in the same way. While a 16-week old puppy is already attached to its owner, scientists found the same is not true of a 16-week old wolf. However, the way the wolf pup is raised and the age of testing may have an effect. New research by Nathaniel Hall (University of Florida) et al investigates. The results show wolf pups can form attachments to humans after all. Ten wolf pups from two litters took part in the study (although one pup was ill and not able to take part in all of the tests). From the age of 10 days old, the wolves were raised by two humans who were with them round the clock

What science - and vets - say about early vs normal age spay/neuter for kittens. NCAImages/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. What is the best age to get your kitten spayed or neutered? For most pet owners, is recommended to spay/neuter kittens by 5 months of age in order to prevent unwanted litters, according to the American Animal Hospitals Association . There are so many cats without homes that some shelters neuter kittens early, at 8 – 12 weeks old, so they are neutered prior to adoption. This is the only way they can guarantee that a kitten will be neutered. These days, the early neutering of kittens from 6 - 14 weeks old is supported by organizations such as the American Association of Feline Practitioners (many vets set a weight limit of at least 1kg). In the past, cats were normally neutered at 6

Photo: Jaromire Chalabala / Shutterstock By Zazie Todd, PhD We wish all our readers a happy and healthy 2015! These are our most-read posts of the year. There's been a lot of competition at the top of this chart! Which stories were your favourites? And which topics would you like to read more about in future? Please let us know by leaving a comment below, or on twitter or facebook . This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.   1. How Does a Dog's Brain Respond to the Smell of a Familiar Human? New fMRI research shows that the smell of a familiar person elicits a strong response in the canine brain. 2. Do Dogs get that Eureka! Feeling? Does successful problem-solving make dogs happy? Research by McGowan et al investigates if dogs prefer their rewards to be earned. This post was our Companion Animal Science News of the Year for the Science Borealis Blog Carnival . 3. D

 Photo: gurinaleksandr / Shutterstock Season's Greetings from Companion Animal Psychology Blog! We wish you Happy Holidays and all the best for a wonderful 2015. 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, BC, with her husband, one dog, and two cats.  Useful links: Companion Animal Psychology merch   Companion Animal Psychology's Amazon store As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. As an Etsy affiliate and Marks and Spencer affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

It’s not a case of ‘any puppy will do’ - the whole package counts. Photo: DragoNika / 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. Surprisingly little is known about how people choose a new dog considering how popular they are. While it’s a personal choice, it has wider implications – humane societies would really like to know how to increase adoptions from shelters and decrease purchases from puppy mills. Could relocation programs, where dogs are brought in from out of town, be part of the solution? A new paper by Laurie Garrison and Emily Weiss (ASPCA) surveyed 1009 people who had either acquired a dog in the last year or were planning to get a dog. People were shown fake profiles of dogs and asked to say how likely they would be to choose it. The results showed people take many factors into account, and while specific details are important – such as wanting a puppy an

Dogs love learning. Eureka! By Zazie Todd, PhD This page contains affiliate links which means I may earn a commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you. Science Borealis challenged Canadian science bloggers to write about the most important science news of the year in their field. It’s incredibly tough to choose one single study. Every week we cover fascinating research about people’s relationships with their pets, and every one of those studies deserves to be chosen. But there was one paper that really captured our readers’ imagination. It’s one of our most shared stories of the year and it was picked up by the Daily Mail too! The paper, by Ragen McGowan et al (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences), suggests that dogs experience intrinsic motivation when they complete a task . It’s an important finding because the feel-good factormatters for animal welfare . And it mirrors a trend towards positive psychology in humans which aims to find out what makes pe