Ad Hoc Advocacy
Advocacy opportunities sometimes pop up unexpectedly, as happened to me in November 2016.
I contribute a column to a local weekly newspaper and while perusing an issue I found an interview with the public works director of a nearby village. He casually mentioned spraying herbicide in the dog ...
It Was Coming Right At Me!
I am so interested in how dogs perceive things, and how they notice differences that we don’t, or that we take for granted. Those differences can matter to them a great deal. An example of that was the focus of my recent post, “Intruder in the Yard!,” about Zani’s response to a landscape ...
#iSpeakDog Campaign to Bridge Communication Gap between People and Their Dogs
To help improve the relationship people have with their dogs, The Academy for Dog Trainers, the Humane Rescue Alliance, The Bark Magazine, and The Pet Professional Guild have teamed up to launch iSpeakDog, a global campaign and website designed to help people better understand dog body ...
Spray Bottles Are for Houseplants, Not Cats
By Beth Adelman, MS
It’s piece of bad advice that just won’t die: When your cat is misbehaving, squirt her with some water. Even some veterinarians still say it.
What’s wrong with the spray bottle? Well, for starters, it doesn’t work. Yes, when you squirt your cat, she is very likely to ...
“Good Sit!”
Here is a quiz. Let’s say someone says, “Sit,” to a dog, intending the word as a cue.
What part of speech is the word, “Sit”?
Then, what part of speech is the same word if we say, “Good sit!” afterwards?
That was a trick.
If we were talking to a human who speaks the same language we do, ...
News Flash: Dogs Remember
Science has once again confirmed the obvious: Dogs can remember things.
OK, maybe I am being a bit hard on the researchers. They were specifically interested in whether dogs have episodic memory. Well, they call it “episodic-like” memory, since some would argue that only humans can actually ...
Practice? Liszt or Chopsticks
Years ago in another life I was a music teacher. In addition to class music lessons for many years, I also taught the piano and the flute. What’s this got do do with dogs, you might ask.
My pupils’ results showed I was quite a good music teacher. Being a piano teacher in the exam system was ...
Jekyll and Hyde – Social off Leash but Reactive on Leash?
It might be a coincidence but over the last few weeks I have met a lot of dogs who are reactive on leash. They bark, lunge, whine and pull towards other dogs on walks. Some will aggress if given a chance and may even hurt another dog.
Leash reactivity presents in at least two forms, dogs who ...