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Cat Sitter or Cattery?
Canine Communication and Social Behavior
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Thinking Outside the Shelter
Behavioral services for companion animals can be so resource intensive that shelter administrators may consider in-house behavior programs to be a luxury rather than a necessity.
When shelter leadership does take a chance on starting ...
Dog Parks: The Good, the Bad, and the Reality
According to the most recent report issued by the Trust for Public Land (TPL) (2019), dog parks “are among the fastest growing park amenities in the combined parks systems of the 100 largest US cities. There are currently 810 dedicated dog ...
How Cats Are Made: Nature, Nurture, and the Now
It is not uncommon for adopters to base their decision primarily on the cat’s outward appearance and be less interested, or not interested at all, in the cat’s socialization history, life experiences, and behavior.
In Karsh’s study on ...
Tracking Equines
A while ago I hosted a tracking workshop for dogs at my hobby farm in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales (NSW), Australia, hosted by Margaret Keast of Jigsaw Dog Training and Behaviour Consultancy, who is based in Newcastle, NSW. I had a ...
Building a Feline Behavior Volunteer Program…from Scratch
At Friends For Life Animal Shelter, keeping pets with their families is at the core of our mission. But Houston has a problem: there are an estimated 1.4 million pet cats living here (American Veterinary Medical Association, 2017) and very ...
Saving Detainees and Dogs, One Life at a Time
Our dog training company, Cold Nose College, has been teaching a dog training program at the Georgia Department of Corrections Colwell Probation Detention Center, a minimum-security, short-term sentencing facility housing probation and ...
A Positive Strategy
As I set up my dog on the start line of an agility course, I want her to feel excited and exhilarated. At the same time, I also want her to feel relaxed within the environment and completely engaged with me, focused on my communication and ...
Thinking Outside the Box
Hei Hei is a 13-year-old male cockatiel who, at the time of relinquishment, displayed plucking behavior.
During my first week observing Hei Hei, I noticed that he preferred to be outside the cage. I didn’t notice any plucking ...