Seek and ye shall find. What a great list of topics that blog and Facebook readers came up with! There were over 100 topics suggested, many of them addressing excellent questions. For example: What does it mean if a dog greets other dogs with a high head and tail, and yet lets all the other dogs rule the roost? Why do dogs mount other dogs--is it really just about social status? Do dogs learn best through a particular sensory modality, given that people tend to be "visual, auditory or kinesthetic learners?" These topics, along with posts about recent research, videos and case studies, should keep us all happily discussing dogs and their humans for a long time to come. I thought you all might be interested in the topics and had considered listing them for you, but a full list of 100 Read More
Archives for 2013
Why Do Male Dogs Scent Mark So Much?
Answer: We don't know, but some research discussed Friday at IFAAB by Dr. Anneke Lisberg might have shed some light on the topic. Those of you who have been following the blog for awhile know that Anneke is one of the few people studying chemical communication in domestic dogs. Although chemical communication is central to communication in many species, including our dogs, it is exceptionally difficult to study and very few people have made the attempt. It doesn't help that we primates are primarily visual and most of our chemical communication is unconscious. In previous studies (Lisberg and Snowdon 2009), Dr. Lisberg found that males and females both investigated the urine marks of either sex, although neutered males were less interested in urine from females than from males. Urine Read More
New Seminar in August, Chicago, Illinois
Oh boy, what fun. As many of you know, I'm not doing many more full day seminars anymore, but I couldn't resist pairing up with the Steve White for a two-day seminar outside of Chicago, Illinois on August 10th and 11th of this year. Thanks to a Facebook reader who jumped in with dozens of others with ideas for a title, we are calling the seminar Sense(s) and Sensibility. Thank you Mairi and kisses to your lovely dog, Layla! On Saturday, I'll be doing an updated and expanded version of "Lost in Translation," or How Dogs use Sight, Sound, Smell and Touch to Communicate. As usual, I'll take a comparative approach, looking at the way our sensory systems (notice the focus on vision?!) affect the behavior of the animals at both ends of the leash. The day will be full of slides, videos and Read More
Blog Redesign and Open Mike
First off, some good news. Many more people from all over the world have joined us in the past few months, the traffic to The Other End of the Leash blog has increased rapidly in the past six months. (Hello Serbia, United Arab Republic, Boliva, Nepal...!) What a joy it is to have this international conversation with dog lovers from so many different perspectives. However, our increased traffic was causing some website problems; as a friend says, a "high quality problem" indeed. Along with fixing website glitches, we are taking this as an opportunity to renew and refresh, and so we have made some design changes to the blog. When you go to the home page you will automatically be on the page of the most current blog post. Comments will be visible directly below, and previous posts are Read More
“Self-Control Depletion” & Dogs
This post could be sub-titled "No, a tired dog is not always a good dog," or alternatively, "Why We Choose Pasta with Cream Sauce Over Vegetable Soup on a Difficult Day." Okay, maybe it's just me that makes poor decisions about lunch when I'm exhausted, but this research suggests that I, along my dogs, are not alone. A study by Miller et. al. followed up on earlier work about the effect of self-control on risk taking and decision making. ("Too dog tired to avoid danger: Self-control depletion in canines increases behavioral approach toward an aggressive threat." Psych Bull Rev 2012 19:535-540.) Here's the background to this study: Multiple studies on humans have found that we appear to have a limited amount of self-control (A shock to us all, no doubt). It is as though we have a bank Read More
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