First, thanks so much for your comments about the podcast, they are extremely helpful. Keep them coming, I'll summarize what has come in at the end of next week (seems like one votes for one host or two hosts votes are about 50/50, same with whether the show could charge a fee or not....) I'll keep you posted. Here's some more information from the IFAAB meetings in Tucson. There were two very interesting talks about breed recognition and breed-based behavior predictions. Victoria Voith, one of the first board certified veterinary behaviorists in the country, enrolled us in a study she is doing on breed identification. Given that breed bans are based on, well, breed identification, she and others are gathering breed identifications from a total of 1,000 people. We all took the survey, Read More
Archives for March 2009
Need Your Advice and Ideas! [Stay tuned for Podcast…]
I'm working with some wonderful folks to get a web/pod cast radio show going, and would love to hear from you about it. First... what the heck should we name it? We can't, obviously, use Calling All Pets. We had talked about Calling All Critters or Calling All Animals, but we are going to have to start simple, on a shoe string, so are only going to be able to answer email questions rather than phone calls. Thus, "Calling All.. " doesn't make sense any more. The plan is to start with a half hour 'show,' with a guest interview as before, and me answering a few questions about training and behavior. Any ideas about what to name the show? Here's another question for you: Although Larry Meiller wouldn't be available as a co-host, there is someone else who could act as co-host, sort of an Read More
More on Scent Marking in Dogs: Lisberg Study #2
Great comments about who goes when and where, keep it up. I love hearing from you. It is truly amazing how little we know about dog behavior, isn't it? But here's some more of Anneke's results, this time from good-ole-fashioned, ethological studies observing animals in their natural environment--in this case, the dog park. Dr. Lisberg observed olfactory investigation and urination at the entrance to a popular dog park, recording who urinated when and where, and who did Ano-Genital investigation (AG), or sniffed each other's butts. She found that males and females were equally likely to urinate immediately upon entering the park, but that males often urinated more frequently than females. No surprise there. "Resident" males (dogs already there) counter marked (over or adjacent marked) Read More
Scent Marking in Dogs
Here's a brief post from one of the many fascinating talks at IFAAB... brief because I'm afraid I came home with a killer influenza, couldn't even stand up on Tuesday, much less sit up. So boring to be sick, seems like I've been sick that too much this winter. Enough already. One of the best talks at IFAAB (Interdisciplinary Forum on Applied Animal Behavior) was from Dr. Anneke Lisberg whose dissertation was on scent marking and urine investigation in dogs. [And was also my Teaching Assistant for several years, a truly great house sitter and now a dear friend and colleague, so am I objective? Not even close. But based on the comments after her talk, I'm quite sure the rest of the group concurs with my assessment.] Anneke and I talked long and hard about what she should study for her Read More