As many of you know, I did a seminar on new research on canine behavior in Madison last October. (Oh, and by the way, have I mentioned it is now available as a DVD -- hot off the press? Tee Hee, we're pretty excited about it!) It was a great experience for me, because like all teachers do, I ended up learning even more than I had hoped to learn about the topic myself. One of the findings most interesting to me relates to how we respond to a correct response from our dogs. Two studies suggested we would be wise to be thoughtful about how we do so: First, Lindsay Wood did research at Hunter College comparing 20 dogs who were trained to nose a target using either a clicker as a marker, or the word "good." Not surprisingly, the clicker trained dogs were significantly faster to reach Read More
Archives for 2012
Missing the Sense, Scent of the Missing
Part of the fun of preparing for the seminar I did in Orlando was working on the canine olfaction section. The overall topic of the day was Canine Communication (often compared to primates like us), and most discussions in this vein emphasize visual communication. That's all well and good, I'm a visual signal groupie from way back, but I loved beginning the day talking about scent, and imagining what it would be like to be able to use one's nose like a dog. We all know, intellectually anyway, how important smell is to dogs, but because we tend to be so oblivious to it, it is hard for us to imagine (Example of our obliviousness: What's the common word used to described people who can't smell? Yup, there isn't one.) Hard to imagine what it's like to be a dog (okay, impossible), but here Read More
Therapy Dogs – Born or Made?
As many of you know I recently presented a seminar on animal assisted therapy in Naples Florida. (Yes, it'll be out as a DVD later this winter. Happy Dance!) One of the motivations for doing the seminar was the number of clients I had who wanted me to help them prepare their dog for therapy work. Sometimes it was like swimming downstream on a warm, cozy river. Their dog was a perfect fit and ended up doing wonderful work in the community. Other times... well, it was reminiscent of trying to paddle up a cold, frothy waterfall. The fact is, therapy work can be hard work, and it takes a special kind of dog to be both good at it and to enjoy it. The directors of AAA and AAT (AAActivities and AATherapy) will tell you that one of their greatest challenges is working with people who want to Read More
Cotton Top Tamarins-The World’s Cutest Monkey
Well, they're not dogs. Or cats. Or domestic animals of any kind. But I spent two years working with Cotton Top Tamarins and hearing my university BFF describe how she is continuing her work with them was one of the highlights of my trip to Florida. Anne Savage, Senior Conservation Biologist at Disney World, has been studying Cotton Top Tamarins in the wild since graduate school at UW-Madison. She and I worked together with the squirrel-sized monkeys in the lab of Charles Snowdon, who did non-intrusive behavioral research on their vocalizations and reproductive behavior. The lab was committed to letting them live in family groups (rare at the time) in enriched environments (also rare at the time) and Anne and I spent many a night planning how to improve their environment, help young Read More
Tree of Life
Home Sweet Home!! Florida was great is so many ways (thank you everyone!), but I have to admit I am sooo happy to be home. Willie and Tootsie are great, Sushi and the sheep too, the snow (finally!) didn't delay our planes and it is heaven to be back in Wisconsin. I'm planning on 2 blogs next week on 1) the results of our survey in Orlando about the emotional state of the dog in Michelle Wan's video and 2) what kind of dog is most qualified to do AAA and AAT work. And then there's so much I want to talk about from Kathy Sdao's seminar on Sunday on Orlando... And then there's talking about my BFF from graduate school, Disney World's Sr Conservation Biologist Anne Savage, who is doing kick ass research/economic enrichment in Columbia as well as other places... so many topics, so little Read More