A colleague just sent me a link to one of my favorite science and behavior blogs, that of Harold Herzog, the author of Some We Love, Some We Hate, Some We Eat: Why It's So Hard to Think Straight About Animals. I use his book in my University class, The Biology and Philosophy of Human/Animal Relationships," because the author is thoughtful, knowledgeable and one of those rare scientists who writes beautifully. If you find the topic interesting and haven't read his book yet, pick up a copy. I highly recommend it. The book includes a section on pets, and his recent blog addresses that issue as well; in this case, whether a video-gone-viral about "Baboons Keeping Dogs as Pets" accurately depicts the relationship between individuals of these two species. If you haven't seen it yet, the Read More
Archives for 2012
The Ten-Year Anniversary of OEL
I was recently reminded that my first national book, The Other End of the Leash, was published in June of 2002, ten years ago (thank you Lisa). Wow. Ten years. It feels like a long time, and it feels like the years have flown by. Time is like that. There's something about big blocks of time and anniversaries--10 years, 25 years--that helps us to step out of our busy lives and look at the big picture. This feels especially relevant to me now as I work on a memoir. I find myself asking what parts of the book still resonate most for me, and what aspects of the book most relate to what I want to say in the memoir. At the moment there are two things that stand out the most: how understanding the world as best we can from a dog's perspective enriches our relationship, and how dogs are such a Read More
Using Positives to Decrease Negatives
Here's something interesting I learned while working on a talk I'll be giving at the Annual Conference of the Wisconsin Association of Behavior Analysis on August 15th in Madison. My talk is "Creating Harmony Between Dogs and Special Needs Children," and it involves discussing the benefits to the family of having a dog, but also the risks to the dogs that need to be addressed and minimized as much as possible. As we all know, even parents of typical children sometimes struggle with interactions between their children and their dog, and things can be even harder for parents of children with special needs. While working on my talk I read a research paper that is relevant to dog training in general, even though the case study was about changing the behavior of a child with Autism Spectrum Read More
eBooks Available!
The rock stars at my office (that's Katie and Lisa and Denise) have made all the books that we publish, from The Puppy Primer to Feisty Fido, available as eBooks. You can learn more about ordering them by going to the website at PatriciaMcConnell.com. You can download them onto your Kindle, your Nook, your computer, your iPad and your forehead for all I know (okay, maybe not). I'll be writing my usual weekly blog tomorrow, but I wanted to get the word out about this now because, well, we've been working on it a long time and it's great to have it all working and the books available in this form. Enjoy! Read More
Simply Wrong
I don't know about you, but anytime I hear a dog training product described as "revolutionary," I get worried. And for good reason. Have you heard about the new "revolutionary way" to walk your dog? It's called SimpleLeash, and it is guaranteed to work on "dogs of all sizes and temperaments." What's the revolutionary idea? Your dog gets a shock if he pulls on the leash. Ah, but it's not called a shock. I couldn't find the word shock anywhere on their website. No, no shocks here, just a "harmless correction stimulus," that intensifies the harder your dog pulls. There is simply nothing for the owner to do, the collar automatically does it all! Thus, the SimpleLeash. "You literally don't do a thing except hold the end of the leash." Well, maybe one more thing, like scrap up the puddle Read More
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