Mea culpa. Awhile back I hastily posted a Here Here! on Facebook about the new USDA regulations targeting internet sales of dogs. The regulations narrow the definition of "retail pet stores" in order to regulate the sales of animals sold "sight unseen," an increasingly common situation given the vast reach of the internet, and the increase in the number of puppies purchased by buyers who have no idea how they were raised. The responses to my FB post came in fast and furious and can be summarized by the following examples: "Oh, Trisha, it makes me so sad that you think that is what they have done. Please educate yourself further. This is not a step forward for the reputable breeding community." "Yes and by doing so, they are requiring everyone with 4 intact females to raise their Read More
Serious Dog Fighting: Questions to Ask if Considering “What Next?”
Recently I had a discussion with good friends and colleagues about how to handle difficult cases in which two dogs have engaged in extremely serious fights in the home. We found ourselves sorting through what factors need to be considered if re-homing is on the table. This is a common problem brought to behaviorists; I must have seen hundreds of clients who had dogs who did not get along. At all. I don't mean dogs who had minor tiffs, or dogs who were occasionally possessive-aggressive ("My couch! My human!), but dogs who had truly serious issues and were making life at home less than relaxing, if not downright dangerous. Sometimes they had serious, injurious fights, sometimes one dog lived in obvious terror of the other, even though actual fights were rare or non existent, and sometimes Read More
Upcoming Canine Science Conferences
I'm off this week, officially celebrating the marriage of Jim and I that took place last November. Veritable packs of friends and family are coming from all over the country to laugh and play and celebrate over the weekend, ending in what we are calling a "Not Wedding Party" on Sunday evening. Because I thought it would be lovely to concentrate on family and friends, I asked the indomitable Julie Hecht, of the great blog, Dog Spies, to write a guest post for us. As always, you can count of her to have her ear attuned to everything interesting in the dog world. She'll be telling us about this summer's especially interesting events related to canine behavior and cognition. Thanks Julie! Think dogs get the summer off from school? Think again! Summer is the time for conferences, Read More
Possibility Dogs: Review and Q & A with Susannah Charleson
Susannah Charleson, author of Scent of the Missing, has done it again: Given us a page turner that is exquisitely written, and rich with both emotion and information related to working dogs. However, this time the dogs aren't search and rescue dogs; although in some ways you could suggest that's exactly what they do. The Possibility Dogs, just released a few days ago, directly relates to last week's post about Psychiatric Service Dogs, because that's what it is about: dogs who help people function, and in some cases, heal. Some of these dogs seem able to search out people in need as if following a scent trail, and "rescue" them by their insightful awareness of what a damaged person needs. As in Scent of the Missing, The Possibility Dogs entwines incidents from her own life, insights into Read More
Confrontational Techniques Elicit Aggression
Remember the movie Groundhog Day, in which Bill Murray wakes up every morning to repeat the same day, over and over? That is a bit of what it feels like to write about the value of benevolence in dog training, and the problems associated with aggressive, confrontational techniques. And yet, I just can't stop, because there is still a flood of advice about using force and confrontation to correct a dog for ..... (fill in the blanks).... because 1) misbehavior is a sign your dog is attempting to dominate you and 2) you can only counter it by using force. Sigh. Those of us arguing that we should be teaching our dogs, rather than forcing and threatening them, have an excellent study by Veterinary Behaviorists to support our perspective. Meghan Herron, DVM, DACVB, Frances Shofer, DVM and Read More
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