Pet deer attacks man! Pet wolf mauls child! Hand-raised tiger savages owner! Whenever one of these headlines flashes by my radar, I can’t help thinking, “Why would anyone want a wild animal as a pet?” Why are wild animals dangerous to keep as pets?  For one, they are not behaviorally adapted to living with humans. See what a 40 year study involving undomesticated commercial farm foxes reveals about domestication. In this study, researchers selected only for tameness and over many generations they got a population of foxes that was not only friendlier to humans and easier to tame; they were

To some dog owners, the issue of vaccination is controversial—should it even be done? But to anyone living in developing country where most dogs and cats are not vaccinated or to anyone unlucky enough to see an outbreak, the issue is a no brainer. To find out more about parvovirus and why you should vaccinate your dog against it, read the article I wrote for Victoria Stilwell’s Positively.com blog, Why Should You Vaccinate Against Parvovirus.      

In the last decade some people have questioned the need for giving vaccines, at least so frequently to dogs. In the past the routine suggestion has been to vaccinate once a year. These suggestion were based on the vaccination schedules tested by the drug companies. But the pharmaceutical companies were not required to ask the question, how long does each vaccination last? Now, the guidelines for vaccine frequency have been modified and tailored more to the individual pet’s need. For instance, the American Animal Hospital Association now recommends that dogs who have received their initial Parvovirus vaccinations need only be

A reader once asked, “How can a dog bark for such great lengths of time? If I holler and scream for a long time, I lose my voice.” The answer, of course, is practice. And it starts when they’re young. Take, for instance, Alf the Aussie, who lives down the street. He started out at the front window, barking sharply at passersby: “Stay away from my property. Just move it on by.” He was so successful at sending the mail carrier and other pedestrians scurrying that when his owner promoted him to the front yard, he increased his alarm duties,

A reader once asked me, “My cat is an avid hunter, and in our area there appears to be a plentiful supply of rats and mice. He was bringing me samples on a daily basis and I had to export the live ones and bury the dead ones. I now partially closed the cat door so that he could get out but not in. However, this leaves him out at night and there seems to be creatures out there that could hunt him. Do you have any suggestions for what I should do? Can I program him to leave his

As an animal behaviorist, science and animal behavior are always on my mind; which is why I came up with the idea for this blog in the middle of my deep-water running workout yesterday. I was listening to a podcast of NPR’s Fresh Air, while speeding along at an incredibly slow pace when an interesting question was posed by the guest, neurologist David Linden, author of The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good. Why are Cigarettes More Addicting Than Heroin? He asked, “Why is it that 80% percent