How do we know when it is and whether it’s important? You’ve probably heard that puppies need to be socialized, but how do we know this and what do we know? Most of the ground breaking studies were done in the 1950’s and 1960’s, one of which was performed by co-authors, David Freedman, John A. King and Orville Elliot and published in Science in 1962. They carried out a classic study using the methodology that had already been established for determining critical periods in other animals such as ducks, guinea pigs, chickens, and sheep. They took 5 litters of cocker

You should find a good trainer.” How many times have we heard this advice but don’t know exactly who to turn to? When one of my dogs began exhibiting aggressive behavior, many people told me that I should “find” a behaviorist, as if it were a simple, ordinary task and that all I had to do was search. In my quest to find the best behaviorist, I realized that the options were much more nuanced, the licensing/certification organizations much more varied, and the process much more complicated than I had initially thought. Unlike many other professions, there is not one

When I think back to when I was a student in college majoring in Biochemistry I remember my professors constantly stressing that school was more than book learning. It was about getting an education so that we could see the world more broadly and understand how the information we were learning fit into real life. I took their advice and looked for connections between my classes in everything I did. When I exercised, the glycolysis and Kreb cycle pathways ran through my head, watched TV commercials psychology and classical conditioning came to mind, and whenever I waited in a slow

Do you ever wonder why seemingly loyal clients suddenly take a hike? Sometimes the issue is money or medical care; however, a surprisingly common reason is that they feel their pet has been mishandled. Just ask Carolyn Martin of Sylva, North Carolina. “I recently switched veterinary practices due to my displeasure at how my dogs were being handled at my previous vet.” She had been with her one hospital for a while before she realized that the handling was less than ideal. “While I had only small animals, I never noticed how they were (mis) handled,” she states. “I didn’t

When pet owners and trainers think about the Treat&Train®, generally what comes to mind is how they can use the program for training their pet to behave better or for enrichment and training fun tricks. Another completely different but equally cool area where the Treat&Train is being used is in animal behavior research and as a teaching tool for animal behavior students! For instance, one professor, Dr. Christy Hoffman at Canisius College in Buffalo, New York, uses her dog, Santiago, and the Treat&Train in her class called Research Methods in Animal Behavior. Canisius College is one of a handful of schools in the US

One of the perks of lecturing around the world is that I get the opportunity to meet researchers and hear about their incredible studies. These are studies that shed light on how animals learn and perceive our world and consequently how we can better communicate and interact with them. These experiences are even more exciting when I find that the researchers are using the Treat&Train®, a remote controlled treat dispenser which I developed in 2004 to be used, especially where precision is needed in training. So, last year when I visited the Clever Dog Lab at the Messerli Research Institute in Vienna as well