Applied animal psychology brings together the two formerly unrelated fields of professional animal training and modern behavioral science. The field is new in that it represents, we believe, the first application of systematic behavior theory to the control of animal behavior.

broc A reader who uses Gentle Leader head collars regularly in training recently asked me about the use of the head collar. States the reader, “I have gotten myself totally confused and need help sorting it out. What category of operant conditioning does the head collar use fall under? Negative punishment? Positive reinforcement? Negative Reinforcement? Positive punishment?” You might think that being able to correctly determine the category of operant conditioning is just a scientific exercise; however, it’s much more than that. For instance, say you read an ad for a product that says it uses negative reinforcement to stop

At first we gave the insulin but then Mochi started hiding from us. We didn’t want to make her hate us, so we discountinued the treatment even though we knew that without she wouldn’t live long. How many times have you heard something like this where a client fails to carry through with treatment because the treatment ruins her bond with her pet? If the treatment is an injection of some sort, this type of situation should not happen because it’s easy to train cats to love getting injections and this comfort with injections can be taught in just a

When you live in a country such as the United States, where vaccination of dogs and cats is common, at least in your neighborhood, it can be easy to forget that there’s a reason why we vaccinate. The core vaccines we provide to our pets were invented in response to specific fatal outbreaks and epidemics that have killed many animals but that are much less frequent now due to our widespread vaccination programs. One can be reminded of the negative effects of non-vaccination by looking at shelters statistics or by visiting a developing country. Says Janice Girardi, founder and director

Summer conjures up images of shorts and bikinis, but for dogs, at least those in California, the “in” piece of petwear is protective headgear. Not protection from crashes or spills related to athletic play; protection from those pesky grass awns called foxtails. From afar, these awns look like wheat but close up they look more deadly. The awns fall into ears, eyes and get sniffed into the nose and once they have a foothold, their shape ensure they travel only one way—in deeper and deeper. For dogs in California who like to go on hikes or into yards and parks where

If you’re one of the millions of people who have seen this video, you either laughed or you were appalled. The video received instant fame when it was on America’s Funniest Home Videos many years ago, garnering many audience chuckles; however, from a veterinarian’s perspective, this dog’s behavior raises some serious red flags. Based on just this small clip with no history or other information, I recently showed this video to three neurologists and all three felt that the number one rule out for the twitching of the hind leg was that it was caused by a mis-firing of neurons in the brain, in