Many advantages and negligible risk to feeding treats in the veterinary clinic. Veterinarians and vet technicians are often impressed when they see the effects of successful counterconditioning on fearful animals: growling dogs stop snapping, and scared animals become more manageable. But as a consultant, the skeptical comment I keep hearing is: “… unfortunately we can’t feed treats because if we need to sedate animals at any time during the examination, feeding might increase the risk of Aspiration Pneumonia…” This is a valid concern, of course. Aspiration Pneumonia (AP) is a very serious disease. But how does the risk of AP

When I started training my first dog in 1985 I did everything my trainers told me but made slow progress. It wasn’t until years later, when I learned the scientific principles that guide learning in animals that I learned to train efficiently and to easily solve new training problems. Probably 90% of behavioral issues we have with our pets can be solved by understanding and applying the basic learning principles. (For more information see our new DVD: Pet Dogs, Problem Dogs, High Performance Dogs: How Science Can Take Your Training to a New Level). Here are some examples described by

Virtually everyone who trains animals knows the name B.F. Skinner. Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1980) is one of the best-known psychologists in history. His claim to fame is the Skinner Box—a more-refined version of Thorndike’s puzzle box. The box had a lever, a slot for food rewards, and water. The rat could explore and if it happened to press the bar a food pellet would drop into the tray. The cage was wired to automatically record behavior showing the cumulative number of presses per minute. Similar boxes were made for pigeons. Due to this efficient way for testing rats and pigeons

While animal behavior was struggling to become a science, researches, one by one, inched their way closer. One of the first was Ivan Pavlov. Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936) In the early 1900s, the Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov, was studying digestion in dogs. Pavlov designed and surgically implanted a fistula, which allowed him to measure and analyze gastric secretions after feeding his canine test subjects. His findings from this research eventually won him a Nobel Prize in medicine, which later attributed to his prestigious standing in Russia and among the Academy of Sciences. However, during the course of his research, Pavlov observed

Over 20 years ago, when I became interested in dog training and animal behavior, I frequently heard statements such as, “Well, in the wild, the alpha wolf eats before subordinates and walks ahead of them.” Then later I’d hear someone say, “That’s wrong, they don’t do that at all.” So how do you find out what’s right? You could crack open any current book by Dr. David Mech, the most notable wolf biologist alive. Or you could take a course at a respected conservations and research park study wolves, such as Wolf Park in Indiana. I did just that back

I learned more than I ever could have imagined about animal behavior. From behavior theory to its practical applications, I learned about the historical background of applied animal behavior, the fundamental principles of behavior modification, and how to apply my newly honed skills to different types of animals.