Nation Pet Dental Health Month
Wait, there’s a National Pet Dental Health Month? Let’s face it, there’s a month for everything. But this one is near and dear to my heart. You see, as a general practice veterinarian, the vast majority of my patients have some level of periodontal disease. That is, 80% of dogs and 70% of cats by […]
Enrichment for Dogs on Restricted Diets
Enrichment provides valuable problem-solving and mental stimulation for dogs. One of the easiest ways to provide it is work-to-eat toys. But what about dogs with dietary restrictions? Even dogs who are on a very restricted diet will have some options to consider. We all want to enrich our dogs’ lives, and the lives of our […]
Online training is good for science-based, humane training
With the rise in COVID-19 numbers, more and more training is moving online. I personally do outdoor training using social distancing and masks, but as the winter months approach and the possibility of another lockdown looms, I am moving more consultations online too. Even those people who have been resistant to online training are now […]
Strut your Stuff: How to Walk your Puppy
It’s not uncommon for pet parents to think of leash walks as the go-to for physical exercise. You get a puppy, you walk him, right? It’s a no brainer. While I am in no way discrediting the value of a leash walk, because gosh, they pack a lot of value, it’s how we are performing […]
Naughtiness in Dogs: Why They Do It & Why We Love It
Why does my dog… [insert naughty behavior here]? Trainers get asked this question all the time. I sometimes ruminate on this question, mostly as an indulgence. At the end of the day, why dogs do certain things is at best a guess. As trainers, we typically track their behavior—what they actually do—to see whether it’s […]
Nature Wins: Competence and Complexity in Behavior Modification
It’s time to stop blaming competent practitioners. The other day I read about a woman using bloodroot salve to try to heal suspected cancer on her nose. Her face sloughed off. Bloodroot, a plant native to North America, is touted for its medicinal properties, but research dating as far back as 1880 has found no […]
Dog Pros and Dog Cons: Competence, Celebrity, and the Value of Kindness
Dogs. They’re magic, aren’t they? They’re magic to us two-legged beasts, at least. They’re sisters and brothers to the big bad wolf, but they’re content to sleep snuggled up on the couch with us as we watch a movie. They’re sleek and fast, or tiny and endearing, or lumbering and snuffling, or…any number of things, […]
Dig In: Summer Reading for Dog Lovers
This summer has been…well, if not the summer of our discontent, certainly arduous and fraught. But being at home this much has given some of us the time and space to crack open a book, sit back in the patio chair and read, read, read. Just as we give our dogs the enrichment they need […]
Sound Sensitivities and Unexpected Parameters: A Case Study from Academy Grad Kathryn Boccia
Graig and Ashley, an Army Corp engineer and a special education teacher, are in their mid-30s with two young sons, ages five and two. They live on a 27-acre lot in rural western New York. In February of 2009 Graig rescued two Malinois / Husky puppies living in a cardboard box, naming them Ava and […]
Staying The Course With A Nervous Nellie
“She’s afraid of the hall again,” my young client said, her voice tense. “And she’s also flinching when she hears the elevator. She’s regressing more and more!” “She” was Nellie, a 5-month-old Rottweiler mix who had been rescued from an abandoned house in rural Puerto Rico and transported to a tenth-floor apartment in Washington, D.C. […]
