Posts Related to:
Animal training
Control, Compassion, and Choices Part I
A Psychologist’s View of Crossover Training: Personal & Professional Reflections
What would possess a reasonably intelligent pet owner who loved her dogs and who had a strong background in behaviorism to apply choke-and drag methods for training her canine companions? This is a question I have asked myself – about myself – many times. Beyond my background in psychology (including classes on animal behavior and motivation!), I held what I thought were relatively humane values, instilled throughout my formative years by my parents’ demonstrations of kind treatment of our family dogs and cats.
Dominance and Dog Training
Below is the position paper of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers on dominance approaches to dog training. This is a very important issue. It is provided here with the permission of APDT, www.apdt.com. [pdf-embedder...
Do We Sell Them Short? Supporting “Agency” in Animals
Sometimes, in our eagerness to provide a happy life for our animals, we step in too quickly to help them with certain challenges. There are times when we sell them short, perhaps not realizing or forgetting that they have their own unique capabilities and skills. This blog post explores the concept of agency for animals, factors to consider when working with animals, and how we can do more to allow, promote, and support their agency and control in their own lives. The post includes a contribution by Pat Tagg of the UK that involves her unique observations of the development of confidence in a blind lamb with help from other sheep and the flock.
What Do We Really Know? Observation and Interpretation with Our Animal Friends
We often draw conclusions about how our animals are feeling or what they are thinking. Sometimes we are right and sometimes we are wrong. The scads of videos of “guilty dogs” don’t really have it right. Most of the dogs in these videos are more likely to be anxious and stressed, responding to their humans’ tone of voice rather than experiencing actual guilt. This blog discusses ways in which we can be clearer about what our animals are experiencing and notes how there are different degrees of certainty about our conclusions.
What It Means to Be Humane in Animal-Assisted Interventions
What It Means to Be Humane in Animal-Assisted Interventions VanFleet, R. (2014). What It Means to Be Humane in Animal-Assisted Interventions. The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, Fall, 18-20. The article is posted and made available here by the generous permission of the...
Overcoming Extreme Fear in Unsocialized Dogs
Overcoming Extreme Fear in Unsocialized Dogs: A Participant-Observation Study of the Impact of Safety and Play in a Home Setting VanFleet, R. (2014). Poster presentation at the International Society for Anthrozoology (ISAZ) Conference in Vienna, Austria, July 20, 2014.
Face Value
Face Value VanFleet, R. (2014). Face Value. The APDT Chronicle of the Dog, Spring, 20-22. The article is posted and made available here by the generous permission of the Association of Pet Dog Trainers. All rights are reserved.