Previous research has identified that the public views the welfare of service dogs very favourably compared to dogs in different roles in our society. In this talk, we will review the concepts of animal welfare and map them onto the experiences of service and therapy dogs. We will also identify potential areas of concern and opportunities for improvement.
As dog trainers, we know that the general public usually has some peculiar thoughts on why dogs behave the way they do. We investigated what role pet professionals, who are not dog trainers, offer to their clients. Additionally, we will discuss how scientists think about and act on improving the welfare of dogs using research findings, and how it can be relevant to the general public’s perception of the world.
Play is one of the most engaging behaviors we can observe in animals. Once considered a "superfluous and unnecessary" behavior by some, we have since come a long way in our scientific understanding of play. Canines - and specifically domestic dogs - are excellent models for studying play because of how long play continues to appear in the behavioral repertoire across dogs' lifespans. We will provide an overview of the science of play and review what we know about the evolutionary, ethological, and environmental influences of canine play. Next, we'll explore how canine play can be studied in community, clinical, and in-home settings and how to arrange environments that promote canine play. This includes analyzing how environmental conditions and breed influence the form of their play (what does play look like?) and the function of play (why it occurs). Finally, this talk will feature the surprising relationship between human attention and dog-dog play and the underlying causes for this interesting interspecific relationship.
Whether we are caring for dogs personally or professionally, we have a responsibility to the well-being of the canines we share our lives with. What criteria should we use to ensure that we are being ethical in our own behavior when arranging environments and conditions that promote dog-dog play? Is play always beneficial to its participants, and how do we know? In this deep dive talk, we will see how a scientific understanding of play can lead us to better practices and outcomes in training and enrichment programs. This will include examples from playgroups, coopoerative care programs, shaping and skill acquisition of new behaviors, and programs to reduce problematic behaviors. We will also emphasize the importance of caregiver and staff trainiing programs, and how such programs can be constructed and implemented to promote safe dog-dog play and beneficial, behavior outcomes for community and shelter dogs. We will also share new findings of how observing and participating in canine play programs can have beneficial outcomes on human stress and well-being. Finally, we will discuss future directions and needs for ways to applying the science of canine play in behavioral services.
In this talk, I walk you through how the Canine Olfaction Research and Education Lab trains dogs for scent detection research. Attendees will be shown how we select candidate detection dogs from our shelter and each training step in our program. Attendees will also learn how we qualify dogs to be ready for detection research and important considerations along the way.
As we learn more about canine olfaction and generalization, new work reveals ways to optimize training for performance in the field. In this talk, I will break down recent research highlighting how we can modify and adapt detection training protocols to enhance performance.
Recent research reveals we've underestimated cats—especially their social needs, behaviors, and cognitive potential. Understanding cat behavior isn’t just vital for feline welfare; it also impacts human health and environmental outcomes. In this talk we will discuss some of the reasons why studying and working with cats is not only fascinating but immensely rewarding. Whether you're curious about expanding your research or training programs to include cats, want to better understand our feline friends (or simply want to understand why others find them so appealing), join us to explore the science behind a species currently challenging dogs for the title of most popular animal companion.
When designing an animal training class or protocol, how do you define and evaluate its effectiveness? Traditional measures often focus on whether the client followed the training plan or if the animal learned the behavior. But are these outcomes the most meaningful indicators of success? After years of studying human-animal relationships, my team has identified trends in animal-assisted training programs that challenge these conventional benchmarks. Join me as we explore data from studies on the human-animal bond and animal-assisted interventions, highlighting sometimes overlooked indicators of success that significantly impact both human and animal wellbeing. Together, we’ll consider broader ways to evaluate animal care and training practices and discuss ways you might apply these insights in your own work.
Dogs are often housed alone in shelter settings to reduce injury and disease spread. However, social isolation can be a stressor for dogs. Most prior studies have focused on laboratory dogs or shelter dogs that have been kenneled for several months, such that those results might not necessarily generalize to dogs residing in US shelters. We investigated the behavioral and physiological effects of single- or pair-housing dogs, most of which had recently entered the animal shelter, as well as the impact of pair-housing on length of stay. In this talk, we will review the literature on cohousing dogs, describe our study methods and results, and discuss the benefits of pair-housing dogs, as well as practical considerations for pair-housing dogs.
In this interactive afternoon session, together as fellow canine scientists, we will begin to answer the question about whether a dogs’ body language provides observable data about their preferences and efficacy of reinforcers. You will have the opportunity to be part of science’s knowledge creation as we watch videos of dogs during informal preference assessments, determine what we think their preferred food items are, and discuss what body language cues are informing our observations.
Foster care, a unique form of human–animal interaction, is an effective tool for improving welfare by allowing animals to escape the stressors of the shelter and experience more opportunities for social interaction in a home. In this talk, I’ll discuss a recent review and new research with my graduate student, Grace Phillips, in which we examined foster care programs and their effects on human and animal welfare, evaluate the successes and challenges of supporting shelter foster care programs, and recommend best practices for lasting programmatic success. I’ll conclude the talk with preliminary findings from our recent research exploring hybrid fostering. One barrier to recruiting and retaining caregivers is the commonly held belief that they do not have the time to foster. By providing daytime care at a PetSmart Everyday Adoption Center and having dogs spend their nights in a home with foster caregivers, those barriers to participation are greatly reduced while dogs’ quality of life is improved.
When carrying out applied research studies, scientists must have a clear understanding of their research question, appropriate dependent measures to answer that question, a design that is free from bias (or are biased against their hypothesis), and experimental conditions that are equivalent in as many ways as possible except for the critical variable of interest. Samples should be representative of the population, and their methodology consistently applied. Following data collection, scientists need to ensure interpretations are consistent with the analytical results, and be transparent with their data.
In this interactive session, we will discuss these essential features and then facilitate attendees working together in small groups as they design a study investigating their own question about training methods. Following this session, attendees will work have a better understanding about the challenges of conducting applied research and be more informed consumers of science, including being able to discuss a given study’s strengths and limitations more knowledgeably.
The psychology of animal behavior or how an animal learns during its lifetime is of obvious importance to dog training. What about the biology of animal behavior or how behavior evolves over generations? In this talk I will discuss some of my recent research on the evolution of dogs and their behavior. I will also explore how an evolutionary perspective can provide a more comprehensive understanding of behavior that can inform dog training.
We will discuss “trust the dog stupid” moments in field research with wildlife conservation canines, with lessons from working with reptiles (turtles and snakes), birds, bats, and coyotes and discuss the “humans know best” bias and fallacy in this research (e.g., see Gadbois, Elliott, Flannery, 2023). From anecdotes, to deployment and training issues, this talk will give a candid look at the contribution of dogs to conservation, but also to our knowledge of their role in this line of work.