New Content
Pets, Emotions and Anthropomorphism
by Don Hanson
Emotions are complicated and messy. So much so that as a youngster watching Star Trek in the 1960s, I was attracted to the Vulcan ethos of suppressing all emotion and replacing it with logic. However, I eventually learned that without emotion, we are devoid of joy, gratitude, ...
Scent Success: Giving Scent Work a Second Chance
Congratulations to Shelley Doane! This post won runner up in the 2022 Canine Scent Writing Competition.
I started getting interested in canine scent work with my dogs a few years ago. It ...
Chat & Chuckle with Irith Bloom of The Sophisticated Dog
Join Niki Tudge and PPG Canine Division Chair Judy Luther to Chat & Chuckle with Irith Bloom.
Irith is the owner of The Sophisticated Dog and offers virtual, online training for dogs and ...
Latest Articles
How Good Are You at Assessing Your Animal’s Emotional State?
By Karolina Westlund Ph.D. of PPG corporate partner Illis Animal Behaviour Consulting
I recently did a little experiment on Facebook.
First, my friends and followers helped me name the company’s new mascot, and they also told me what species he was.
Apparently, he’s a racado ...
BARKS Podcast with Paula Garber and Tabitha Kucera of the PPG Feline Committee: December 4, 2020
Niki Tudge, PPG president, chats with the PPG Feline Committee chair, Paula Garber and vice-chair, Tabitha Kucera about all things feline. Topics range from pet cats and veterinary visits, to what we know we don’t know about cats, and to feral cats and the myths about cat colonies. The trio ...
What Makes a Cat a Cat?
By Dr. Liz Bales
What is the essence of a cat? When we understand what motivates a cat’s behavior, we understand what to expect from a cat — as a human companion and a companion to other cats in our homes. With this information, we can rethink the criteria for a minimally satisfactory ...
Dog Training in “3D”: Harnessing the Concepts of Distance, Duration and Distractions
By Joan Hunter Mayer of PPG corporate partner Transpaw Gear®
At TransPaw Gear, we want people to have adventures with dogs that are safe and fun. One way to help ensure that happens is by teaching dogs a few key skills. Concepts that apply to teaching and refining many different behaviors ...
Dudley the Wonder Fish
By Sharon Empson
It has been a little over a year since I trained Dudley as part of my Karen Pryor Academy Certification as a Pet Trainer. Not wanting to add more furry pets to our home, I chose a fish as my “other species.” I bought Dudley at a pet shop when he was about a little over an ...
Puppy House Training 101
By Sally Bradbury
House training is all about creating good habits. Young pups have very small bladders and very little bladder control, so they need to be in the right place when nature calls. To house train successfully in as short a time as possible you must take your puppy outside as ...
The Giveaway: On the Loss of a Beloved Pet
For the first time, I missed the writing deadline for my monthly PPG blog this month. Sadly, it was unavoidable, as I could muster neither the energy or the words to do so.
We each lose our beloved pets, and in the past couple of years I have read far too many posts from PPG colleagues ...
8 Pawsome Autumn/Fall Tips for Dog Guardians
It seems like no time since the year was just beginning and the trees were coming into bud. And yet somehow, despite the scourge of COVID-19, this year has whipped through and we're almost facing its end already. So with the advance of these beautiful autumnal colors on our trees, what do ...
Feline Litter Box Problems: The Needs of the Many
By Andrea Carne
The Star Trek character Spock once said: “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. Or the one.” (Meyer, 1982). This movie quote popped into my mind upon reading the findings of a new study into stress levels of multicat households ...