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Building the ‘Super Learner’
By Kate Mallatratt
One of my behavior colleagues posed a very interesting question recently, “If you always set your dog up for success and aim for errorless learning, are you not stunting your dog’s ability for critical thinking, limiting his opportunity to enjoy problem ...
Stimulation for Psittacines
By Amy Martin
Physical and mental stimulation is vital to every species on the planet. Squid, poison dart frogs, pigs, rats, cats, tortoises, spiders, jaguars, sheep, dogs, ferrets, parrots, ...
BARKS Podcast with Zazie Todd of Companion Animal Psychology: July 16, 2021
PPG president Niki Tudge chats to Zazie Todd, animal behavior expert and award-winning author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy, and creator of the Companion Animal ...
Latest Articles
A Puppy Owner’s Short Guide to Chewing
Chewing is natural, it helps to clean teeth and relieve stress. Puppies need to chew, but they also need to learn what to chew.
Safe chew toys: Kongs, chew toys designed for dogs
Not safe chew toys: Furniture, small children’s toys, cables
Safe chew toys can be made more interesting by ...
The Smartest Dog?
The other day, I got a good laugh reading the bumper sticker of the car in front of me: “My Dog Is Smarter Than Your Honor Student!” This got me wondering as we “pet-parents” often do, about how smart my own dogs are. By coincidence, I happened upon a newsletter from a local veterinarian’s ...
The Conscious Equestrian – Extinguishing Force From the Rider’s Repertoire
By Sara Richter CPDT-KA
As an equestrian coach and riding instructor, most of the clients that I work with come to me with a pre-existing knowledge of traditional horsemanship. One of the most prevalent challenges that I face in my line of work, is transitioning those riders from ...
Report from the Pet Professional Guild 4-Day Pet Care Technician Certification Program Workshop
Professional Pet Care requires knowledge, skills, individual competency and a high level of responsibility.
I recently had the pleasure of attending and presenting at a 4-day workshop designed to do just that. In this blog post, I am going to give you a brief overview of the topics covered ...
See the Dog in Front of You
Anyone who has had more than one dog in their life has probably fallen into the pitfall of living many years with their “perfect” dog and then suffering a devastating loss. When another dog eventually enters our life we compare, looking at the dog before us through misty eyes and seeing the ...
Declawing Can Cause Behavioral and Emotional Changes in Cats
By Bridget Lehet CAFTP CFTBS
Take a moment and look at the world through a cat’s eyes. He is removed from his safe, warm, and familiar home and taken to the veterinarian's office where he gets poked with a needle. When he awakens from general anesthesia his paws are throbbing in pain. For ...
It’s Official: Dogs Have Feelings
That dogs have feelings, emotions, and thoughts probably seems obvious to PPG members and readers of my Thinking Dog Blog and to most people who share their lives with pets. But, as I tell my students at Bergin U, sometimes things need the stamp of approval of science, via peer-reviewed ...
Join Me at the Pet Professional Guild Force-Free Summit!
Presenting: TrickMeister Reinforcement Strategies for Success!
I can't believe how quickly the second Pet Professional Guild's Force-Free Summit is approaching! It doesn’t seem like two minutes since we were in Tampa attending the first Summit in November, 2015! November, 2016 will soon ...
The Challenges of Teenage Dogs
Dog owners are not always prepared for the challenges of a teen-aged dog: This can include their emotional response and sometimes over the top reaction to certain stimuli, 'forgotten' training, increased exercise requirements, need for more mental stimulation, ongoing socialization and ...