Latest Blog Posts

When On Isn’t Really On

Near the top of my ever growing list of advantages of getting older is how much easier it is to admit I’m wrong. For those of you who have yet to see this quality in me, this podcast should convince you. Granted I probably don’t like being wrong any more than anyone else, but in a field like behavior it happens a lot for multiple reasons.

One is because, while our knowledge of training has bubbled along nicely, our knowledge of domestic animal behavior has lagged. My guess is that this results from a semantic mix-up. In this country knowledge of behaviorism, a training method, is easy to confuse with knowledge of how animals actually behave which is referred to as ethology.

Another reason animal behavior provides its share of reasons to rethink and even recant old ideas is because we’ve lacked the technology to study what is going on in the brain of human and nonhuman animals in the past. As this has become more sophisticated and available  more ego-busting but nonetheless delightful studies such as the one discussed in this podcast are bound to occur with more frequency.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:39 — 6.1MB)

Minding My Pees and Qs

Some people can go on and on about wine or cheese whereas I find cat pee an fascinating subject. No kidding. I returned home after a seminar on various urinary tract conditions in cats (and a few dogs) and was so wound up with new thoughts and ideas that they kept me awake that night.

As far as I’m concerned, urine is the most energy-efficient calling card an animal possesses. Because of that, it doesn’t surprise me that animals, and especially more solitary animals like cats, experience urinary tract problems when they feel physically or mentally insecure in their space. For those in the who find themselves in that position, what we see as urine  in the wrong place might be the animal’s version of calling 911.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:42 — 7.1MB)

who has responded to these podcasts and blogs. Of all the net-related activities that get foiled by my dial-up, this one is especially slow. That’s saying a lot considering how slow everything else is! But I do want you all to know that I greatly appreciate your comments and read every one of them. and often feel greatly depressed when  I can’t respond as I’d like to.

Some day…

A Peck of Trouble: Farm Animals in Suburbia

A few weeks ago I read an article in the local paper touting the value of home-grown food that incomprehensibly segued into a tirade about laws that prohibit the keeping of chickens and other farm animals in suburbia. That surprised me because keeping farm animals in more complex suburban and urban environments isn’t a good idea for multiple reasons. It’s not good for the farm animals and it’s not good for the area’s companion animals and wildlife, to say nothing of the people who live in those areas. But while the reasons for this seem pretty obvious to me as a veterinarian with a long standing interest in the interaction of health, behavior, and the human-animal bond, apparently they’re not so obvious to others.

Consider this my attempt to breach that gap.

Read more…

Parental Discretion Advised

This podcast reflects some thoughts about parents, kids, and animals that have been wandering around in my brain in one form or another for years. In a way, that makes sense because so many companion animals belong to folks who have kids. What intrigued me though was the usual: how changes in ourselves and our society affect our perception of the role of companion animals play or should play in our own or our children’s lives.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:51 — 7.2MB)

When Seeing Isn’t Believing

Fortunately, this second of the outdoor recordings lacks the worst of the snaps, crackles and pops that showed up in the first one. Perhaps the wildlife figured out what I was doing and decided to cut this poor human some slack.

Relative to animals, we humans typically have taken the “If it looks like a duck” approach to animal identification. As we’ve become ever more remote from nature, for more of us it’s become a case of if looks like how we think a duck should look, that’s reason enough to call it a duck. A good example are all those folks who can’t tell the difference between a pit bull, a boxer, and a Boston Terrier who see no problem voicing their strong negative convictions regarding pit bulls.

Because of this tenuous identification system, it’s probably not surprising that we have little difficulty convincing ourselves that any animal who looks like a domestic animal must surely be domesticated. Add our species penchant for hubris and it’s even easier to convince ourselves that those animals would like nothing better than to live with us.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:11 — 5.7MB)

Meandering With Myrn: Little Changes, Big Rewards

Because the weather was so unseasonably hot and beautiful, I decided to record this podcast outdoors. The good news is that technically the result is a good example of habituation. The not so good news is that during part of this you’ll hear the drone of a small plane heading for the airport about 35 miles north of me, a sound so familiar to me that I didn’t hear it at all when I recorded this.

You also might notice more Rice Krispy’s effects, those audio snaps, crackles, and pops caused by shifts in position or whatever. Like the drone of the plane, they didn’t show up until I replayed the recording on my computer’s editing program later.

As with my outdoor recording experience, our lives with our animals are filled with interactions, some of which have become so much a part of our daily routine that we don’t even notice them. But if these later create problems for our animals, the idea of changing them seems as difficult as changing when the sun rises or sets. Fortunately for us and them, it doesn’t have to be that way.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:28 — 5.9MB)

The Changing Dilemma

It seems like all of the world’s major religions recognize something comparable to Christianity’s Golden Rule. It reminds us that we humans, like other animals, learn by modeling. If we want another person to behave in a way we find nonthreatening and even enjoyable, we need to display that same behavior first. Needless to say, that doesn’t sit well with some of us some of the time and others most of the time. After all, it takes a lot less energy to tell someone to do as we say and not as we do.

Given how reluctant we may feel about modeling good behavior for members of our own species, it’s easy to understand why some of us blanche at the thought of doing this for our animals…

No matter how much doing so may benefit them and our relationship with them.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:04 — 5.6MB)

Forever Blackmail

This podcast discusses one example of a type of communication that’s becoming disturbingly common in the animal-related arena: emotional blackmail. Those with products or services to sell try to convince us that purchasing these expresses love for our animals. And if we refuse, some even may try to make us feel guilty or irresponsible.

However other forms of emotional blackmail such as the one discussed in this podcast are more insidious. These folks extract seemingly reasonable promises from us when we lack the time and sometimes knowledge to properly analyze their full meaning. When this occurs we don’t even realize we’ve been blackmailed until we later discover that the demand to which we agreed could undermine instead of enhance our relationship with our animals.

In these cases, it’s difficult not to wonder about the blackmailer’s motivation. If the promise extracted ultimately could undermine the animal’s health, behavior, and relationship with us, love of animals doesn’t seem like the likely motivator.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:15 — 5.7MB)

Animals, Sex, and Politics

Even though it didn’t occur to me when I recorded this, I wonder if so many politicians succumb to sexual indiscretions because, like some animals, they haven’t been able to make the transition from competitor to leader either. Makes sense to me.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:32 — 6.9MB)