Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB Some time ago, I wrote an article titled Pass It On, Redirected Aggression in Cats and Dogs. In that article, I wrote: “Redirection of a behavior is one of three forms of conflict behavior seen in animals, and humans. The other two forms of conflict behavior are “approach-withdraw” and “displacement behavior,”… [Read More]
What a Blockhead! Head Shape and Trainability in Dogs
Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB An interesting paper appeared in a recent issue of Behavioural Processes (2009, vol. 82, pp. 355). The author, William Helton from New Zealand, examined results from three published studies in which breed and head shape were reported, to answer the question of whether morphology (head shape, in this case) reflected intelligence… [Read More]
Modern Animal Behavior: A Lot Has Changed in the Last Few Decades
Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB The modern science of animal behavior, which we call ‘ethology’, has come a long way in the past few decades, from a largely observational, descriptive science to a modern, quantitative science based on solid foundations of evolutionary biology and quantitative methodology. One of the most common situations in which I realize… [Read More]
A Reading List in Animal Behavior, Part One
Jim Ha, PhD, CAAB I am frequently asked about readings in animal behavior. One of the nice things about practicing in a region like Seattle is that our audience is so well educated. So not infrequently I have clients who want to learn more, want to read more about animal behavior. Most often, they want… [Read More]
Genetics, Learning, and the Whole Dog
Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT I went to a place called Fido’s Farm with my Aussie named Conner: https://fidosfarm.com. We went for an “instinct test”. I had no idea what to expect since I know absolutely nothing about herding. The instructor did a wonderful job of explaining what she was going to do with Conner and… [Read More]