Here is a quick little episode for you with a summary of three recent papers. If you enjoyed this information and would like more opportunities to stay current with dog behavior research, check out Research Bites here. You can also get more information on my courses and upcoming events at www.sciencemattersllc.com. Papers discussed in this episode: Pereira-Figueiredo, I., Rosa, I., & Sancho Sanchez, C. (2024). Forced Handling Decreases Emotionality but Does Not Improve Young Horses’...

In this episode, I will be talking to Dr. Erin Hecht. She received her bachelor of science degree in cognitive science from the University of California, San Diego in 2006, and her PhD in neuroscience from Emory University in 2013. Before moving to Harvard, she was a research scientist at the Center for Behavioral Neuroscience at Georgia State University and an affiliated scientist at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University. Dr. Hecht joined the Department of Human...

Dr. Sharmaine Miller is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Her research focuses on stress, One Health, and health equity and she is interested in human-animal relationships and their impact on both human and animal health. Dr. Miller completed her undergraduate studies at Towson University (2010 - 2014) and her PhD in Biology from Pennsylvania State University (2014 - 2019). Her PhD focused on stress (biology and exposure) and its effects on animal behavior. She...

We can't help animals if we, ourselves, are not okay. Taking care of your mental health and well-being is essential to avoid burnout. In this episode, I interview Pierre Zimmerman, a Buddhist chaplain and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction instructor.  We discuss the impact of stress on different aspects of behavior, and approaches for handling stress  and uncertainty. Drawing parallels from animal behavior, Pierre explains how mindfulness can foster compassion, empathy, and better...

Dr. Allison Skagel. She is the owner and founder of Scholars with Collars Training and Behavior LLC. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire with a bachelor's degree in wildlife and conservation biology and minors in both psychology and animal behavior. She then interned with Dr. Spaulding for three years. She also served as a dog kennel attendant for the Humane Society of Rome and upstate New York for two years during this period. In 2022, she completed her PhD in behavioral...

This episode's guest is Rose Browne.  She was a student in my Unlocking Resilience course. I decided to have her on because I was so impressed by one of the assignments that she submitted for this course that I asked if she'd be willing to come on the podcast to talk about her idea more and share it with a wider audience. Rose is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner and a Fear-free Certified professional animal trainer. With over 25 years of experience in dog training with a...

Dr. McClain is a licensed clinical psychologist who has 27 years of experience administering and evaluating a wide variety of personality, intelligence, and aptitude psychological tests. She is an innovative and understanding professional proficient in mental health and therapeutic interventions and protocols. In addition, she has expertise in ADHD and PTSD and is well-versed in providing strategic direction and ongoing leadership to academic programs. She obtained her certification in dog...

Dr. Lindsay Palmer is a social psychologist who earned her PhDs in Psychology and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the Pennsylvania State University in 2022. Before attending Penn State, she earned her B.A. from the University of Virginia and managed a UVa laboratory in social cognition and behavior for two years. Currently, she is a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences at the UMass Chan Medical School. She has been accepted as a...

In this episode, I speak with Doctor Clive Wynne. Dr. Wynne is Professor of Psychology at Arizona State University and Director of Research at Wolf Park, Indiana. He was educated at University College London and Edinburgh University in Scotland and has studied animal behavior in Britain, Germany, the U.S., and Australia in species ranging from pigeons to dunnarts (a mouse-sized marsupial). Several years ago he founded the Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab dedicated to the study of dogs and...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC In this episode, I speak with Dr. Emily Bray, Ph.D. Dr. Bray is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Arizona Canine Cognition Center in the College of Veterinary Medicine and at Canine Companions, the largest US non-profit providing service dogs to people with disabilities. She earned her undergraduate degree at Duke University, completing a senior thesis at the Duke Canine Cognition Center...

In this episode, I discuss a concept called cognitive flexibility. Cognitive flexibility allows animals to adjust their behavior to a changing environment - and it's very important for resilience! Learn more about what cognitive flexibility is, how it impacts behavior, and how we can improve it. Click for more information on the Advanced Consulting Course and Research Bites. Here are links to some of the papers I discuss in the podcast: Gelfo, F. (2019). Does experience enhance cognitive...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC In this episode, I speak with Dr. Sasha Protopopova. She is an Assistant Professor and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair holder in Animal Welfare at The University of British Columbia (UBC). If that sounds familiar, that’s because my last guest, Dr. von Keyserlingk is at the same University, in the same department. They are doing a lot of great...

In this episode, I use my own dog Finn as a case study for discussing several different aspects of behavior. I talk about emotional reactivity, affective style, and impulse control. Here is a link to the study about sleep and brain development in dogs that I refer to in the podcast. You can find transcripts here and more information on additional learning opportunities at www.sciencemattersllc.com. 

In addition to this podcast, I also have a blog. I am posting one blog post a month and about one podcast episode a month. That’s really not as frequently as I’d like to be posting either one. But, I am currently maxed out as far as my time goes. I think the podcast is extremely valuable because it is a wonderful platform for bringing research directly to those of you living and working with dogs. At the same time, I’d hate to let the blog go entirely. So, I’ve worked out a compromise, of...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC Every once in a while I like to bring in voices from other disciplines to round out our knowledge of behavior. For this episode, I am speaking with a well-respected farm animal welfare researcher. Dr. Marina (Nina) von Keyserlingk is a Professor and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Chair holder in Animal Welfare at The University of British Columbia...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC Today’s guest is Dr. Mindy Waite. Dr. Waite is a Board-Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and a certified professional dog trainer (CPDT-KA) located in Milwaukee, WI. She is a lecturer in behavior analysis in the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she performs research on companion canine behavior. Her early studies focused on the prevalence, function, and...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC Today’s guest is Dr. Erica Feuerbacher is an Associate Professor in Animal & Poultry Sciences at Virginia Tech and director of the Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare Lab, where she works with dogs and horses. She also coordinates the online Masters's program in Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare at Virginia Tech. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Florida in the UF...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC Today’s guest is Dr. Ádám Miklósi. He is a full professor and the leader of the Department of Ethology at the Eötvös University in Budapest (Hungary). He is also the co-founder and leader of the Family Dog Project ( http://familydogproject.elte.hu ) which studies human-dog interaction from an ethological perspective. In recent years he has also become interested in the automatization of measuring...

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC My guest today is Dr. Monique Udell is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and an Associate Professor of Animal & Rangeland Sciences at Oregon State University, where she directs the Human-Animal Interactions Lab and teaches courses on Animal Behavior, Cognition and Learning. Much of her work focuses on the development of human-animal bonds, with wild and domesticated animals, and the impact...