Archive for the New Commentary Alert Category

The Helmsley Multibillion Dollar Trust for Dogs: A Good Time for a Change
Last month a big news story contained two elements the media and public love to talk about: great gobs of money and animals. That Leona Helmsley earmarked her estimated $5-8 billion estate to be used to establish a charitable trust devoted to the [...]

The Sound of Two Paws Clapping
In many ways, for me the best time of day is when I take the dogs out first thing in the morning. Particularly at this time of year, I love that everything is so fresh and clean.
And quiet.
It’s the quiet that’s particularly engaged my thoughts lately. These past weeks I’ve [...]

Fat Cats and Top Dogs: Animal Behavior and the Business World
Recently Walter Brandes of To the Tipping Point, a New Hampshire business consulting practice contacted me for permission to use that business name because I’d already claimed TippingPoint Inc. I agreed and then he and I had a delightful chat about the role of tipping [...]

Hormones, Miracles, and Companion Animals
This month I’m going share some thoughts about hormones as they relate to an on-going miracle that so struck me as so amazing, it was impossible not to write about it. Can you guess what that miracle was and is?
To find out if you’re right, click here.

Companion Animals as Teachers
Last month I discussed selective mimicry, a human trait that’s also displayed by domestic dogs. That naturally segued into a discussion about how pets also might learn from us using this same method. This month we’re going to look at the flip side of this: how and what young children can learn [...]

Canine Learning: Why our best sometimes needs to be better
It’s a well-established fact that animals learn by modeling their behaviors on those of others. But as any parent knows, children don’t automatically mimic what Dad, Mom, Sis, or some other person does. Instead, even infants make use of a mental phenomenon known as selective imitation. [...]

Hop to It?
Quality versus Quantity Exercise

Perhaps in response to the weight gains in the human and companion animal populations, the numbers of reports and articles about the value of exercise seem to be piling up as fast as those excess pounds. Among these are those that passionately promote exercise as the universal anecdote for an [...]

Why Study Animal Behavior?
I teach animal behavior at a local community college and in this era of worldwide political chaos it would be easy to suffer from low course esteem. Those who teach history can proudly declare, “See? Didn’t I tell you that those who don’t study history are doomed to repeat it? Look at [...]

Charlotte’s Tangled Web
Several weeks ago, two spider-related items arrived in my email box on the same day. One was from a friend telling me she had taken her son to see Charlotte’s Web and was surprised to discover that this childhood classic now comes with a disclaimer. The second was a link to a video [...]

Pandas, Manatees, and Companion Animals: Peas Caught in a Human Pod
One of the things I love about teaching animal behavior is seeing how fundamental concepts that apply to wild animals play out in the human-companion animal realm. For example, as part of my animal behavior course, students must prepare a written report and do an [...]