It’s been a busy year! It ends with the news that my post The Ultimate Dog Training Tip has won the Captain Haggerty Award for best dog training book or article in the Dog Writer's Association of America awards. And I was honoured that Companion Animal Psychology was one of three finalists for Canada’s Favourite Science Blog. As well, I now have a blog at Psychology Today, Fellow Creatures.
During the year, I was thrilled to interview Lee Dugatkin about his new book with Lyudmila Trut, How to Tame a Fox (and Build a Dog), and Christy Hoffman about her research on dog rivalry and how to increase shelter adoptions. Kristy Benson, Gina Bishopp and Jane Gething-Lewis have all contributed fantastic guest posts. And once again the Train for Rewards blog party was a huge lot of fun in promoting the use of reward-based training methods for dogs (and cats!) – thank you to everyone who took part.
Over the summer, the Companion Animal Psychology t-shirt raised $1048 for the animals at the BC SPCA Maple Ridge. Thank you to everyone who bought one! If you missed out, don’t worry as they are available again for a limited time.
The Companion Animal Psychology Book Club has read ten books this year. I’ve enjoyed them all; my personal favourites were Being a Dog by Alexandra Horowitz and How to Tame a Fox by Lee Dugatkin and Lyudmila Trut. I also very much enjoyed revisiting Plenty in Life is Free by Kathy Sdao.
These were the most popular posts of 2017 on Companion Animal Psychology.
1. People mistakenly think anxious dogs are relaxed around baby.
2. The ultimate dog training tip.
3. What is positive punishment in dog training?
4. Extra early socialization for puppies makes a big difference.
5. Dominance training deprives dogs of positive experiences.
6. How to make the world better for dogs.
7. The pet people to follow in 2017.
8. The sensitive period for socialization in puppies and kittens.
9. New literature review recommends reward-based training.
10. What kind of scratching post do cats prefer?
A special mention goes to how to make the world better for cats, which would surely have made this list if it had been posted a few days earlier; it missed the top ten by a whisker.
Thank you to everyone for your support and encouragement throughout the year, and of course for all the many shares! Special thanks to all of you who generously shared photos of your adorable pets on my blog (you can see those photos here, here and here). Thank you to Rummy Evans of Bad Monkey Photography in Maple Ridge for letting me use some of her photos (such as this cute puppy on how to make the world better for dogs). And special thanks to my agent, Trena White, and to Greystone Books.
Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
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Photo credits: Main photo: otsphoto; 1. brickrena, 3. JJPhotographer, 4. Sarai da Silva, 9. Duncan Andison (all Shutterstock); 6. Bad Monkey Photography.
