Author and educator Janis Bradley has joined National Canine Research Council as Associate Director of Communications and Publications. In addition to serving as an academic liaison, and reporting on current developments in scientific research and public policy, Janis will oversee NCRC research projects.
“Science has more and more to tell us about dogs and their unique bonds with people,” Janis said, in discussing her new position. “NCRC has taken on the unique mission of making the best of this burgeoning knowledge accessible to help people make good decisions: decisions from how to live harmoniously with a dog to how to make good public policy that supports these remarkably valuable relationships.”
Janis holds a BA in Philosophy and a Masters in English. She first pursued a career as a college teacher, counselor, and administrator. Leaving academia, she then took up professionally her passion for the human-canine relationship. From 2000 through 2009, Janis trained more than 400 professional pet dog trainers.
Janis is the author of Dogs Bite, but balloons and slippers are more dangerous (James and Kenneth), the complete guide to research on dog bites; Dog Bites: Problems and Solutions(Animals and Society Institute); and The Relevance of Breed in Selecting a Companion Dog (NCRC Vision Series). All of this comes from an abiding interest in finding and making accessible the very best information about the remarkable relationship between dogs and people.
Janis summed up her feelings for our canine companions and the challenge of understanding them as follows: “From an evolutionary perspective, dogs are probably the only species that chose us to hang around and finally to bond with. Those of us who take them up on it reap many benefits. Dogs provide not only moments of lighthearted distraction, but a kind of comfort that is hard to find anywhere else. With their incredible physical and behavioral variability, dogs seem, much of the time, to be able to meet the ever shifting and sometimes contradictory expectations we place on them, allowing us to have an inter-species conversation without Star Trek style universal translators. The science of how this works is growing almost too fast to follow.”
Prior to accepting an appointment to the staff, Janis served as a consultant to NCRC. As part of those consultations, Janis has already presented her research before major conventions and association meetings, including HSUS Animal Care Expo, the National Animal Control Association Training Summit, the No-Kill Conference in Washington D.C., and the Virginia Federation of Humane Societies. This October, Janis will address the Colorado Federation of Animal Welfare Agencies on the subject of “Speaking to Adopters About Breed,” a presentation she developed based upon her book The Relevance of Breed in Selecting a Companion Dog.
She lives in Oakland, California with her rescued Greyhounds Henry and Annie.
