Looking for safety in all the wrong places: India’s new ban on 23 dog breeds cannot succeed
Thankfully, banning dogs of certain breeds is increasingly rare. But when this choice is made, as with the recent national BSL legislation in India, we are reminded of some of the reasons that it simply cannot help prevent dog bite injuries: Behavioral genetic science shows conclusively that a dog’s breed simply cannot predict anything about […]
Embracing Dogs as Individuals at the Latest Insurance Conference
Legislators want to focus more on responsible dog ownership than breed restrictions in home insurance.
Eighth Circuit Court Fails to Protect Dog Owners’ Rights
The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has refused to protect the constitutional rights of dog-owning citizens of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The court decided not to reconsider en banc the summary judgment granted to the City of Council Bluffs, Iowa, in the suit challenging the constitutionality of an ordinance prohibiting “pit bulls.” The court’s rejection of constitutional rights, as well as the scientific advances at the broad institute, lays a foundation for seizing innocent pet dogs.
Action Patterns Aren’t Personality. Here’s What a Recent Canine Genetics Study Really Means About Your Dog’s Behavior
A new genetics study reveals more about the canine division of labor in ancient times, but not about your dog’s individual personality.
Ground-Breaking Research Shows Breed As a Poor Predictor of Behavior
The Darwin’s Ark study on dog behavior and genetics might reset how we all think about and talk about dog behavior.
Building Social Competence: The real deal in dog safety training
In 2013 the most comprehensive study to date asked whether the dogs (fewer than 1 dog in 2 million) involved in dog bite-related fatalities (DBRF) had anything in common with one another. The collaboration of a veterinary epidemiologist, a public health expert, an animal behaviorist and dog behavior researchers examined the available evidence regarding every […]
A Dog and Her Family Show Us the Importance of Social Competency
“Oh behave,” we often say to our children and dogs alike, when they do stuff that irritates us. But no one, not kids and not puppies either are born knowing how to “behave.” Understanding what’s expected of them, and how to read the signals others give off, and generally how to behave appropriately in social […]
Words Matter 101: Let’s get rid of the A word
I have a personal litmus test for dog knowledge among humans. If someone asks, “is that dog aggressive?” I understand immediately that we are starting from zero. Karen Overall, the noted behaviorist, once said that as far as she could tell, the word “aggression” simply meant anything a person didn’t like. She was speaking to […]
Canine public policies shouldn’t be created from media reports
Dr. Gary Patronek and his colleagues, the authors of a ten-year study of dog bite-related fatalities (DBRF) did something not attempted before or since—they gathered their data from massive accumulations of reports and interviews done by officials, from investigating officers to coroners and pathologists. Previous work on the subject had always been based on collections […]
The QAnon of Canine Behavior Science
A story on NPR reports that the most popular facebook post on the brief suspension of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in April was not CNN or NYT or ABC News or Fox News. They were all in the top five, but number one was a conspiracy theorist called An0maly who describes himself as a “news […]