FEATURED SPEAKER: Mychelle Blake is the Project Manager for the IAABC and is a Certified Dog Behavior Consultant (CDBC) through IAABC. She has been a regular contributor on cat and dog behavior for the Pet Health Network since 2014. Currently, she serves as the Web News Content Editor and Web/Social Media Coordinator for the United States Dog Agility Association, as well as running her own web development and design and social media consulting company, www.firelinkonline.com, which specializes in affordable, effective websites and online presence building for small businesses and the pet industry. Mychelle will be presenting a talk called Build Your Business’ Online Presence on Saturday, April 8th at IAABC 2017, as part of our unique Building Your Behavior Consulting Business track.
Featured Speaker: Dr. Lore Haug
FEATURED SPEAKER: DR. LORE HAUG
Dr. Lore I. Haug, DVM, MS, DACVB, CABC is a Board certified veterinary behaviorist and IAABC certified animal behavior consultant from Texas. She grew up surrounded by animals and graduated summa cum laude from Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine in 1993, returning in 2002 to complete her behavior residency and Master’s degree before going on to head up the college’s Animal Behavior Service for five years. She now lives in Houston and runs a behavior referral practice.
When asked what inspired her to choose behavior as a specialty, Dr. Haug said, “The brain is one of our last true frontiers. It is astonishing how much science has learned about the brain and the way it works. Despite this, we still have such a poor grasp on why humans and animals behave the way they do. The more questions that science answers, the more questions there are to answer. Behavioral medicine allows me to be a neurologist and internist as well. It also allows me to help people try to achieve the indescribably life-altering bond with their animals that I have had with mine.”
Dr. Haug will be giving a talk called “Stereotypies in Horses” at IAABC 2017, on Saturday, April 8th from 3pm – 4pm.
Featured Speaker: Kristyn Vitale Shreve
This week’s featured speaker is Kristyn Vitale Shreve, MEn, who will be talking about how a better understanding of cat behavior can enhance the human-feline bond.
Kristyn is a National Science Foundation Research Fellow currently pursuing a Ph.D in Animal Sciences at Oregon State University. She received a Master’s in Environmental Science from Miami University where her thesis examined social behaviors between free-roaming colony cats. She has worked with cats for over 10 years in a variety of contexts including as a Trap Neuter Release volunteer, shelter worker, cat trainer, and researcher studying cat behavior.
She currently conducts research in the Oregon State University Human-Animal Interaction Lab where she examines cat social cognition and leads kitten training classes. We’re excited to have her at IAABC 2017!
Throwback Thursday – Dr. Tony Buffington
It’s #ThrowbackThursday, so we’re looking back at past conferences! Here’s a snippet of Dr. Tony Buffington talking about cat nutrition and behavior at IAABC 2015. This year’s cat presentations track will be full of exciting case studies and information, too.
The full version of this presentation is just one of the benefits of joining IAABC, so check us out at http://iaabc.org!
Featured Topic: Why Do Wolves Hunt Sheep While Dogs Herd Them?
The science around dog behavior is growing all the time. One of the most exciting areas of enquiry is in comparing domestic dogs with wild canids, to try to get a glimpse into how dogs have diverged and specialized because of human involvement in their lives. That’s what Kathryn Lord, PhD, will be talking about on Saturday afternoon at IAABC 2017. Her synopsis is below:
Wolves hunt sheep, while some dogs herd them and still others guard them and yet dogs’ and wolves’ genomes differ by only 0.2%. So what accounts for these large behavioral differences? It has long been hypothesized that these difference in behavioral expression is due to a change in the timing of the onset of motor patterns (units of behavior), during early play. The aim of this study was to characterize and compare the development of foraging motor patterns in wolves and two breeds of dogs selected for different modifications of the adult wolf foraging behavior (Border collies and schutzhund German shepherds).
The frequency of the adult foraging motor patterns including “orient”, “eye”, “stalk”, “chase” and “grab-bite” were recorded in 11 wolves, 13 Border collies and 28 German shepherds from two to eight weeks of age. The onset, frequency, and sequencing of each motor pattern over the seven-week period was compared across wolves, border collies and German shepherds.
The results demonstrate that the timing of onset of adult motor patterns varies between dogs and wolves. However, this variation alone does not fully explain the behavioral differences we see between dog breeds. The data suggest that environment also plays an important role in the development of species-typical behavior.