By Steven Feldman, CEO, HABRI The Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Victims of Crime (OVC) has now opened applications for the FY 2021 Emergency and Transitional Pet Shelter and Housing Assistance Grant Program. This grant program will support the expansion of shelter and housing assistance for survivors of domestic violence with companion animals. Please share …
Author Archives: Contributor
Using Dogs to Detect COVID-19
Investigating whether dogs could be trained to identify unique odours associated with coronavirus infection The ARCTEC team at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, Medical Detection Dogs and Durham University ran a study training dogs to identify unique odours associated with coronavirus infection. Visit Study Website
Dogs Don’t Like Passive or Unresponsive Human Faces
Dogs need a stream of active facial expressions to keep them focused on a person By Stanley Coren, PhD, DSc, FRSC According to some new research, your face may be the key to building a better bond with your dog. When we are trying to communicate with someone, the human face undergoes a number of …
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How Americans Memorialize Their Dogs
By Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSCCanine Corner, Psychology Today Some American pet owners have chosen some exotic ways to memorialize their dogs. It is a sad reality that no matter how much we love our dogs, our pets will not live forever. A new study conducted by Anthony Martin and other researchers at Choice Mutual …
Dog Breeds Usually Banned by Home Insurance Companies
By Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSC It is an unfortunate fact that it may not be possible for you to have your favorite breed of dog and still be able to insure your home. Home insurance companies tend to try to avoid risks which might lead to costly payouts on behalf of their policyholders. When it …
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Is It Possible for a Dog to Actually Experience Jealousy?
By Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSC Dogs are capable of jealousy much like that seen in young children. Science has established that dogs experience the same basic emotions as does a 2- to 3-year-old child. That means to say that a dog can feel happy, sad, angry, fearful, disgusted, and surprised. The question of whether they feel the …
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Can Remote Therapy Dog Sessions Reduce Stress?
By Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSC Virtual and remote sessions do not deliver stress-relieving benefits. One of the unexpected effects of the social distancing restrictions associated with the Covid-19 pandemic has been the impact on certain types of therapy dog interventions. The particular programs that have suffered the most involve therapy dogs in group stress reduction sessions where several dog handlers and …
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Are Dogs or Cats Better for the Mental Health of Seniors?
By Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSC Just how much psychological benefit do older adults get from a dog or cat? There is already a lot of data which has indicated that living with a pet dog is improves both psychological and physical health. The current global pandemic has shifted the spotlight onto whether pets improve …
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Animal Assisted Psychotherapy: An In depth Interview with Dr. Linda Bennett
Courtesy The Los Angeles Psychologist, Winter 2016
Dr. Linda Bennett is a licensed Clinical and Educational Psychologist in private practice in Orange County, California. She incorporates a certified therapy dog in the implementation of a patient’s psychological treatment plan.
How Do Seizure Alert Dogs Know That a Seizure Is Coming?
By Stanley Coren PhD., DSc, FRSC The mystery of how dogs predict an oncoming epileptic seizure has been solved It was back in the early 1990s that people who studied dogs were surprised by a number of reports about dogs like Harley, a golden retriever owned by Victoria Doroshenko. Victoria has epilepsy, and Harley began …
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Petting zoos at the office are the latest perk for stressed-out employees
By Andrea Sachs Chris Delaney typically unwinds from his job at Discovery Communications by taking leisurely weekend drives or flipping through stacks of vinyl at used record stores. But on a recent midweek afternoon, the broadcast ingest operator was releasing his stress — right there at work — by stroking a bearded dragon, a household …
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Do Therapy Dogs Suffer from Stress When They Are Working?
By Stanley Coren, PhD, DSc, FRSC It was during a conversation at a reception which included a number of psychologists and other social scientists when someone asked me about using therapy dogs to help people who were undergoing stressful situations. I described what was then an ongoing experiment that I was involved in. It was designed to …
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