Posts

Posted on

The Shocking Science of PAIN the Great Deceiver

What you need to know about the 4 ugly faces of pain

Imagine you’re out walking with your dogs. They’re both having a fantastic time running round following smells, chasing birds, digging holes – and swimming and rolling in muddy puddles.

Then one of the dogs’ comes up lame in the right front paw. You investigate and find she’s broken a nail…

The Shocking Science of PAIN the Great Deceiver

Continue reading “The Shocking Science of PAIN the Great Deceiver”

Posted on

BREXIT: What Does it Mean for Animal Welfare?

On the 18th December, 2018 the government announced that the £2 billion no deal Brexit contingency fund would now be released and that 3,500 troops will be made available in preparation for UK’s departure from the EU in March 2019 (BBC News, 2018).

I’ll be honest, I feel way out of my depth with Brexit. I resent ever being given the option to vote in the Brexit referendum because I‘m woefully ill-informed to do so. I’m not an economist, I’m not a legal expert in international trade and I’m not an historian. Most importantly, I’m not a politician and I’m not being paid shedloads of taxpayers cash to do their job and run the bloody country!

Continue reading “BREXIT: What Does it Mean for Animal Welfare?”

Posted on

My Dog’s Got Diamonds on the Soles of His Paws

“I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes…” Remember that Paul Simon song?

Well, if you have dogs you might have something a little less desirable than diamonds on your shoes – and so might your dogs – according to a new study published in the Journal of Veterinary Parasitology by Panova and Khrustalev (2018).

Image by Hans [CC0 1.0]

Read on to find out what…

Continue reading “My Dog’s Got Diamonds on the Soles of His Paws”

Posted on

Seminar – Pet Dog Training Instructors 7th National Conference, April

I am the speaker at the PDTI conference on Saturday 7th April, 2018.

Here’s an outine of what I will be talking about, along with a short video trailer –

Part 1: The cognitive dog: the core emotional systems
Part 2: The troubled dog: dysfunctional emotional systems
Part 3: The rehabilitating dog: restoring emotional systems
Part 4: The gut-brain dog: diet, the microbiome and emotions

Continue reading “Seminar – Pet Dog Training Instructors 7th National Conference, April”

Posted on

Seminar – Dog&Bone March 2018

Robert Falconer Taylor will be presenting the following seminars:

  1. Thursday 15th March 2018 – The Science of Canine Emotionality and it’s practical application for owners and canine professionals (including EMRA: Emotion, Mood and Reinforcement Assessment)

  2. Friday 16th March 2018 – The roles of pain and nutrition in (mis)behaviour, the missing links in canine emotionality

For details and introductory video –

Continue reading “Seminar – Dog&Bone March 2018”

Posted on

Getting Old(er): How Long is a Lifespan?

Dogs are amazing for many reasons. One reason is their range in size within one species – from less than 1 kg right up to nearly 100kg – a one-hundred-fold increase.

Another reason is their lifespan. Smaller dogs – on average – live more than twice as long as giant breeds despite near-identical physiology, diet and environmental conditions.

For cats, lifespan is on a much more linear trajectory. Members of the Felidae family range from 15 to 30 years old. Larger cats like lions live longer than smaller cats like your own moggie domestic cat.

Why do big dogs die young? And how do small dogs – and cats – manage to avoid this early death trap?

Image by free-photos [CC0 1.0]
Continue reading “Getting Old(er): How Long is a Lifespan?”