Charles Berger is a graduate of Cornell Veterinary College and was the owner and medical director of Campus Veterinary Clinic in Berkeley, California for 35 years. He was the veterinarian, as well as served on the Board of Directors, of the institute that oversaw the largest collection of captive wolves. He also served on the Board of Directors of the International Sled Dog Veterinary Medical Association and has been the veterinarian for over 30 mid and long distance sled dog races, including many Iditarods and Yukon Quests. This seminar on “Of Wolves and Dogs” was taught in the spring of 2007 and in 2009 at Dartmouth College through the Ilead program, emphasizing the ‘big picture’ of evolution, domestication and canine biology. For more information on Charles Berger go to www.ofwolvesanddogs.com

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Of Wolves and Dogs: From The Big Bang to the Chihauhau

Nina Bondarenko has been training and working with dogs, and many other species for over 20 years. She is the author of “Hearts, Minds and Paws” and co-author of “Partners for Life. Nina has speaking and training engagements in many countries and is sought after for her knowledge and skills in the behavior and training of assistance and detection dogs. In many countries she is known as the “Dog Guru.”

Recorded OnDemand Lecture:  Temperament Assessment for Function or Friend

As a graduate student at the University of North Texas, Nicole became interested in animal training and specifically decreasing problem behavior in animals. One of her first endeavors was an olive baboon that was engaging in self injurious behavior which caused huge lacerations on its arms and legs. With Nicole’s knowledge of behavior analysis, her first thought was to see what was maintaining the baboon’s problem behavior and to conduct a functional analysis. From the data collected with this method, she was able to eliminate the self injurious behavior and found that the cause of the problem was the keepers telling the baboon to “stop doing that” that was acting as attention and increasing the self injurious behavior. This was the first time this method had been used with an animal and has since been used to determine the maintaining variable of self injurious behavior in other captive primate species. After this project, Nicole was hooked. Although her Ph.D. at the University of Exeter was focused on investigating social learning in a variety of zoo animals and dogs, in her spare time she consulted on training and decreasing problem behavior at the Paignton Zoo and successfully co-organized a zoo training workshop.

After her Ph.D. she moved to Florida and began working as a postdoctoral fellow, where she has published a number of papers and book chapters on canine social cognition and behavior. Her recent research focuses on developing a line of research that will serve the dog training community and seek to find a deeper understanding of the factors that underlie problem behavior.

In addition to conducting her research, Nicole is also a board member for the Animal Behavior Management Alliance (ABMA) and is a lecturer at the University of Florida teaching a variety of courses including Animal Cognition and Research Methods. She has also been an invited speaker to a number of national and international conferences and workshops, including Karen Pryor’s Clicker Expo and APDT. Her work has been featured in the media including Discovery News among others. In addition to her research and teaching, Nicole is also one of the directors of the BARC group (www.barcgroup.org). She believes that her research will provide dog trainers with a more informed way of choosing training methods by providing research based information on which methods work best for certain behaviors.

Upcoming Lecture: Research in Dog Training: Current Projects and Future Directions (January 12, 2012)

Julie has traveled the globe studying animal behavior and focusing on the dog-human relationship. She began her studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under the tutelage of Dr. Patricia McConnell and Dr. Charles Snowdon. She crossed the pond and received a Masters degree from the University of Edinburgh in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare. Her dissertation research on “guilty” behavior in dogs was supervised by Dr. Márta Gácsi and Dr. Ádám Miklósi at the Family Dog Project, Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. She is now quite acquainted with Hungarian breeds! Julie is a public speaker who shares scientific research into dogs and their complex relationships with humans www.DogSpies.com. She blogs and holds interactive programs for dog-training groups, student groups and the general public. Julie is the Lab Manager at Dr. Alexandra Horowitz’s Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College in New York City. They hold treat-based, behavioral studies in natural settings to explore the dog’s perspective. To learn about or participate in their current research, visit www.DogCognition.com.

Upcoming Lecture:Deep in Thought or Panting Mindlessly? A Scientific Investigation of Anthropomorphism.(March 1, 2012)

The late Dr. Erich Klinghammer was the founder and director of Wolf Park. He was an ethologist, and began his work with wolves in order to study their behavior. Dr. Klinghammer regarded wolves as sensitive indicators of the well-being of the ecosystem of which they are a part. He established Wolf Park to conduct long term, in-depth studies of wolf behavior. This research augmented ecologists’ field studies of wild wolves. Dr. Klinghammer held a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, and was a member of the Animal Behavior Society, the American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums and several other professional organizations. Early in his career, Dr. Klinghammer came to Indiana to join the faculty at Purdue University where he taught ethology, applied ethology, animal behavior and psychology. A lifelong interest in dogs led Dr. Klinghammer to breed and train German Shepherd dogs in the past. In his late years, as the Director of Wolf Park in Indiana, Dr. Klinghammer made his home at Wolf Park with his wife Peggy, and participated in some of the daily programs and seminars that took place at the Park. He enjoyed watching generations of visitors come to the Park that were here as children bring their own children to this special place to learn about wolves and nature.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Ethology and Its Place in Animal Science

Kathryn received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts, where she studied the evolution and development of behavior, with Dr. Raymond Coppinger. Kathryn has served as adjunct faculty at Hampshire College, in Amherst MA, teaching courses in animal behavior, evolution, and dog behavior. She has also given lectures and workshops internationally including the Chienposium, Quebec, Canada; University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; and Schweizerische Tierärztliche für Verhaltensmedizin, Bern, Switzerland. Kathryn is currently working on several new projects investigating how the evolution and development of behavior can help to inform our management of village and shelter dogs.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: The Development of Behavior in Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and Wolves (Canis lupus lupus)

Ken McCort owns and operates “Four Paws” training center in Doylestown, Ohio www.kenmccort.com. Along with his wife, Marilyn, a veterinarian, he lives with 9 dogs, 8 cats, 6 large birds, some finches, 2 mini horses, a goat, a pony and a donkey. In his profession, he works with animals with behavioral concerns. Most clients and animals are acquired by referral from veterinarians or other clients. He has been training animals full time and on a one-on-one basis since 1986. Currently, he works with dogs, cats, birds and llamas. In addition to his business, Ken is a certified evaluator and evaluator instructor with the Delta Society’s Pet Partner program. Not only does he evaluate and certify animal/handler teams to visit in hospitals, nursing homes and many other areas, but he helped to develop the Pet Partner Skills and Aptitude Test and teaches it both nationally and internationally. Ken has taught courses on animal behavior at the University of Akron (Ohio), Columbus State University, the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine, the Midwest Veterinary Conference, the Society of Anthrozoologists, the Delta Society, Tuft’s University Animal Exposition, and many other animal related groups. Ken has also been going to Japan since 2004 to teach trainers how to better understand animal behavior. In addition, Wolf Park in Battleground, Indiana, which is a research facility that studies wolf behavior, utilizes Ken for some its presentations and research projects, and has been allowing him to train with their wolves for many years.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Aggressive Behavior With Dogs ~ Solutions and Strategies

Upcoming Lecture:  Terriers: From Yorkies to Pit Bulls, What Makes Them Different? Febuary 9, 2012

Holly is a researcher at the University of Valenciennes (France) who studies self-control in humans and dogs. As a graduate student at the University of Kentucky, Holly helped develop the Canine Cognition Lab and Science Dog Daycare at the University of Kentucky. There she conducted research demonstrating that an initial act of self-control by dogs can have a negative affect on subsequent cognitive behavior. Following a 10-min sit stay dogs remember less accurately on a search task, persist for a shorter duration on a puzzle task, and are more likely to approach a threatening, aggressive dog. Her research also found that glucose (but not a calorie-free placebo) eliminates deficits caused by initial self-control exertion. Holly has presented her research at national and international conferences and her work has been featured in The Scientific American Mind, Huffington Post, and the New York Times, among others. Holly hopes that her research will result in a greater understanding of canine self-control and impulsivity and lead to more effective training paradigms for impulsive, fearful, or aggressive dogs. In addition to her research, Holly is an experienced dog trainer and teacher. She owns a 7-year old Belgian Sheepdog named Edda and enjoys obedience, herding, and agility training.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Too Dog-Tired to Behave: Self-Control in Canines is Sensitive to Fatigue Speaker Holly Miller, Ph.D.

Kelli is the manager of Animal Behavior Programs at the SPCA of Texas, a sheltering system in north Texas that includes two shelters, two wellness clinics and a Rescue and Investigations team. She has developed volunteer training and enrichment programs, designs and conducts trainings, evaluates individual animals in order to design life enhancing programs, and oversees the canine aggression intake assessment. Kellie earned BS and MS degrees in Behavior Analysis, and conducted research on canine aggression under the direction of Jesus Rosales-Ruiz at the University of North Texas. The research resulted in the development of the Constructional Aggression Treatment (CAT) procedures which are now used around the world for treating canine aggression. Snider and Rosales-Ruiz have travelled around the US and in Canada and the UK conducting seminars on CAT. A seminar of the procedure is available from Tawzer Dog Videos.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Emotions as Learned Behavior

I have been photographing wolves since 1984 and have since collected many thousands of photographs. I photograph in both color and black and white.  My work at Wolf Park Wolf Park is a fantastic wildlife education and research facility in Indiana. I’ve worked here as a handler, educator, researcher and photographer since 1988. I also am webmaster of a number of web sites, including Wolf Park’s. Part of the proceeds from all my photography sales go to help Wolf Park and their education efforts. I have many web sites, but the best one to see my work, and what I have available for sale, is www.wolfphotography.com where I have quite the listing.

Recorded OnDemand Lectures:

• Dominance Behavior in Wolves and Dogs
• Differentiating Between Fearful and Submissive Behavior in Canines

Grisha owns Ahimsa Dog Training in Seattle. She specializes in the treatment and prevention of dog aggression. Grisha has a Master’s in Mathematics from Bryn Mawr College. She is now pursuing a Master’s in Psychology with an emphasis in animal behavior at Antioch University, while still running her 6-trainer business and doing private consults for aggression cases. Her first career as a theoretical mathematician and college instructor serves her well in dog training and behavior consultations, because she relies heavily on the problem solving, critical thinking, and teaching skills she gained in that field. Since founding Ahimsa Dog Training in 2003, she has found her canine and human students to be much more excited about learning than her college students!
Canine behavior fascinates Grisha and she is highly motivated to help improve our techniques for rehabilitating and training dogs. This led her to develop BAT, Behavior Adjustment Training, which uses environmental consequences to reward the dog and eliminate problem behaviors. She has two DVDs on BAT: “Behavior Adjustment Training” and “Organic Socialization: BAT for Aggression and Fear in Dogs.” For more information on Grisha go to www.ahimsadogtraining.com

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Behavior Adjustment Training For Reactive Dogs

Dr. Wynne is a Professor of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, Director of Research Wolf Park at Battle Ground, Indiana, and Editor-in-Chief OF THE SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL Behavioural Processes. Dr. Wynne is responsible for papers in behavior analysis, comparative cognition, & other branches of experimental psychology. Dr. Wynne is interested in the behavior of animals – including cognitive behavior. In recent years he has been concentrating on the behavior of dogs and other canids. For more about current research – and to volunteer your dog or yourself – please visit www.caninecognition.com

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Canine Cognition

C.W. Meisterfeld (3/1929 – 5/2006) was a canine psychoanalyst/therapist/trainer whose dog training experiences (as a teenager) began in 1944 and he turned professional ten years later, in 1954. Meisterfeld was an A.K.C. licensed handler (retired) trainer for competitive Conformation-Obedience and Retriever trials. He bred German Shorthaired Pointers, Irish Setters, and Labrador Retrievers. A professional hunter guide at exclusive Upland Game hunting clubs and the pioneer of canine psychoanalysis and psychological dog training (1963), Meisterfeld taught canine behavioral psychology in California colleges and Universities. His philosophy of “Mutual Respect” and “Train Without Pain” has earned him the Canine Distinction Award for A.K.C. Obedience (1957) and National Retriever Championships for three consecutive years – 1962, 1963, and 1964 – with a perfect score of 500 points in 1962. Meisterfeld was the first canine psychoanalyst to be certified as an expert Witness in the judicial system of the United States (California’s Superior Court, 1982). Meisterfeld authored eight dog behavior/training books with four (4) presently in print.
C.W. Meisterfled brought his unique dog training philosophy and skills to Petaluma, Ca. as the ” Pioneer of Psychological Dog Training” where he established the School of Psychological Dog Training. In 1982 he was certified as a canine psychoanalyst/therapist and expert witness by the U.S. Judicial system. Among many achievements, he was awarded the A.K.C. Canine Distinction Award in 1957, the Writers Award for Excellence, authored many books and articles which are recognized throughout the world. William lived his life according to his philosophy: “Mutual Respect and Trust ” and was responsible for saving the lives of several thousand dogs who would have killed due to their behavior. His teaching goes beyond that of and for dogs. He knew that dogs behaved badly because of mistakes made by their owners and consequently, enriched the lives of human beings in the process of dog training.