Hi Reader, Dogs and humans share much of the brain circuitry that produces fear, anxiety, habits, and impulse control. That's the starting point of a new paper by Floriane Fournier, Suliann Ben Hamed, and Clément Garin, published in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews in September. They brought together what we currently know about emotional disorders in dogs, and asked a fundamental question: how do you diagnose a mental health problem in an animal that can't tell you how it feels? What...
8 days ago • 3 min read
Hey Reader, When a dog hears a loud bang, the stress system kicks in within seconds. Adrenaline and noradrenaline prepare the body to act, and a little later cortisol follows. But that system doesn’t keep a separate account for every stressor. The dog who barks at every dog on the morning walk, gets startled by the delivery van, sleeps badly because the toddler wakes up three times a night, or has stiff hips nobody has noticed yet is using the same system all day long. In the short term,...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Fireworks night. You’ve prepared the owner really well. The safe place is ready, the curtains are closed, the music is on, and perhaps there’s medication from the vet in the cupboard. And the next morning you get a message: “It was a bit hard around midnight, but she’s okay now.” Phew. Case closed until the next round of fireworks, right? And that’s quite logical. We put so much energy into getting the dog through the night that the night is all we tend to look at. How much did she...
16 days ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, “Work below threshold.” Sounds simple, right? Play some sounds, and make sure the dog never shows any signs of stress. You’re probably an expert in reading canine body language, and you’ll stop with the smallest lip lick. Just to make sure everything stays positive so that the dog learns that sounds are not that scary after all. Because we would not want to expose a dog to a sound level at which they experience stress. This is every force-free trainer's life’s mission. And it’s a...
17 days ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, Fireworks season is starting, and for a lot of you that means the noise fear referrals are starting too. So it's quite a good moment to think back to the cases that didn't progress the way you hoped. The dog who made steady progress for weeks, and then one unplanned bang and you were back at the start. Or the case that simply moved too slowly you wondered if you knew what you were doing. Every case is different, of course. But when I look at noise fear cases that don't go the way...
23 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Last week I asked you about the noise fear cases that don’t go the way you planned. Thank you, so many of you have answered already, and I’ve been reading every single response. One thing keeps coming back in most answers. Owners and professionals wrote it in slightly different words, but it’s the same story every time: “Making progress, then something small happening, and backwards we go.” You put in weeks of careful work, the dog is finally calm with the recording, and then a...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, Het is inmiddels bijna september. En ik hoor nu al van mensen dat het geknal aan het toenemen is. Ongeveer de helft van alle honden is bang voor vuurwerk of andere harde geluiden, zoals onweer, pistoolschoten of verkeer. Een klein deel van deze honden heeft zelfs een fobie. Dat betekent dat de angst zo heftig is dat het welzijn van deze honden sterk verminderd is. Het is dan ook belangrijk om vroeg in te grijpen bij geluidsangst, voordat de angst zo erg is dat de hond niet meer...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Woensdag om 12:00 doe ik iets wat ik normaal eigenlijk alleen in mijn eigen werk doe: een paper openslaan en er doorheen lezen zoals een onderzoeker dat doet. Want dat ben ik uiteindelijk 😀. Maar deze keer neem ik je live mee. We pakken dé Nederlandse studie over vuurwerkangst erbij, van van Herwijnen uit 2024 (En ja, in onderzoekstermen is dat heel recent) met ruim 3.000 honden. Dit wordt geen uitgebreid college, met ingewikkelde slides of gecompliceerde data. Gewoon jij en ik,...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hoi Reader, Bijna elke gedragsdeskundige en hondentrainer krijgt ze op een gegeven moment: de honden die in paniek raken van vuurwerk, onweer, verkeer of gewoon een dichtslaande deur. Je werkt met desensitisatie en counterconditionering, je doet alles zorgvuldig, en toch wil het bij sommige honden niet lukken. Meestal ligt dat niet aan de training zelf. Er zit vaak een stap tussen die makkelijk over het hoofd wordt gezien. Daarom heb ik een gratis gids geschreven: Waarom geluidstraining...
4 months ago • 1 min read