Zazie chatted with Victoria Stilwell about how to understand and help fearful dogs.
By Zazie Todd, PhD
I’m a huge fan of Victoria Stilwell and recently I had the pleasure of chatting with her on her podcast, Positively Dog Training.
You can listen to the episode here (Apple, Spotify).
Here’s the podcast description:
“Victoria Stilwell welcomes Zazie Todd, PhD, an award-winning author, animal behavior expert, and founder of Companion Animal Psychology on the podcast to discuss the science of stress in dogs, how to identify signs of anxiety, and the role of medications in behavior modification. The conversation touches on cognitive bias in dogs, optimism vs. pessimism, and how early positive experiences shape a dog’s outlook.
Zazie shares insights on why fear and anxiety in dogs are on the rise, how counter-conditioning works, and why first-time experiences matter so much for a dog’s learning. Zazie also highlights the importance of finding properly qualified trainers who use reward-based methods and why aversive training techniques can have long-term negative effects on a dog’s well-being.
Zazie will be speaking at the 2025 Dog Behavior Conference, where she will present her research on “Firsts and Nice Surprises” in helping fearful dogs.”
You can learn more about the 2025 Dog Behavior Conference and sign up here.
Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog is available wherever books are sold.
That includes Bookshop (which supports independent bookstores) and my Amazon store.
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