Dr. Michele Wan: Does Experience Matter When Interpreting Dog Behavior?

During lunch at work today, I was watching a dvd I just ordered from Tawzer Dog because I am just that nerdy and can't think of a better way to spend some down time at work.

Anyway, the dvd presenter referenced a study done by Dr. Michele Wan which sounded so interesting I had to look her and the study up on google mid-dvd watching.  Feel free to skip the rest of this blog and just check out this link:

Dr. Michele Wan's Research: Does Experience Matter When Interpreting Dog Behavior?

Once I googled her successfully, I had to one-handed (dislocated thumb injury acting up) text my friend Lia, recipient of all of Keila's fascinating dog-related discoveries that must be discussed immediately.  I love this article mostly because I feel like I have misunderstood dogs (okay, Shadow) so many times and have just recently begun to put more of the pieces together.  Bottom line, I have been realizing over the last few months that I have thought Shadow was happy and holding it together a lot more often than he has actually felt that way.  And, apparently, I am not alone in my misunderstanding!

So read Dr. Wan's research/watch the video clips at the link above. Once you're done, show it to all your ignorant, well-meaning friends like me who don't understand their dogs.  And once you've done that, find some really good science-based information on what our dogs are trying to tell us and share that with those same friends.

Here's where I got started: On Talking Terms with Dogs - Calming Signals: by Turid Rugaas

And this is where I start the students in my class (thanks to Lia who introduced me to Boogie):  Boogie, the Boston Terrier's Body Language