Hounds Town USA

World-renowned animal behaviorist Dr. Temple Grandin will be joining us on Hounds Town Radio Saturday, March 26th, at 3 p.m. on 103.9 F.M. Dr. Grandin, an international bestselling author, autism activist, and animal advocate, has been responsible for positive changes in the livestock industry and how the industry treats animals. She has also done extensive research in the animal behavior field and has a solid understanding of animals, how dogs view the world, and how we can better communicate with them.

Here’s one of the questions we asked her about our misunderstanding of our dogs:

Hounds Town Radio: What do you think the biggest misunderstanding about animals is? What are we as humans not understanding about how to communicate with animals?

 

Dr. Grandin: I think in some cases, people don’t let dogs be dogs. I had a student who did a study at an animal shelter and what she found is, if you give dogs in a shelter 45 minutes a day of good fun with a person, doing lots of things, the next day the cortisol goes down (a hormone released in response to stress). But you have to keep doing it! So for shelters, one of the most important things they need to do is have volunteers that take each dog out for 45 minutes each day. Dogs need people. We have bred them to need people, that’s what some of the latest research has shown.

For privately owned dogs NOT in a shelter, there are just too many dogs left home alone. Some dogs get stir crazy, they never get a chance to do stuff with other dogs! We have bred dogs to be hyper-social … dogs have a social emotionality. If you take a dog and leave it home alone all day, then you wonder why he’s chewed up the house! It’s because it doesn’t have any social life. We’ve bred this hyper-social animal, and where I live in Fort Collins, we have Draconian leash laws. You’re not allowed to have your dog off the leash except a park, so a lot of dogs don’t even get the chance to play with other dogs off the leash in a normal way. That effects all behavior.

Tune in Saturday, March 26th, to 103.9 F.M. at 3 p.m., listen live on www.linewsradio.com, or go to houndstownradio.com to listen to the full 1-hour interview! We’ll be discussing:

-Why dogs behave the way they do

-Theories behind animal behavior 

-What we can do to make animals’ lives better

-How we can address certain behaviors like fear and aggression

-Why socialization is so important

-How dogs view the world

You won’t want to miss this show!