Research Bites Podcast

What does it mean for a dog to live a “good life”? Can animals experience something like meaning or purpose? And what role do play, relationship, agency, and training have in helping animals flourish?

In this episode, Dr. Kristina Spaulding talks with philosopher, dog trainer, and behavior consultant Dr. Katie Homan about philosophy, play, ethics, flourishing, and the deeply relational nature of life with dogs.

Katie shares how her background in philosophy shaped the way she thinks about play, welfare, attachment, and human–animal relationships. Together, they explore questions that don’t have simple answers — including:

•  What philosophy actually is (and why it matters) 
•  The difference between pleasure and flourishing 
•  Whether dogs can experience meaning and purpose 
•  Why play may be fundamentally relational 
•  The role of agency, vulnerability, and reciprocity in our interactions with dogs 
•  Whether training can become more playful 
•  How ethical assumptions shape animal behavior practice 
•  Why learning to tolerate uncertainty may be essential for both science and philosophy 

The conversation also explores how concepts like flow, attachment, resilience, and social connection may contribute to positive welfare — and why asking better questions may matter as much as finding definitive answers.

Katie also discusses her current thesis research examining attachment styles and human–dog interaction patterns in olfactory detection work.

This episode is less about arriving at fixed conclusions and more about learning to “live the questions” together.

You can learn more about Katie’s work through her training business, See Spot Play at https://www.seespotplay.dog/ or email her at [email protected].

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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In this episode of the Research Bites Podcast, Dr. Kristina Spaulding talks with Dr. Lars Schwabe about what happens to learning and memory when the brain is under stress—and why those changes matter for behavior, training, and mental health.

They begin by unpacking how memory works in the first place, walking through the stages of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. From there, they explore the still-debated idea of reconsolidation—the possibility that when memories are retrieved, they may briefly become modifiable. Dr. Schwabe discusses the evidence behind this concept, along with early attempts to reduce the emotional intensity of memories in conditions such as addiction and PTSD.

The conversation then turns to the physiology of stress. Dr. Schwabe explains how acute stress activates the sympathetic nervous system and the HPA axis, releasing cortisol and reshaping how the brain prioritizes information. Under these conditions, the amygdala tends to amplify emotionally salient details. As a result, stress can strengthen central aspects of emotional and threat-related learning while weakening contextual information and working memory.

These shifts have important behavioral consequences. When stress is high, certain types of learning becomes stronger—one possible pathway to fear generalization. Dr. Schwabe also discusses how stress can change the type of behavior we rely on. Goal-directed behavior—associated with the prefrontal cortex—allows flexible updating based on outcomes. Habitual behavior, more closely tied to other brain areas, is faster but less flexible. Under stress, the balance can shift toward habits and away from flexible decision-making.

Throughout the conversation, Dr. Spaulding and Dr. Schwabe explore what these findings might mean for animal training, resilience, learned helplessness, and the treatment of stress-related disorders. They also emphasize an important reality of scientific work: translating laboratory findings into real-world practice is complex, and individual differences play a major role in how stress affects learning and behavior.

It’s a fascinating look at how the biology of stress reshapes the way animals—and humans—learn, remember, and adapt.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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In this episode of the Research Bites Podcast, I’m joined by my first return guest, Patricia McConnell — Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, beloved author, and former professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Many of you know her from The Other End of the Leash and For the Love of a Dog, books that shaped an entire generation of trainers.

But today, we’re talking about something new.

Her debut mystery novel, Away to Me, follows Maddie McGowan — an dog behaviorist living on a small Wisconsin farm — whose world is upended when violence strikes close to home. What unfolds is both a gripping mystery and an accurate portrayal of life as a behavior professional: working with complex clients, navigating canine aggression and trauma, and building partnerships with clients.

In our conversation, we explore:

• What fiction allows us to say about dogs that nonfiction sometimes cannot
• How to write emotional truth without overstepping scientific evidence
• Why sheepdog trials are the perfect dramatic backdrop for exploring partnership and agency
• The role of trauma, resilience, and healing — for both people and dogs
• Why agency, play, and learning to read canine body language are so important for supporting out dogs

Patricia speaks candidly about walking the line between evidence and intuition, about what dogs teach us when we truly listen, and about the power of story to expand how the public understands behavior work.

If you love a good mystery, or just a good book, especially one where the dogs are written accurately—this episode is for you.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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Today’s episode is a little different from the usual format.

What you’re hearing is an actual recording from a Research Bites Coffee Break—an informal, unscripted conversation where behavior professionals think out loud about research, ask questions, and explore ideas together. There’s no lecture and no tidy conclusions—just real discussion and curiosity in action.

The topic for this Coffee Break was the distinction between wanting and liking, two concepts that are often treated as interchangeable in training and behavior work, but that turn out to be meaningfully different. Liking refers to how much pleasure an animal experiences from a reinforcer. Wanting reflects motivation—the willingness to work for that reinforcer, sometimes described as something closer to craving.

In this conversation, we explore how wanting and liking interact, why one can be present without the other, and what that means for learning, reinforcement, and behavior change. We also talk about how these ideas can help us think more carefully about motivation in practice, especially when training isn’t going the way we expect.

If you’re interested in how scientific concepts evolve when people slow down, question assumptions, and apply them to real animals and real situations, this episode offers a candid look at that process.

A huge thank you to the Research Bites members who attended this podcast: Juliet Purll, Faith Cleary, Mason Small, Suzanne Bryner, Chrysann Collatos, Lynne Stott, Lori Torrini, Karen Scott, Kristine Adams, Wendy Katz, Shannon Noonan, Paula Philips, Heather Furby, Alice Hengst, Kiem Sie.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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This podcast was originally released in May 2022 as a shortened version. This is the full version of the original podcast.

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC

Today’s guest, Dr. Erica Feuerbacher, is an Associate Professor in Animal & Poultry Sciences at Virginia Tech and director of the Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare Lab, where she works with dogs and horses. She also coordinates the online Masters's program in Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare at Virginia Tech. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Florida in the UF Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab and her Master’s in Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas in the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals. She is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. Her research and publications focus on understanding domestic animal behavior and learning from a behavior analytic perspective, using applied behavior analysis to solve behavioral issues in dogs and horses, and identifying interventions that improve shelter dog welfare. She is passionate about humane, effective animal training, and working with owners, trainers, and shelter staff to improve our interactions with animals.

In this episode, we discuss types of reinforcers and their effectiveness as well as addressing stress and welfare in shelter dogs.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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 In this episode of the Research Bites Podcast, Dr. Kristina Spaulding dives deep into two foundational—but often under-discussed—forms of non-associative learning: sensitization and habituation. Drawing on research and classic learning theory, she explains what these processes are, how they differ, why they matter, and how they show up every day in companion animals. 

Dr. Spaulding connects the research to practical strategies you can use right away. From monitoring behavior and adjusting stimulus intensity to incorporating conditioning and systematic desensitization, this episode offers clear guidance for helping animals move toward calmer, more adaptive responses.  This episode will help you learn how to apply these principles thoughtfully in real-world training and behavior work. 

Whether you're a trainer, behavior consultant, or simply passionate about science-informed practice, this episode will deepen your understanding of how animals learn—and how you can support them more effectively.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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One of the most common questions Dr. Kristina Spaulding hears is whether stress “stays in the system” for three days. In this episode, she digs into what that really means, what the research shows, and why the truth is more complex than a simple yes or no.

She begins with the biology of the stress response—how the HPA axis and sympathetic nervous system work together, the roles of cortisol and corticosterone, and why not all stress is bad. Then she takes on the central question: how long does stress actually last? You’ll learn how long it typically takes for stress hormones to peak and return to baseline, and the many factors that influence recovery, making exact estimates of the duration of the stress response extremely difficult.

Dr. Spaulding also explores sensitization and cross-sensitization—how prior stress can make animals more reactive to future challenges, even entirely different ones. This has big implications for understanding anxiety, PTSD, and the impacts of stress on behavior. Finally, she discusses chronic and developmental stress and why a blunted stress response doesn’t necessarily mean an animal is “fine.”

The idea that stress lingers for three days is a myth. Hormones often normalize within hours, but the effects of stress—especially repeated or early-life stress—can last for days, weeks, or even a lifetime.

Resources:

Garcia, Arantxa, Octavi Marti, Astrid Valles, Silvina Dal-Zotto, and Antonio Armario. “Recovery of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Response to Stress: Effect of Stress Intensity, Stress Duration and Prevention Stress Exposure.” Neuroendocrinology 72, no. 2 (August 2000): 114–25.

Belda, X., Rotllant, D., Fuentes, S., Delgado, R., Nadal, R., & Armario, A. (2008). Exposure to severe stressors causes long‐lasting dysregulation of resting and stress‐induced activation of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1148(1), 165-173.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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In this episode of the Research Bites Podcast, Dr. Kristina Spaulding talks with Dr. (Jessica) Perry Hekman, DVM, PhD — behavioral geneticist and co-founder of the Functional Dog Collaborative — about what genetics can (and can’t) tell us about dog behavior.

Dr. Hekman shares her journey from veterinary practice to genetics research and helps unpack key concepts like heritability, epigenetics, and behavioral phenotypes. Together, they explore what the science really says about breed and behavior — including a thoughtful look at the much-debated 2022 Darwin’s Ark study.

The conversation takes a nuanced look at some of the biggest questions in our field: What does “breed” actually mean? How much variation exists within breeds? And how do genes and environment interact to shape the dogs we live and work with? While these questions don’t yet have clear, concrete answers, Dr. Hekman helps shed light on what current research can tell us — and where science is still evolving.

Dr. Hekman also discusses the goals of the Functional Dog Collaborative, which promotes evidence-based breeding practices that support genetic diversity, health, and sound temperament. The discussion concludes with a look at how trainers and behavior professionals can contribute to a more informed, ethical approach to breeding and behavior.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

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This podcast was originally released in April 2022 as a shortened version. This is the full version of the original podcast.

Dr. Ádám Miklósi is a full professor and the leader of the Department of Ethology at the Eötvös University in Budapest (Hungary). He is also the co-founder and leader of the Family Dog Project ( http://familydogproject.elte.hu ) which studies human-dog interaction from an ethological perspective. In recent years he has also become interested in the automatization of measuring dog behavior and his research group has pioneered  studying the neural and genetic aspects of dog behavior using non-invasive methods like fMRI and EEG.  

Over more than twenty years The Family Dog Project published over 180 scientific papers, and organized several conferences. 

In 2014 Miklósi published the second edition of an academic volume entitled Dog Behavior, Evolution and Cognition by Oxford University Press that summarizes the most recent status on dog oriented research. More recently, together with his colleagues, he published The Dog: A Natural History with Ivy Press, London.  For more information on Dr. Miklósi and his lab visit: https://familydogproject.elte.hu/

In this episode we talk about meeting the needs of dogs, approaches to training, imitation, self-awareness, exceptional word learning capabilities in certain dogs, and much more.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

• Website: https://sciencemattersllc.com/ 
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In this thought-provoking episode of the Research Bites Podcast, Dr. Kristina Spaulding is joined by Dr. Mike Mendl, professor of Animal Behavior and Welfare at the University of Bristol’s Veterinary School, for a deep dive into what it truly means to support positive animal welfare.

From competence and resilience to cognitive bias and decision-making, Dr. Mendl explores how animals perceive and interact with the world—and why individual differences matter so much. You’ll hear how animal-based indicators can reveal nuanced welfare states, why emotions play a pivotal role in behavior, and how the dimensional model of emotion can help us better understand and assess an animal’s experience.

Along the way, we discuss:

• How competence and resilience shape behavior and well-being
• How animals set and pursue their own goals
• Cognitive bias testing as a window into welfare states
• Recognizing when hidden medical issues influence behavior
• Using positive states—not just the absence of negatives—to improve lives
• Future directions for research in welfare and emotion

Whether you’re a trainer, behavior consultant, veterinarian, or simply a science-curious animal lover, this conversation offers both practical insights and a deeper appreciation for the complexity of animal minds. By connecting the latest welfare science with real-world applications, Dr. Mendl’s work challenges us to move beyond preventing suffering and toward actively fostering lives worth living.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

• Website: https://sciencemattersllc.com/ 
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