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What Does the Term ‘Animal Suffering’ Mean to You?

This may seem a very obvious question, but actually it is not. This article explores some of the complexities of objectively defining what ‘animal suffering’ is. In this article, for conciseness, the term ‘human’ is used to identify human animals and the term ‘animal’ is used to identify non-human animals. In addition, the terms ‘she’ and ‘he’ are used, rather than ‘it’, because companion animals have names and therefore a gender.

 COAPE - Centre of Applied Pet Ethology

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Shock Collars: What Manufacturers Don’t Want You to Know

We make no apologies for this article being one-sided – that is – against the use of e-collars for training dogs. Furthermore, we challenge anyone who feels that the information presented here is overly bias against e-collars to produce equally robust research supporting the benefits of these devices in everyday dog training.

COAPE - Centre f Applied Pet Ethology

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Vaccination: a New Perspective on an Old Argument

Visit any online forum dedicated to cats and dogs and it won’t be long before some member posts a comment about vaccination. It is a topic that never fails to open up passionate – and often heated – debate between those that ‘do’ and those that ‘do not’. Well, this article is not about the pros and cons of vaccination per se.

COAPE - Centre of Applied Pet Ethology

Indian Army vet vaccinates family dog against rabies, Wikimedia Commons

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Critical Periods (Sensitive Periods) in Puppies – Revisited

2015 could be declared an import year for animals on several different fronts. One reason might be that in April, a New York judge made legal history by declaring that 2 chimpanzees were to be recognised as ‘Legal Persons’ – so-called habeas corpus (Bekoff, 2015).

COAPE - Centre of Applied Pet Ethology

PHOTO: courtesy of Caitlin Hume, Springer Rescue for Scotland. A charity that successfully rehomes over 150 Spaniels every year. http://www.springerrescuescotland.org

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Life Jackets for Pets – how safe are they?

An estimated 5,000 dogs drown in garden swimming pools in the USA every year (Petplace, 2014) and many others in rivers, lakes and the sea. This article highlights the importance for anyone using canine life jackets to understand how these jackets work and what their strengths and weaknesses are in order to choose the right device for their dog’s breed and lifestyle.

How safe are life jackets for dogs

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