Join us for a two-day live virtual event on May 24 and 25, 2025, where Dr. Daniel Mills will headline a selection of Canine and Feline experts who will present 16 sessions on individual topics focused on emotional development and well-being to support the prevention of problematic behavior in Puppies and Kittens.
Dr. Mills states, “We tend to think of problem behaviors as individual issues to be managed, but most problems, other than those related to obedience, reflect an undesirable intensity or type of emotion, which can manifest in many different ways.”
He further explains that “as emotions develop, they initially appear relatively crude, becoming more refined and adaptive as the animal gains experience. This has implications for puppies: first, problem behaviors will be common; second, they will tend to appear in clusters reflecting their emotional and social underpinnings; and third, they should be managed not as individual problems but through guiding emotional and social development”.
Dr. Mills will present evidence to support this view of puppy behavior based on new current research conducted with Zigzag. The focus of these presentations will be on the implications of this research, alongside recommendations for how we might reframe our perspective of sensitive phases/ critical periods and, ultimately, how we might optimally manage puppies.
LINKS & MORE INFO to come!