Dr. Robert Falconer-Taylor

BVetMed, DipCABT, MRCVS

Dr. Robert Falconer-Taylor, BVetMed, DipCABT, MRCVS

Robert has worked in the veterinary profession for nearly 30 years, as a partner in an innovative small animal hospital group and as a locum. Alongside his role in day-to-day clinical medicine, Robert has also been very much involved in the management, communication, and education side of veterinary practice. During this time, he was directly involved in the conception and implementation of computerisation into the profession. This included a cross-fertilisation with the human healthcare system in the UK and the development of cross-platform coding and classification systems for disease identification, tracking, and surveillance. This is now an integral part of the World Health Organisation’s One Health initiative.

CURRENT ROLES

Academic advisor for the Association of INTODogs community

Scientific advisor and educator for the Pet Remedy Company (companion animal behaviour and welfare)

Trustee and veterinary advisor for Springer Rescue for Scotland charity

International consultant to the pet industry: development and risk assessment of pet ‘toys’ targeting and promoting the welfare of pets and their relationships with their guardians; development of practical and easy-to-use mood state assessment tools for dogs, cats, and horses

Active participating member of the social media–led ‘global companion animal community’

Robert’s current primary academic interests include companion animal cognitive science and emotionality, nutrition and its effects on behaviour, and applied neurophysiology, pharmacology, and therapeutics in companion animal behaviour therapy.

FORMER ROLES

Robert was also veterinary director and head of education of the Centre of Applied Pet Ethology (COAPE), the first organisation in the UK to develop government-regulated courses to degree level specifically in companion animal behaviour and training. COAPE also developed the renowned EMRA system used by behaviourists and trainers all over the world, now summarised in their book, EMRA Intelligence: The Revolutionary New Approach to Treating Behaviour Problems in Dogs.

Dr. Kristyn Vitale

PhD, CAAB, Cat Behavior, Science, and Training

Dr. Kristyn Vitale is a Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist and an expert in cat behavior and cognition. Vitale received a Master of Environmental Science from Miami University (USA), where she studied free-ranging cat social behavior, and a PhD in animal science from Oregon State University (USA), where she studied cat social cognition and cat welfare. During her graduate career she was a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellow and a Visiting Research Fellow at Kyoto University (Japan). 

Vitale’s research interests include cross-cultural comparisons of human-animal interactions, factors that impact animal social behavior, human-animal attachment relationships, animal learning and training, and ways to improve the welfare of captive and companion animals. 

Vitale’s main area of expertise is focused on cat social behavior, human-cat interactions, and the impact of life experiences, such as cat training and socialization classes, on cat cognition and the cat-human relationship. 

She has published in peer-reviewed journals such as Current Biology, Animal Cognition, and Applied Animal Behaviour Science and published academic book chapters in textbooks such as the Clinical Handbook of Feline Behavior Medicine and Feline Behavior and Welfare. Kristyn is also an active public speaker and is frequently invited to speak to professional and academic audiences as well as public audiences of all ages. Her work has been internationally featured in media outlets such as Science and National Geographic and in film documentaries such as How the Cat Conquered the World (ARTE France) and Inside the Mind of a Cat (Netflix). 

She is currently an Assistant Professor of Animal Health and Behavior at Unity Environmental University (USA) and the founder of Maueyes, a science education and behavior consulting business focused on cat behavior, cat science, and cat training.

Dr. Laura Donaldson

Certified Trauma Professional, CDBC, KPA CTP

Dr. Laura Donaldson is a retired Ivy League professor (Emeritus, Cornell University) who has also been a dog trainer and canine behavior specialist for over 15 years. She holds a PhD in interdisciplinary humanities (her favorite course to teach was called “Gone to the Dogs: The Canine in Literature and Culture”) and has done graduate work in applied animal behavior. She is a certified dog behavior consultant through the IAABC; a Karen Pryor certified training partner; and a certified Control Unleashed instructor. 

Laura owns Four Paws, Four Directions Dog Training & Behavior Consulting LLC, located in the Finger Lakes region of Ithaca, New York. In her currently full-time behavior consulting practice, she focuses almost exclusively on dogs struggling with dog-dog and dog-human–directed aggression issues. She teaches both in-person and online Control Unleashed classes. 

She is also a published writer on dog behavior and is very proud that her essay, The Cognitive Revolution and Everyday Dog Training: The Case of Look at That, won the 2018 Maxwell Medallion Award for best magazine article on dog training and behavior. This article, along with several others, is part of a forthcoming book titled, Slow Thinking Is Lifesaving for Dogs™: New Approaches for Canine Aggression. Laura’s aim in this book is to bring the emergent research on canine cognition to the everyday practices of dog training, and particularly of canine aggressive behavior. 

Laura lives with her husband and three dogs, and her background includes working Border Collies and a flock of Navajo Churro sheep.

Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez

PhD, MS

Dr. Eduardo J. Fernandez received his PhD in psychology (minors in neuroscience and animal behavior) from Indiana University, where he worked with the Indianapolis and Cincinnati Zoo. He received his MS in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas, where he founded the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals (ORCA). 

Most of his past and current work involves behavioral research applied to the welfare and training of zoo, aquarium, and companion animals. He is currently a senior lecturer of applied animal behavior and welfare in the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences at the University of Adelaide, Australia. His past positions include a visiting professorship in the School of Behavior Analysis at the Florida Institute of Technology, an affiliate professorship in the Psychology Department at the University of Washington (UW), a research fellowship with Woodland Park Zoo, and a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellowship. 

While working with UW and the Woodland Park Zoo, he started the Behavioral Enrichment Animal Research (BEAR) group, which conducted welfare research with many of the species and exhibits located throughout the zoo. He currently runs the Operant Welfare Lab (OWL), which is dedicated to the use of learning principles to improve the lives of animals across many settings, including exotic animals in zoos, companion animals in homes, and agricultural animals in farms. Many of his past publications, research projects, and presentations can be found on his ResearchGate profile.

Dr. Karolina Westlund

PhD, ILLIS Animal Behaviour Courses

Dr. Karolina Westlund helps pet guardians and people working professionally with animals to get happier, reasonably well-behaved animals that thrive in the care of humans. She teaches animal behavior management through blog posts and the odd free short online course, as well as more extensive online courses. She is an associate professor of ethology at Stockholm University, Sweden, and sometimes publishes scientific articles related to enrichment, animal training, and well-being.

Daniel Shaw

BSc (Hons), GMBPsS, CDBC

Daniel Shaw, BSc (Hons), GMBPsS, CDBC, is an animal behaviourist with a background in animal behaviour, psychology, and neuroscience. As the owner of Animal Behaviour Kent, Daniel supports dogs and cats with behaviour problems and has a special interest in the effects of trauma on animals.

Daniel provides expert witness assessments for legal cases involving the Dangerous Dogs Act and recently spoke in Parliament on the topic of dog bite reform. Daniel also regularly appears in the media and has been interviewed on LBC News as well as for the Guardian. Daniel is a degree-qualified psychologist and a certified dog behaviour consultant with the International Association of Animal Behaviour Consultants (IAABC), and he is currently obtaining a master’s degree in neuroscience.

Dr. Simon Gadbois

PhD

Dr. Simon Gadbois is a researcher in animal behavior and animal learning and psychophysics at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. He integrates biology (ethology), experimental animal psychology (psychophysics and learning), and neuroscience within a post-cognitivist perspective. A generalist, he has studied olfaction, learning/memory, and social behavior in species of mollusks (slugs and snails), fish (three species), reptiles (three species), birds (pigeons), and mammals (rats, dogs, red foxes, coyotes and wolves). 

He has studied canids for 30 years and established the Canid and Reptile Behaviour and Olfaction lab at Dalhousie in 2006. His research on wild canids was focused on natural action sequences and social endocrinology. His current research on domestic dogs is mostly on applications of olfactory processing, including medical alert dogs and wildlife conservation canines.

Dr. Tim Lewis

PhD

Tim Lewis, PhD, approaches canine research through the lens of an evolutionary ecologist. Born in Colorado in sight of the Rocky Mountains and raised near Chicago, mostly he has lived his adult life in the woods surrounded by wildlife, and surrounded by dogs. Like many of us, his first dog found him, greeting the Lewises as they returned from a friend’s wedding. Beaker lived outside almost a full week before he owned the house. Wild at heart, Beaker would roam the countryside anytime he could slip his leash or dart out the door. So much of what he did appeared natural, and clearly had not been taught to this puppy. Beaker showed Tim how to see the world through a dog’s eyes.

Tim’s formal, non-canine education began at Augustana College in Illinois, where he received his bachelor’s degree in biology, followed by a master’s and doctorate in wildlife ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Tim taught for two decades at Wittenberg University in Ohio where he was an award-winning professor of biology; now he is a professor of biology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. His classes include ecology, evolution, mammalian ecology, forest biology, tropical ecology, and general biology survey. He frequently uses dogs to illustrate biological ideas, and even taught a class built around dog biology for university students and friends of dogs. His research ranges across many species, including wolves, deer, squirrels, turtles, and, of course, dogs. He has presented findings of his research in journals, at conferences, and as an invited speaker for more than 30 years. He currently cohabitates with three border collies, and prefers herding and scent work with his dogs to most other activities besides walks. He hovers on the edges of the dog agility and canine freestyle without actually participating.

Dr. Kristina Spaulding has been in the dog training and behavior profession since 1999. She has a Ph.D in biopsychology—the study of the biological basis of behavior—and is a certified applied animal behaviorist. She is particularly interested in stress, neurobiology, cognition, emotion, and well-being and how to apply these concepts to the prevention and early intervention of behavior problems in dogs. 

In addition to working with behavior clients, Dr. Spaulding teaches a variety of online courses and webinars on the science of behavior through her website, Smart Dog Training and Behavior. She also regularly presents on canine behavior science at conferences and other events.

In 2019, Dr. Spaulding received the Association of Professional Dog Trainers’ (APDT’s) Member of the Year Award. She currently serves on the IAABC Foundation Board and the Fear Free Advisory Group.