Trish McMillan Loehr is a certified professional dog trainer who holds a Master’s degree in Animal Behavior from the University of Exeter in England.  She specializes in working with dogs, cats, and horses.

During her seven years with the ASPCA, Trish gained a wide variety of experience in the field of animal behavior.  For three years she was the director of the animal behavior department at the ASPCA’s New York City shelter, helping staff, volunteers, and adopters work with animals and make great matches.  Trish has also helped assess and rehabilitate animals from cruelty, hoarding, and dogfighting cases, as well as pets rescued from natural disasters. In addition to writing for the ASPCA’s Virtual Pet Behaviorist and other publications, she helped create and present several very popular webinars on dog and cat behavior and handling.

Prior to her work with the ASPCA, Trish managed dog daycares, volunteered in animal shelters, taught obedience classes, and took in board-and-train dogs.  She has also trained and shown with horses in various disciplines, and has begun incorporating clicker training in her equine work.

Trish now lives in Urbana, Illinois with four dogs, a horse, and a very patient husband.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture:  Resource Guarding in Dogs – Working with Dogs who Guard Food and Other Resources

Kathryn Lord received her Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in Organismic and Evolutionary biology. Her dissertation focused on the evolution and development of dog and wolf behavior. This work involved thousands of hours of observation and hand rearing both dogs and wolves. She is interested in how evolutionary development can help inform our management of domestic and wild species. She accomplishes this research by investigating the origin of behavioral differences between the species, subspecies, and breeds of the genus Canis.
Kathryn is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Hampshire College. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals including Animal Behavior, Behavioral Processes and Ethology. She has also written chapters for edited volumes by Temple Grandin, Alexandra Horowitz and James Serpell. She has given lectures and workshops internationally including the Chienposium, Quebec, Canada; University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy; and Schweizerische Tierärztliche für Verhaltensmedizin, Bern, Switzerland; the University of Padova, Padova, Italy, and Adiestradores Mexicanos Y Aficionados D’Perros, Mexico City, Mexico. And her work on sensory development was recently featured on NOVA, Inside The Animal Mind.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: The Development of Behavior in Dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and Wolves (Canis lupus lupus); What does the dog say?

Cindy Ludwig is a licensed registered nurse and certified professional dog trainer who owns a dog training business called Canine Connection LLC. She holds a bachelor of science degree in natural science from the University of Findlay and a master of arts degree in higher and adult education from the University of Missouri as well as a diploma in professional nursing from Mercy School of Nursing in Toledo, Ohio.

Cindy has been teaching professionally for more than 40 years and has been a registered nurse for over 35 years with a previous specialty and certification in critical care. Later in her career she held administrative roles in healthcare quality improvement, compliance and education before making a career change to full time dog trainer and business owner.

In addition to being a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, Cindy has completed coursework in animal behavior and nutrition at accredited North American universities. She has  bylines in various print and online publications and is a frequent presenter on clicker training, service dogs and bite prevention. Cindy was a 2010 member of the Education Committee of the Association of Professional Dog Trainers. A devoted positive reinforcement trainer, Cindy founded a new and unique therapy dog program in 2012 with strict force-free training requirements.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Pressure Wraps and Achieving Behavioral Calm in Anxious Dogs

Evan MacLean is an Assistant Professor in the School of Anthropology at the University of Arizona. He received his Ph.D. in Evolutionary Anthropology from Duke University in 2012 and served as Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of the Duke Canine Cognition Center from 2012-2016.  His research investigates animal cognition with an emphasis on phylogenetic approaches to the study of cognitive evolution and the cognitive characteristics of canids and nonhuman primates.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Individual Differences in Dog Cognition: Psychological Underpinnings and Practical Applications

Krista Macpherson holds an Honours BA, as well as a Master of Science degree in psychology, from the University of Western Ontario. As a dog trainer and owner of two rough collies, Krista has had a longstanding interest in animal cognition. Her first formal research in this area, however, was her undergraduate thesis project, which was supervised by Dr. Bill Roberts, and dealt with anthropomorphism and the concept of “canine heroes”.  This study won the McClelland award, which is given annually to the best undergraduate psychology thesis at the University of Western Ontario.  Subsequently, this study was published in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, and gained extensive media coverage upon publication. Krista is currently continuing her research in canine cognition, and is currently pursuing her Phd in this area. Her research interests are numerous, but primarily include numerical discrimination, spatial memory, and timing.  Krista is a member of the Canadian Kennel Club, and regularly exhibits collies at all-breed dog shows.

Recorded OnDemand Lecture: Domestic Dogs: The New Darlings of Animal Cognition