Blogging again: Some news and what's to come...

Hello and welcome!
Welcome to the Pets Behaving Badly blog, version 2.0! So yeah, I've been a bit ok, VERY slack the last few years, blogging-wise, but I'm excited to be back and hopefully posting on a regular (or at least semi-regular) basis.

So, what's news?
Let's just say that life got in the way a bit, as it tends to do, but some pretty exciting stuff has been happening. Firstly, I became a mum! Last May my husband and I welcomed our first little human, Nathan, into the world. I can't believe he's nearly 15 months old already. Everyone says the first year flies and it really did. Being a parent has been such an incredible experience and we are beyond excited to be expecting our second little person next month. I'm currently on maternity leave and taking a break from consulting but I anticipate returning to work, on a part-time basis, in March next year. In the mean time I'm looking forward to keeping in touch via Facebook: Pets Behaving Badly with Dr Kate - Animal Behaviourist and this blog.

Me and my little man, Nate

The other exciting news is that I finished my PhD. HOORAY! My research focused on public attitudes towards shelter dogs and the assessment of dog behaviour to determine adoption suitability. It was a long and challenging "journey" but simultaneously lots of fun and incredibly rewarding. I recently wrote a guest post summarising my research and findings for Dr Jo Righetti's blog, if you'd like to know more.

Graduation day. Doing a PhD does make you a little crazy :)

Mostly life has been awesome! Except when we had to say goodbye to our much loved Boxer, Archie, in September last year. Archie was diagnosed with advanced lymphoma and only lived another 6 weeks after his initial diagnosis. He was 9 years old and we miss him terribly. He has left a Boxer-shaped hole in our world and we so look forward to the day we welcome another Boxer into our home. I'm so glad that our little fella Nate met Archie but I'm not sure the feeling was mutual. I'll be writing about introducing babies and existing pets as well as pet loss, including my personal experiences, in future posts.

Archie (9 years) and Nathan (9 weeks)

Other than kids and a PhD, running Pets Behaving Badly has kept me very busy. Most of my work still involves consulting pet owners to help them understand and modify problem behaviour but I also consult to industry and those working with animals in a professional capacity. I continue to write freelance about all things animal behaviour, for magazines like Pets Magazine, and recently wrote a book chapter about companion animals for a tertiary text book about Human-Animal Interactions. In addition to this I work as an expert witness in cases involving menacing or dangerous dogs, present seminars and workshops and occasionally lecture in human-animal relationships at LaTrobe University.

That's nice but why should I follow this blog?
Good question! If you love pets and you're interested to learn more about their behaviour, welfare and management then this is your kind of blog and you should subscribe for regular updates! No pressure :)

Posts will draw on my experiences as an applied animal behaviourist, research scientists and mum to provide readers with helpful and practical tips to understand, manage and resolve common pet behaviour problems and to enhance the owner-pet relationship. I also plan to bring you the latest scientific discoveries relevant to companion animals and the human-animal bond.

Your input and suggestions for blog posts is most welcome. So if you have a question, or a concern regarding your pet's behaviour, let us know via the Facebook page and we'll do our best to write about it in a blog post.

In the mean time, go have fun with your pets!

Dr Kate :)