We picked this place for one reason: we wanted to climb on basalt. Travelling with a dog usually means planning ahead a little more and making different choices. Combine that with the desire to climb at new crags, and you’re almost guaranteed a trip off the beaten track. I truly enjoy this kind of travelling….
Every month I go through what’s been published in canine science, looking for studies that might shift how we understand our dogs. September had a themer: what is going on in the dog before we see the behaviour. In the brain, in the mood, and even in the body a few seconds before a mistake….
A few weeks ago I wrote about everything I’d learned preparing for a first night in an unguarded alpine shelter with Simba. This is the report back. Before we get into the trip itself: yes, Simba was allowed in this cabane. If you’re wondering how dog policies work in Alpine refuges (and why the answer…
Every month I go through what’s been published in canine science, looking for studies that might shift how we understand our dogs. August brought something I find exciting: researchers are getting better at looking inside the canine mind. Here are the studies that caught my attention this month. What does your dog’s brain see when…
You’ve read 3 articles learning about distraction, duration, and distance separately. Let’s see how they work together If you’ve read the previous articles in this series, you now understand what distraction does to learning, why duration is harder than it looks, and how distance changes the picture. And if you’ve been training with that framework,…
If you’ve spent any time hiking in the Alps, you already know that “where to sleep” is rarely a simple question. The mountain shelter system is layered, inconsistently named, and, if you’re traveling with a dog – comes with its own set of unwritten rules that nobody bothers to explain clearly. I have spent many…
Every month I go through what’s been published in canine science – looking for studies that might shift how we understand our dogs. Not every month delivers something dramatic. July was one of those months where the findings were quietly significant rather than flashy, let’s dive in. Can your dog’s walk reveal what’s happening in…
Distance is the last of the three Ds – and the most emotionally loaded. The moment you step back from your dog, something activates in their nervous system that has nothing to do with the commands you’ve trained. The dog who’s perfect until you move You’ve been working on stay. It’s solid. Your dog holds…
Dogs’ behavioral problems and their impact on the owners Having a “problem” dog is difficult. But it’s the guilt about it that makes owners unhappy. A recent study has analysed why owners of dogs with behavioural problems often feel anxious or depressed. It turns out that it is not the dog’s behaviour per se that…
Notes from NUManima 2026 — France’s conference on AI and digital health inveterinary medicine, organized by association Vet IN Tech. I went as an outsider of sorts: a biomedical engineer coming from particle accelerators and medical devices, who ended up building a behavioural tracking tool for dogs, sitting in a room of people who’ve spent…
