#4 - Mindy Waite - Behavior analysis, the function of behavior, and mouthing.

Your host: Kristina Spaulding, PhD, CAAB with Science Matters Academy of Animal Behavior, LLC

Today’s guest is Dr. Mindy Waite. Dr. Waite is a Board-Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB) and a certified professional dog trainer (CPDT-KA) located in Milwaukee, WI. She is a lecturer in behavior analysis in the Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where she performs research on companion canine behavior. Her early studies focused on the prevalence, function, and function-based interventions for mouthing behavior in dogs. Current studies are assessing simple, owner-implemented food preference assessments for dogs and also training dogs to cooperatively engage in basic veterinary care. Her research has received several awards, including the Marian Breland-Bailey Award and Fear Free Award, as well as competitive funding from Fear Free. She also lectures in the Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare program at Virginia Tech’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. She received her BS in Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her MS in Behavior Analysis from Marquette University and her PhD in Molecular Biology (mouse brain development) from the University of Michigan.

We talk about so many things in this episode that it’s impossible to list them all here, but here are just some of the things we discussed: how behavior analysis works, mouthing – which dogs do it and why they do it – and defining the function of behavior. 

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