What does it mean for a dog to live a “good life”? Can animals experience something like meaning or purpose? And what role do play, relationship, agency, and training have in helping animals flourish?

In this episode, Dr. Kristina Spaulding talks with philosopher, dog trainer, and behavior consultant Dr. Katie Homan about philosophy, play, ethics, flourishing, and the deeply relational nature of life with dogs.

Katie shares how her background in philosophy shaped the way she thinks about play, welfare, attachment, and human–animal relationships. Together, they explore questions that don’t have simple answers — including:

• What philosophy actually is (and why it matters)
• The difference between pleasure and flourishing
• Whether dogs can experience meaning and purpose
• Why play may be fundamentally relational
• The role of agency, vulnerability, and reciprocity in our interactions with dogs
• Whether training can become more playful
• How ethical assumptions shape animal behavior practice
• Why learning to tolerate uncertainty may be essential for both science and philosophy

The conversation also explores how concepts like flow, attachment, resilience, and social connection may contribute to positive welfare — and why asking better questions may matter as much as finding definitive answers.

Katie also discusses her current thesis research examining attachment styles and human–dog interaction patterns in olfactory detection work.

This episode is less about arriving at fixed conclusions and more about learning to “live the questions” together.

You can learn more about Katie’s work through her training business, See Spot Play at https://www.seespotplay.dog/ or email her at katie@seespotplay.dog.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

• Website: https://sciencemattersllc.com/
• Unlocking Resilience: https://sciencemattersllc.com/unlocking-resilience
• Research Bites: https://sciencemattersllc.com/research-bites
• Join the Science Matters newsletter
• Facebook
• ...

In this episode of the Research Bites Podcast, Dr. Kristina Spaulding talks with Dr. Lars Schwabe about what happens to learning and memory when the brain is under stress—and why those changes matter for behavior, training, and mental health.

They begin by unpacking how memory works in the first place, walking through the stages of encoding, consolidation, and retrieval. From there, they explore the still-debated idea of reconsolidation—the possibility that when memories are retrieved, they may briefly become modifiable. Dr. Schwabe discusses the evidence behind this concept, along with early attempts to reduce the emotional intensity of memories in conditions such as addiction and PTSD.

The conversation then turns to the physiology of stress. Dr. Schwabe explains how acute stress activates the sympathetic nervous system and the HPA axis, releasing cortisol and reshaping how the brain prioritizes information. Under these conditions, the amygdala tends to amplify emotionally salient details. As a result, stress can strengthen central aspects of emotional and threat-related learning while weakening contextual information and working memory.

These shifts have important behavioral consequences. When stress is high, certain types of learning becomes stronger—one possible pathway to fear generalization. Dr. Schwabe also discusses how stress can change the type of behavior we rely on. Goal-directed behavior—associated with the prefrontal cortex—allows flexible updating based on outcomes. Habitual behavior, more closely tied to other brain areas, is faster but less flexible. Under stress, the balance can shift toward habits and away from flexible decision-making.

Throughout the conversation, Dr. Spaulding and Dr. Schwabe explore what these findings might mean for animal training, resilience, learned helplessness, and the treatment of stress-related disorders. They also emphasize an important reality of scientific work: translating laboratory findings into real-world practice is complex, and individual differences play a major role in how stress affects learning and behavior.

It’s a fascinating look at how the biology of stress reshapes the way animals—and humans—learn, remember, and adapt.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

• Website: https://sciencemattersllc.com/
• Unlocking Resilience: https://sciencemattersllc.com/unlocking-resilience
• Research Bites: https://sciencemattersllc.com/research-bites
• Join the Science Matters newsletter
• Facebook
• ...

In this episode of the Research Bites Podcast, I’m joined by my first return guest, Patricia McConnell — Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, beloved author, and former professor at University of Wisconsin–Madison. Many of you know her from The Other End of the Leash and For the Love of a Dog, books that shaped an entire generation of trainers.

But today, we’re talking about something new.

Her debut mystery novel, Away to Me, follows Maddie McGowan — an dog behaviorist living on a small Wisconsin farm — whose world is upended when violence strikes close to home. What unfolds is both a gripping mystery and an accurate portrayal of life as a behavior professional: working with complex clients, navigating canine aggression and trauma, and building partnerships with clients.

In our conversation, we explore:

• What fiction allows us to say about dogs that nonfiction sometimes cannot
• How to write emotional truth without overstepping scientific evidence
• Why sheepdog trials are the perfect dramatic backdrop for exploring partnership and agency
• The role of trauma, resilience, and healing — for both people and dogs
• Why agency, play, and learning to read canine body language are so important for supporting out dogs

Patricia speaks candidly about walking the line between evidence and intuition, about what dogs teach us when we truly listen, and about the power of story to expand how the public understands behavior work.

If you love a good mystery, or just a good book, especially one where the dogs are written accurately—this episode is for you.

For more information, please check out my website and social media links below!

• Website: https://sciencemattersllc.com/
• Unlocking Resilience: https://sciencemattersllc.com/unlocking-resilience
• Research Bites: https://sciencemattersllc.com/research-bites
• Join the Science Matters newsletter
• Facebook
• ...