Zazie & Bodger
Zazie Todd, PhD
Zazie Todd, PhD, is an animal behavior expert and award-winning writer who is at the forefront of the move towards positive animal welfare and kind, humane dog training methods.
Dr. Todd loves nothing better than helping people resolve issues with their pets. Her expertise includes dog training and behavior, cat behavior and training, animal welfare, and the relationship between people and their pets.
Todd is the author of Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy and Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy. Her highly-anticipated third book, Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog, was published in October 2024.
Todd is the go-to pet expert for many media outlets and has been mentioned in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Daily Telegraph, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The Globe and Mail, The Vancouver Sun, CBC Radio, Radio New Zealand, and many more. She is the creator of Companion Animal Psychology which she started in 2012 to explore the ways in which science can help us to have happier cats and dogs. The Animal Book Club followed in 2016. Todd's podcast, The Pawsitive Post in Conversation, is co-hosted with Kristi Benson and features interviews with authors, scientists, dog trainers, and cat behaviorists.
Todd's Psychology Today blog, Fellow Creatures, explores the social world of people and animals. Her writing has also appeared in BBC Science Focus, Prima, Inside Your Dog's Mind, Inside Your Cat's Mind, Modern Dog, Modern Cat, The Psychologist, Reader's Digest Canada, and Pacific Standard. She takes dogs and cats as clients through her behavior consulting business, Blue Mountain Animal Behaviour.
Todd has a PhD in Psychology (University of Nottingham) and an MFA Creative Writing (UBC). Todd graduated with honors from Jean Donaldson’s Academy for Dog Trainers (“the Harvard of dog training”) and has an Advanced Certificate in Feline Behavior with Distinction from International Cat Care. Todd is an affiliate member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. She is a multi species training professional member of the Pet Professional Guild, and for 7 years was a volunteer at the BC SPCA. As well, she is Fear-Free certified and is a member of International Cat Care's Feline Wellbeing Expert Panel. Todd's paper, Barriers to the adoption of humane dog training methods, was published in the Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research.
Todd grew up in Leeds, in the north of England, and now lives in Maple Ridge, BC, Canada, with her husband, a dog, and a cat.
Website: https://www.companionanimalpsychology.com/
Podcast: https://thepawsitivepostinconversation.buzzsprout.com (and wherever you get your podcasts)
Substack: https://zazietodd.substack.com/
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/zazietodd.bsky.social
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/companionanimalpsychology
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zazietodd/
References: Todd, Z. (2018). Barriers to the adoption of humane dog training methods. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 25, 28-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2018.03.004
Williams, E. J., & Blackwell, E. (2019). Managing the risk of aggressive dog behavior: investigating the influence of owner threat and efficacy perceptions. Risk analysis, 39(11), 2528-2542. https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13336
Books:
Bark! The Science of Helping Your Anxious, Fearful, or Reactive Dog by Zazie Todd, PhD
Purr: The Science of Making Your Cat Happy
by Zazie Todd, PhD
Wag: The Science of Making Your Dog Happy
by Zazie Todd, PhD