Barking Brains is a science based outreach platform dedicated to helping behaviorists, veterinarians, trainers and owners understand the neuroscience behind animal behavior. The mission of Barking Brains is to make neuroscience more accessible by helping professionals and owners navigate relevant topics in a practical manner applicable to real world situations.
By understanding what is physically occurring in an animal’s brain when they are experiencing the world around them, it becomes so much easier to also understand the behavioral outcomes associated with those experiences. We offer the public an extensive array of current information from articles, scientific literature, webinars and more, to seminars and initiative projects. Founded and operated by Dr. Kathy Murphy, an internationally renowned speaker, neuroscientist and veterinary surgeon, Barking Brains is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to better understand neuroscience and how it can be applied in real world settings.
Welcome to Barking Brains! We are a neuroscience outreach platform based around making the neuroscience of dog behavior accessible to clinical professionals, canine professionals and dog enthusiasts alike. Our content is based around taking complex topics and making them practical for the general public to apply to their life with dogs. Whether you are a veterinarian, a dog trainer, a behaviorist, a handler, or an enthusiastic pet parent, we will help you learn how a dog’s brain work and how to best apply this knowledge to your interactions with them.
What are the benefits of understanding neuroscience?
Dog behavior is not as simple as understanding how they learn. When a dog experiences something, a cascade of chemical reactions occur in the brain which cause their body to react in a particular way. This complex combination of neurotransmitters, neuromodulators and hormones each serves a specific purpose for the dog in that moment and beyond. Depending on how the brain responds to an experience, learning will either occur rapidly or more slowly and systematically. Neurological and physiological responses to pain, the stress response, or any number of powerful behavioral influencers can determine behavioral outcomes more powerfully than anything that we can do to change them.
By understanding the dog’s brain, what is occurring within it and why, you will gain tremendous insight regarding the presentation of behaviors in various contexts. If you understand when rational learning cannot occur because emotional learning is taking place instead, you can change the situation to reach your goals faster and more effectively. Understanding neuroscience can also make a significant positive impact on the human-animal bond by providing powerful tools for increasing animal welfare and quality of life. The trust cultivated when a dog feels safe with you can have profound effects on their enthusiasm for training, their ability to relax and their overall behavior.
The content provided by Barking Brains will help you revolutionize the way that you work with dogs. If you want to avoid frustrating and ineffective training sessions while making the best possible decisions for your dog’s mental and overall health, then look no further. We will help you understand your dog’s brain, so you can make a difference in their life.