David Appleby MSc CCAB
David is a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist (CCAB) and a member of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC). He has the previous dog training experience with the Royal Air Force and as a Guide Dog for the Blind Mobility Instructor and was head instructor for the equine club at RAF Akrotiri, where he was responsible for the training of horses and their riders.
Until 2009 David was based at the Pet Behaviour Centre in Worcestershire, UK, he held referral clinics throughout the midlands and for over twenty was the visiting behaviour counsellor to Queens Veterinary School, Cambridge University. Now living in Finland, David runs a behavioural referral practice from AB Klinikka in Somero with his wife, Tuulia. Together they established and run the behaviour clinic at Helsinki University Veterinary School where they also lecture to veterinary students and help supervise research projects.
David is active within the profession generally. He is a contributor to a number of journals and a frequent lecturer in a number of European countries. A founder member and previous chairman for the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors (APBC), David also served on the committee of the British Small Animal Veterinary Association’s affiliated Companion Animal Behaviour Therapy Study Group and the accreditation committee for the Certification of Clinical Animal Behaviourists (CCAB).
Jan Hoole BSc (Hons), PhD, Dip CABC, SF-HEA
Jan is based in Shropshire, where for 10 years she ran Ashley Pet Behaviour Centre, part of the Pet Behaviour Centre® group of practices. She also taught part time at the University of Central England and gave guest lectures at Harper Adams University and the Merseyside Police Dog Training Unit. She is now a lecturer at Keele University in the School of Life Sciences and is Programme Director for the Biology programme there. She is also a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Although Jan teaches genetics, physiology, and human evolution, among other subjects, animal behaviour remains her real area of interest. Jan shares her life with a husband, two dogs, three horses, 19 chickens and an indeterminate number of tropical fish.
Jolanda Pluijmakers PhD, CCAB
Jolanda holds a post-graduate diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling from the University of Southampton. She is a certified clinical animal behaviourist for cats and dogs by ASAB and is an associate member of European College of Animal Welfare and Behavioural Medicine.
In 2007 she graduated with a PhD from the faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Bristol University. Her research topic was: ‘Developmental and other predisposing factors contributing to behavioural disorders related to fear and anxiety in the domestic dog’. She runs referral clinics at her practice, DAVALON, in the Netherlands, and is the course coordinator of and lecturer on the Postgraduate Course in Applied Animal Behaviour and Postgraduate Course in Companion Animal Behaviour and Welfare of Odisee University College.
Erica Peachey graduated from Hull University with a BSc.(Hons) in Psychology, specialising in Applied Animal Ethology. She then went to the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies as a Research Associate, to investigate the Behaviour Effects of Spaying Bitches. As prevention is better than cure Erica runs classes for pet dogs, aiming to teach owners and dogs to have a better understanding of each other, to avoid problems and to teach response to basic commands. As well as pet behaviour counselling she also offers individual training sessions and rehabilitation training. Her special interests include puppy education and children and pets. Erica is called as an expert witness in court cases relating to dogs and is a regular contributor to the written and spoken media. She has worked with dogs and other animals for television programmes. Erica currently shares her life with her husband, three children, two dogs, two cats, three horses and three Giant African Land Snails.
Inga MacKellar MSc
Inga was involved in fostering cats and dogs for many years for various charities, through which she gained an interest in animal behaviour. She worked in marketing and advertising but decided to switch her career focus, as a mature student, to companion animal behaviour counselling. She completed the postgraduate behaviour course at Southampton University and went on to achieve an MSc and practised in the South East of England from 1998 to 2013. Inga was one of the first behaviourists to become a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist as accredited by ASAB.
She was the Press Officer for the APBC for eight years and often writes for national press as well as being involved in radio and TV. She is a behaviour advisor to Pet Plan insurance.
Inga moved to rural Wales in 2013, where she continues to write on behaviour matters. She shares her home with four dogs, two cats and a very supportive husband.
Rosie Barclay MPhil CCAB
Rosie Barclay is a Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist (CCAB) and chair of ‘The Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors’ (APBC). She is also a registered ‘Animal Behaviour and Training Council’ (ABTC) ‘Clinical Animal Behaviourist’ practitioner. Rosie holds a BSc (Hons) in Zoology and an MPhil in Animal Behaviour and Welfare from Nottingham University and is presently consulting as a clinical companion animal behaviourist on Jersey. Rosie has published several academic papers and has written numerous articles for magazines, newspapers, and social media and has published her own book designed for dog owners called “Good Dog? Bad Dog?” In her spare time she enjoys amateur dramatics and has just acquired a caravan in France where she can relax and eat cheese.
She has two teenage children, a rescue Pekinese cross called Thisbe, a gentle gypsy horse called Thistle, one very ancient Maine Coon cat, three chinchilla’s, nine chickens, two terrapins, a pond full of fish and a very understanding husband.
Charlotte Nevison PhD, BSc(Hons)
Charlotte (Charlie) holds a BSc(Hons) in Zoology and a PhD in the Behavioural Assessment of Animal Welfare from the University of Nottingham. She contributes to the BSc (Hons) in Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge. Her research focuses on questions relating to how animals perceive the world and interact with humans, and how this influences their welfare, training and management in captive and domestic situations. Her research subjects have included humans, laboratory animals, dogs, zoo species and horses. Charlie is a member of the Ethics Committee for the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour, a past Secretary for the International Society for Applied Ethology and a member of the International Society for Equitation Science.
David Ryan PG Dip (CABC), CCAB
David Ryan, former chair of the Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors, is a Home Office accredited police dog and explosives search dog instructor with twenty-six years of experience in training police dogs and handlers before retiring from the police service in 2007. A holder of Southampton University’s postgraduate diploma in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling, with distinction, since 2002 and accredited as a Clinical Animal Behaviourist by the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour in 2008, David now lectures on Newcastle University’s MSc in Applied Animal Behaviour and Welfare, works with charities on canine behaviour and provides an expert witness legal consultancy in both civil and criminal litigation involving allegedly dangerous dogs. David’s blend of practical experience and theoretical knowledge of canine behaviour fuel his particular interest in the development of inherited motor patterns and the ways in which they contribute to pets’ emotional balance.
Sarah Heath BVSc, Dip.ECVBM-CA, CCAB, MRCVS
Sarah qualified from Bristol University and spent four years in mixed general practice before setting up a behaviour medicine referral practice in 1992. She is an Honorary Lecturer in small animal behavioural medicine at Liverpool University Veterinary school and a Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist under the ASAB accreditation scheme. She was an external tutor on the Postgraduate Diploma/MSc course in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling at Southampton University from the inception of the course until 2008. Sarah is Immediate Past President of the European Society for Veterinary Clinical Ethology and in 2002 became a Founding Diplomate of the European College of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine – Companion Animals and served as President of that College from 2002 to 2008. Sarah has a particular interest in the interplay between behaviour and physical illness in dogs and cats. Her interests in the field of feline medicine include the role of behavioural factors in feline obesity, lower urinary tract disease, cognitive dysfunction and infectious disease. She lectures extensively at home and abroad on behavioural topics.
Dr Anne McBride BSc PhD FRSA
Dr Anne McBride has a degree in Psychology and a PhD from University College London, and a Certificate in Conservation and Ecology from Birkbeck College London. Her PhD study was on the social and parental behaviour of the rabbit. She has been an animal behaviour therapist since 1987, seeing dogs, cats and exotics, with a particular interest in the behaviour and welfare of small mammals. She is a senior lecturer at the University of Southampton, where she initiated and ran the internationally renowned Postgraduate Course in Companion Animal Behaviour Counselling from 1994 to its closure in 2013. She lectures nationally and internationally, and has written extensively on Applied Animal Behaviour and Human-Animal Interactions. Her other area of interest is animal law where it is pertinent to pet owners. She is called as an expert witness in both civil and criminal cases.
She is an Honorary Member of the British Veterinary Nursing Association; Honorary Associate Professor of the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science; Patron of the Rabbit Welfare Association and member of the Companion Animal Welfare Council.
Underlying all her work are two central beliefs: first, that there is no such thing as a stupid question and second, to always ask “Why” of everything in order to keep the sense of the curious, and of objectivity, alive.
Emma Magnus BSc (Hons) MSc CCAB
Emma practised as a pet behaviour counsellor between 1995 and 2009, running monthly referral clinics at veterinary practices within East Anglia and North London seeing owners of dogs, cats, rabbits and the occasional parrot. Emma is Features Editor of the small livestock journal Fur & Feather and was a regular columnist for ‘Rabbiting On, the journal for The Rabbit Welfare Fund. In 2003 she helped form the Rabbit Behaviour Advisory Group with Georgie Hearne and Dr Anne McBride. Although no longer working in the field of animal behaviour she remains passionate about animal welfare.
Georgie Hearne MSc
Georgie practiced as a certified clinical animal behaviourist in London with a special interest in rabbit behaviour and human-animal interaction. In 2007 she and her family moved to Mudgee in rural Australia where they now run an organic farm with free range pigs, poultry, cattle and sheep. They also have plenty of wild rabbits! She teaches puppy classes at the local vet clinics and now concentrates on the behaviour and welfare of the animals on the farm. She remains an overseas member of Association of Pet Behaviour Counsellors and is also a member of International Society for Equitation Science (ISES).
Anthony L. Podberscek PhD
Anthony received his veterinary degree and Ph.D. (in animal behavior and human–animal interactions) from the University of Queensland, Australia. From1992 until early 2015, he was a post-doctoral research associate in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Cambridge, UK. He is now affiliated with the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Sydney, Australia. Since 1997, he has also been the editor-in-chief of Anthrozoös, a multidisciplinary journal of the interactions of people and animals. His research interests include companion animal behaviour, the treatment of animal behavioural problems, attitudes to animals and animal welfare, and cultural aspects of human–animal interactions.
Julie Bedford BSc(Hons), PGCE, PG. Dip (CABC)
Julie Bedford is a Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist (CCAB) and has been a full member of the APBC since 1989. Julie has a particular interest in ‘recycled’ animals and, having worked for a national animal welfare charity for nineteen years and competing in various horse and dog sports for over thirty five years, she has extensive ‘hands on’ experience. Now freelance, Julie sees clients on veterinary referral, undertakes expert witness work, is a consultant for a major animal welfare charity and a supervising clinician mentoring those working towards clinical status.
Donna Brander BSc(Hons), CCAB
Originally from Texas, Donna has run behavioural practices in the USA, Europe and Hong Kong and has been settled in Edinburgh since 1991. In 1995 Donna was appointed as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal (Dick) Veterinary School. Donna established a consultancy at the Veterinary School which she led until retirement in 2005. Her particular interest has been animal behaviour and welfare and she was a frequent lecturer on that subject. Donna achieved a CCAB (Certification Clinical Animal Behaviour) from ASAB in 2004. Since retiring from her consultancy, Donna has pursued her interest in horse welfare having helped establish Ergon Equine, a company to design and research a new welfare friendly concept in saddles. Donna also works closely as welfare officer with the charity ‘Medical Detection Dogs’.
Professor Natalie Waran BSc (Hons), PhD Professor of Animal Welfare, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh, UK.
Nat gained her Zoology degree from Glasgow University, and PhD from Cambridge University Vet School funded by the British Veterinary Association’s Animal Welfare Foundation. In 1990, she joined Edinburgh University and became the director of the new Postgraduate Masters in Applied Animal Behaviour and Animal Welfare, the first of its kind and still extremely popular. She moved to New Zealand in 2005 to take up a Chair in Animal Welfare, and became Head of the School of Natural Sciences and Associate Dean (Research) at Unitec institute of Technology, before returning to Scotland early in 2011 to take up a new challenging position as the inaugural Director of the Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education, based at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary studies. The Centre is committed to improving the quality of life for all animals through education, training and by influencing policy at the highest level.