Men and Their Dogs

Contextual Issues.- A brief history of man's best friend in animal studies.- Understanding the contextual nature of man's best friend.- The link between violence to humans and animals.- Race and ethnicity as a contextual factor influencing perception of the human-animal bond.- Attachment and Well-Being.- Heuristic nature of Bowlby's attachment theory as a means to conceptualize the human-animal bond.- Pets Forever: an innovative service learning course helping community pet owners.- Play and the human-animal bond as a mediator of stress among men with gender role conflict.- Canine companions as self-objects: the role of animal companions in men's lives.- Overview of research on the left gaze bias found in dogs: how humans and animals recognize and respond to the emotional state of another.- Attachment between humans and dogs in Japanese culture.- Attachment to animal companions among a veteran population.- Attachment to animal companions and normative male alexithymia.- Grief, Loss,and the Continued Bond.- Men's grieving styles: the importance of disenfranchised grief and dissonant grief.- Overview of the continuing bond with animal companions: implications for men and their dogs.- Do men really grieve less for animal companions? The influence of gender role conflict and dissonant grief in understanding men's attachment and loss of an animal companion.

Dr. Chris Blazina is a psychologist and professor of psychology at Tennessee State University. Dr. Blazina has a specialty in the field of men's psychology. He is a member on national and international editorial and advisory boards for journals and book publishers interested in men's issues. This includes previously serving on APA's Division 51 journal The Psychology of Men and Masculinity. He is authored/edited three books about men. His fourth book, "The Psychology of the Human-Animal Bond: A Resource for Clinicians and Researchers" uncovers the important and complex roles of animal companions as seen through a contextual lens. In his latest work, Dog Tracks, Dr. Blazina places the meaning of the bond in the context of men's lives, revealing new dimensions of the relationship with man's best friend. Dr. Lori Kogan is licensed psychologist and associate professor of clinical sciences for the College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at Colorado State University. She is the editor of the Human-Animal Interaction Bulletin, an open-access, online publication supported by Division 17 (Counseling Psychology) of the American Psychological Association. She is also the founder/director of Pets Forever, a non-profit program and service learning course designed to help low income elderly and disabled pet owners. In addition, Dr. Kogan has years of experience providing individual and couples counseling to veterinary students, faculty and staff. She has published numerous journal articles, co-authored book chapters, and given invited presentations on topics related to human animal interactions in both psychology and veterinary medicine venues. She is currently engaged in several research projects pertaining to the intersection of the human animal bond and veterinary medicine.

"In Men and Their Dogs, psychologists Chris Blazina, Lori Kogan, and other authors provide a set of intriguing chapters that examine, scientifically, how and why dogs might, can, and do help us, focusing on the benefits for men of having a relationship with a dog. ... Men and Their Dogs will become the 'go to' book for researchers interested in scientific approaches to assessing the therapeutic usefulness of interactions between dogs and their men." (Robert W. Mitchell, Anthrozoös, Vol. 30 (1), 2017)