About FREQUENCY & CONSEQUENCE

FREQUENCY & CONSEQUENCE is an independent publication about dogs, behavior, learning, and the complicated relationship between humans and the animals who live alongside us.

Written by canine behavior consultant and trainer Paul Kott, it explores what behavioral science can tell us about dogs, and what dogs themselves can teach us when we pay close enough attention. Expect essays about learning and cognition, training and behavior, animal welfare, the history of dogs and humans, new research, and the occasional strange corner of canine science that deserves a much larger audience.

The name comes from one of the simplest ideas in learning theory: behavior is shaped by what happens before it, what follows it, and what experience teaches us along the way. The consequences are everywhere. So are the stories.

Read the archive

Read everything published in Frequency & Consequence, from canine behavior and cognition to the history, science, and culture of dogs. New readers can start anywhere.

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Subscribe to receive new essays and articles by email when they're published. No content treadmill, no arbitrary schedule, just something worth sending when there's something worth saying.

Follow the questions

Why do dogs do what they do? What do they learn from us, from one another, and from the environments we create for them? Frequency & Consequence follows those questions wherever the evidence leads.