About Con's Work

Con Slobodchikoff, PhD, has been working with the communication and social behavior of prairie dogs. He also has been doing consulting on pet behavior problems, and has offered dog training classes.

The prairie dog work suggests that prairie dogs have a complex communication system that borders on language. They have different alarm calls for humans, coyotes, domestic dogs, and red-tailed hawks. In addition, the prairie dogs can describe the size and shape of an individual predator. This is the most sophisticated animal language system that has been described to date.

Con also co-writes a Dog Behavior Blog with Karen London, PhD, where they provide tips on solving behavior problems and short essays about some of the scientific research that is being done with dog behavior.

Con's News and Updates

Last summer, Con participated in the filming of a BBC documentary on prairie dogs, based partly on his work with prairie dog language. A new finding was the recording of an alarm call for a badger, and documenting that the response to a badger alarm call playback differs from the response to a coyote alarm call playback.

Here is a description of the BBC film, along with some video clips of the prairie dogs and the escape responses:

BBC Film Story

Here is another story on the BBC film:

Another Story On The BBC Film