If you are a dog lover looking for other passionate dog lovers, scientists, activists, authors, and bloggers to follow and interact with online, we've got a list of most recommended folks to follow! Here are some of the most famous dog people that pretty much all of us animal lovers know.
Amanda Gise
Facebook: @PandaPawsRescue501c3
Instagram: @amandatotherescue
Twitter: @RescueAmanda
Website: Panda Paws Rescue
If you have watched the hit television series called “Amanda to the Rescue,” then you know Amanda Gise. If you haven't, I recommended checking out this woman’s show and learn more about her dog rescue organization, Panda Paws Rescue. The goal of Amanda’s is “to end homelessness, abuse, and neglect of all animals. To be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. To stand up and make a change. When we can, to care for those sick, injured, or dying at the hands of others. To nurture and find loving forever homes for them. To make a change, to make a life better, to be an advocate. To care.”
And she definitely works towards all of that, and more, by placing a focus on rescuing abandoned and shelter animals that are major medical needs cases, and doing whatever it takes to get sick and injured dogs to feel healthy and happy again, and onto their way to forever homes.
Alexandra Horowitz
Facebook: @dogcognitionlab
Twitter: @DogUmwelt
Website: Psychology at Barnard College
We love the work of Alexandra Horowitz here on Top Dog Tips, and have referenced her and her research many times before. She is a cognitive psychologist and author of best-selling books about the science behind the behaviors of dogs, two of which have been extremely popular among casual dog lovers and animal professionals alike: Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know and Behind a Dog: Following the Dog Into a World of Smell.
Cesar Millan
Facebook: @cesar.millan
Instagram: @cesarsway
Twitter: @cesarmillan
Website: Cesar’s Way
Probably the most famous dog trainer out there, Cesar has his base of followers and a base of those who strongly disagree with his methods. If you have heard of or watched the hit, Emmy-nominated television series “Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan”, then you are familiar with this dog behaviorist and trainer, who was the star of the show during its entire run, from 2002 to 2012.
Even after his television series came to end, Cesar Millan has remained one of the biggest and most well-known dog trainers in the country. Before that, Cesar has worked hard to do important things for dogs by rescuing and rehabilitating severely aggressive dogs. Cesar also founded the Dog Psychology Center in California, and is a New York Times #1 best-selling author.
Debbie Jacobs
Facebook: @fearfuldogs
Twitter: @fearfuldogs
Website: Fearful Dogs
She is a brilliant and dedicated “advocate for fearful dogs and those trying to help them”. In her books and on her social media pages, Debbie provides a plethora of helpful advice and tips about living with, interacting with, and training fearful dogs. You can check out her most popular book called A Guide to Living with and Training a Fearful Dog wherever books are sold.
Marty Becker
Facebook: @fearfreehappyhomes
Instagram: @fearfreepets
Twitter: @fearfreepets
Websites: Fear Free and Marty Becker – “America’s Veterinarian”
Marty is also known as “America’s Veterinarian” and he's a licensed doctor of veterinary medicine who uses his wealth of knowledge and memory bank full of teaching moments as a veterinarian to share a wide variety of helpful information and personal stories that he has witnessed first-hand concerning the unique and beautiful bond between animals and humans.
Dr. Becker is the author and co-author of many books about dogs, including but not limited to From Fearful to Fear Free, and is the founder of “Fear Free” and “Fear Free Happy Homes”, both of which are initiatives that aim to “take the ‘pet’ out of ‘petrified’” and help dogs to have better experiences while at home, visiting the veterinarian, and anywhere they may roam.
Ilana Reisner
Twitter: @reisvetbehavior
Facebook: @ReisnerVetBehavior
Website: Reisner Veterinary Behavior & Consulting Services
Ilana is a board-certified veterinary behaviorist and a knowledgeable consultant on dog-bite safety and prevention. Dr. Reisner consistently helps the dog lover community by taking dog-biting incidents that are in the news, and breaking them down step-by-step to teach people where things went wrong, and how to prevent such dog bites from happening in the future.
Ilana often shares interesting, evidence-based, and effective findings about the various indicative behaviors and body language mannerisms of dogs, and what scientific research has revealed each behavior and mannerism in dogs means, and signals to humans. Dr. Reisner explains in layman’s terms what to watch out for in a dog’s behavior and how to behave yourself (and how to teach your children to behave) to prevent dog bites from occurring.
Lisa Vanderpump
Facebook: @VanderpumpDogs
Instagram: @vanderpumpdogs
Twitter: @VanderpumpDogs
Website: The Vanderpump Dog Foundation
If you are familiar with the tragic and utterly horrific displays of animal cruelty and abuse that take place each year in Asia, particularly during the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, then you might have heard of this restaurant owner and reality television star who is also the owner of a non-profit charity called The Vanderpump Dog Foundation, which is an organization that “is helping to create a better world for all dogs”.
Vanderpump’s organization does a wide-variety of wonderful things for dogs, but one of their main functions is to bring citizens together to help ban the Yulin Dog Meat Festival. The Vanderpump Dog Foundation also has a dog rescue center with a spectacular 6,000 square foot palace for canines in which even “shelter” dogs are able to live in the lap-of-luxury. Even better, 100% of the profits that are gained from the rescue center are donated directly back to helping more rescue dogs, and the foundation’s various other causes meant to help and save dogs.
Susan G. Friedman
Facebook: @behaviorworks
Websites: Behavior Works and Raising Canine
Susan is a PhD who specializes in and teaches college-level Psychology, and has paved the way for “the application of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) to captive and companion animals”. Applied Behavioral Analysis has been effective at helping humans to learn, and is proving to be just as effective with dogs.
The fundamental directive principles of ABA surround a hierarchy of teaching methods and interventions in which the most positive, least intrusive, and effective behavior solutions are the ones that should be utilized first, and a belief that it is always best to change behavior by way of facilitation and not force.
Dr. Friedman’s websites and social media pages are filled to the brim with incredibly well-made and easy to follow, science-based videos of dog training that apply the psychological concepts and principals that Dr. Friedman is an expert in, for effective training and living with canine companions. She is an author and co-author of many books about animal behavior and training, and also teaches online courses called “Living and Learning with Animals for Professionals”.
Tia Torres
Facebook: @PitBullsandParolees
Instagram: @pitbullsandparolees
Twitter: @VRC_Pitbull
Website: Villalobos Rescue Center
Those of you who've seen or heard of the hit show called “Pit Bulls and Parolees”, you might be interested to know that Tia Torres is the founder and head-woman in charge of Villalobos Rescue Center, an animal shelter that rescues, rehabilitates, and re-homes pit bulls (and other breeds) that have been abused, neglected, and abandoned.
Victoria Stilwell
Facebook: @VictoriaStilwell
Instagram: @victoriastilwell
Twitter: @VictoriaS
Website: Positively TV
She is the famous canine trainer and host of an Animal Planet series called It’s Me or The Dog, which provides positivity-based, and positive-reinforcement based training tips and training methods for dog owners. Victoria is also the author of a great book by the same name as the television series, It’s Me or The Dog: How to Have the Perfect Pet, which can be found anywhere that books are sold.
READ NEXT: Top 10 America’s Best Dog Trainers of 2019
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