About Dr. Patricia McConnellMcConnell is an adjunct associate professor of zoology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a certified applied animal behaviorist. Her recently released book For the Love of a Dog, is a bestseller, and has obviously struck a chord with pet parents because it puts forth a scientific premise that dogs have rich emotional lives and exhibit feelings like fear, anger, surprise, sadness, and love.  McConnell also has written a book I’ll Be Home Soon, about dogs home alone.What makes the approach of Patricia McConnell, PhD., unique is that she combines ethology (the study of how an animal’s behavior interacts with its genetic heritage and its environment) and learning principles. She believes that it is essential “to understand as much as we can about what the world is like according to a dog.” She believes we need to understand both how an animal works as well as its behavior in a natural environment. McConnell believes that the best outlook that a dog parent can have is to want to learn about learning: to understand how to influence the behavior of an animal while maintaining a good relationship with it.