Terri Bright, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CAAB
Dr. Terri Bright earned her Master’s of Science and Doctoral degrees at Simmons College in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) with an animal specialty, and she is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D). She is a mentor for future BCBAs, teaches Behavior Analysis at Northeastern University, and lectures nationally on the subject of Applied Animal Behavior Analysis. She is the past President of the Applied Animal Behavior Special Interest Group in the Association of Applied Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), and her dissertation research entailed developing in dog behavior assessment and analysis tool that will help to standardize how dog trainers evaluate why problem behaviors happen.
Dr. Bright has been training dogs as a hobby and professionally for many years and previously had a private animal behavior practice for nine years that addressed all manner of behavior issues. Her own dogs, all Bull Terriers, have competed in Obedience, Agility and/or conformation, with great results. Her dog Fanny was the top Agility Bull Terrier in the U.S. in 2006 and 2007. Her rescued dog, Pepper, helped to teach Terri how to train and manage human- and dog-aggressive dogs, and Radio was a breed champion and the subject of Terri’s research on stimulus equivalence (matching-to-sample training) that garnered her a Marian Breland Bailey (MBB) Award from the Association of Applied Behavior Analysis International (ABAI). Terri won another MBB Award from ABAI for her research on the use of errorless teaching to train a Shelter dog to sit at the sound of a bell (“Pavlov’s Shelter”) when she was not in the dog’s sight. She uses evidence-based methods of training.
Terri launched the Training Department at the MSPCA-Boston location in 2007 and, with a phalanx of crackerjack training instructors, has grown the program to over 30 classes a week. She and her team have also expanded their training program to Angell West in Waltham. She helped to evaluate homeless dogs surrendered at the MSPCA for proper placement for more than thirteen years, and designed training and enrichment programs for dogs at the MSPCA. She also designed and implemented curriculum and teaching for staff and volunteers in the Safewalk™ program, which she created in 2009. Safewalk™ is currently being implemented in other sheltering facilities with Dr. Bright’s consultative assistance.
Dr. Bright is also the founding editor of a new open-source animal behavior publication, called the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis in Animal Training (www.jabaat.org).