Dr. Jennie Willis is an applied animal behaviorist and trainer who has made a career out of helping people and their pets live in harmony by improving animal behavior. Dr. Willis has worked with pet parents and their animals, along with their veterinarians, to solve complex and severe behavior issues. Her life’s focus has been helping people and their pets navigate towards better solutions when they struggle with challenging issues like biting, reactivity, separation anxiety, self-mutilation, house soiling and escape among many other issues. Behavior problems can improve with the right approach and understanding.

Dr. Willis Associate Professor at Colorado State University in the Department of Biology where she studies applied animal behavior along with her graduate students. Her research interests include motivations behind and protocols for resolving aggression issues among animals in a group, improvement of behavior through enrichment, protocols for the decrease in frustration and overarousal and evaluation of training methods for leash reactivity. Her early research was related to domestic dog cognition and problem solving. Over her career, she has worked with species ranging from mice to ferrets, and from cats to cattle!  Dr. Willis oversees the Cam the Ram training program for CSU, an all positive reinforcement based program for the ambassador animals that represent the University.

Dr. Willis is the Director for the Professional Science Masters (PSM) Degree in Zoo, Aquarium and Animal Shelter Management.  She and her graduate students conduct applied behavior research to benefit the lives of animals in managed care and organizational settings. She is a research associate in partnership with several zoos and sits on the Animal Welfare Committee for two organizations. Her special interest is in improvement of adoption rates of cats through enrichment, evaluation and training. You may feel alone and like your pet’s behavior can’t be helped, but resolution can occur with the right approach.

Dr. Willis teaches several courses in applied animal behavior that are available for undergraduates and graduate students in any program including:  BZ 479 Biology and Behavior of Dogs, NSCI 579 Applied Animal Behavior and Training and BZ 478 Behavior and Biology of Cats.  

Dr. Willis also speaks and consults professionally internationally for groups and organizations on a variety of animal training and behavior modification topics..   She is a member of the Animal Behavior Society, American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, Animal Welfare Association of Colorado, the Association for Animal Welfare Advancement, the Association of Zoos & Aquariums, the Zoological Association of America, and Animal Behavior Management Alliance.

In her spare time, Dr. Willis enjoys spending time with her human and canine family hiking, swimming and adventuring in the Colorado mountains.