IAABC Foundation

Jessica Perry Hekman DVM, PhD, is a behavioral geneticist. After eleven years working as a computer programmer, she decided to go back to school to research the causes of behavior problems in dogs. She received her veterinary degree from the Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts, where she also received a master’s degree for her work on stress behaviors in hospitalized dogs. After graduation, she completed a yearlong Internship specializing in shelter medicine at the University of Florida Maddie’s Shelter Medicine Program. Perry has a PhD program in genetics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her lab studied a group of foxes (often known as the “Siberian silver foxes”) which have been bred over many generations to be friendly to humans. Perry is one of the founders of the Functional Dog Collaborative, a non-profit which seeks to change the conversation around dog breeding in the dog loving community. She also teaches behavioral biology at the Virginia Tech online master’s program for Applied Animal Behavior and Welfare and offers webinars online and consults with breeders about genetic testing and breeding choices. Perry lives in Raymond, NH with her husband and her dogs.