Companion animals - behaviour refresher

Question 1

What outcomes for pets that have bad behaviours?

Answer 1

1. poor welfare
2. relinquishment

Question 2

What factors contribute to bad behaviours in animals?

Answer 2

1. life stage of animal
2. changes in environment such as changes in routine, new member in the house, moving house, or loss of pet
3. medical or degenerative changes associated with ageing

Question 3

What is the preferred method of changing behaviour in a pet?

Answer 3

Positive reinforcement - behaviour of animal causes a good thing to happen thus increase in beahviour

Question 4

What is negative reinforcement?

Answer 4

dogs behaviour causes a bad thing to stop, behaviour increases

Question 5

What is positive punishment vs negative punishment?

Answer 5

behaviour causes a bad thing to happen, behaviour decrease

behaviour causes a good thing to stop, behaviour decreases

Question 6

What is the first thing to be done when conducting a behavioural evaluation?

Answer 6

excluded medical causes for undesired behaviour

Question 7

What can be done if behaviour issue is detected?

Answer 7

• provide information on the diagnosis
• provide structured rehabilitation/retraining program
• helpful tips
• numerous resources to manage the problem

Question 8

what is the purpose of environment enrichment?

Answer 8

First aid measure for patients who suffer stress and anxiety when hospitalised

Question 9

When do behaviour evaluation start? and what are you looking for?

Answer 9

when animal first enters clinic, looking for behavioural cues which will help determine how we approach the animal during the consultations, if we need assistance from the owners, precautions and what environmental enrichment we provided to the animal

Question 10

why is evaluation of the human-animal bond important?

Answer 10

helps us determine why an animal may behave a certain way - aiding our decisions in regard to general management of client and patient and application of Environmental enrichment

Question 11

why is environmental enrichment good?

Answer 11

Why?
- Welfare of patients can be greatly improved
- Facilitates quicker healing/recovery
- Simple approaches to reducing stress
- Our patients will love us!
- Our clients will love us!

Question 12

how do cats and dog display signs of stress?

Answer 12

Cats
- recognised the signs of stress, and pain-induced stress in hospitalised patients. Can present in different ways such as active or passive.

dogs
introvert or extrovert

Question 13

What is environment enrichment?

Answer 13

The process of adding one or more factors to an animal’s environment in order to improve the physical and psychological welfare of the animal

Question 14

What are the 4 attributes of the environment?

what is the most important out of the 4?

Answer 14

1. security - most IMPORTANT - safe nesting place and predictable routine, friendly carer
2. complexity -allows animals to carry out normal repertoire of locomotive and exploratory activities
3. achievement - control of environment - toys that can be manipulated
4. novelty - degree of unpredictability - change scents, gentle grooming,

Question 15

What is an example of an olfactory stimuli? and what are the benefits?

Answer 15

Dog Appeasing Pheromone (DAP)

Designed to imitate secretions of the sebaceous glands in the
intermammary sulcus of bitches post partum

• A calming effect – reduce anxiety & stress
• Decrease in separation-related behaviours
• Reduce pacing & excessive licking

Question 16

What is an example of an auditory stimuli? and what are the benefits?

Answer 16

Music -

Classical; resulted in dogs spending more time resting &
less time barking
* Heavy Metal; appeared to agitate the dogs
* Neither pop nor human conversation had any obvious
effect

Question 17

What is the most important form of environmental enrichment? and how are negative associations with human contact prevented?

Answer 17

human tactile interaction

three to one rule

For every unpleasant or invasive experience, three positive
experiences should follow