Common Animal Handling Flashcards
Distant Exam
Don’t touch animal when you walk in, let them be and see what kind of behaviour they are displaying
- Increases safety
- Improves animal comfort
- Decreases fear, anxiety, and stress
- Allows time to build a relationship with the owner
Facial expression
Important in determining how an animal is feeling
Dog body language relaxed vs. stressed/interested
Relaxed
- Tail down, mouth open, ears up, loose stance
Stressed or interested
- Stiff, alert, mouth closed, eyes wide
Thresholds and intensity
very high arousal –> high arousal –> low arousal
Very high
- Reactivity
- Threatening warnings (ex. growl, snarl, lunge)
- Escape movements
High
- Displacement (multiple, clustering)
- Conflict behaviours
Low
- Normal behaviour
Emotional threshold and behavioural threshold
Ladder of aggression
0.2 seconds between each step
- problem is that stage in ladder can change very very quickly. Cats often move through their ladder quicker than dogs (0.1sec)
- Intensity of stress/threat matters
- Steps can be skipped
Ex. discipline growl… dog might skip growl and go straight to bite
Displacement behaviours
Unconscious behaviours, but they are normal behaviours performed out of context.
- We often miss them because they are normal
Signals:
- lip licking
- yawning or squinting or blinking
- Body shake
- Stretching
- Scratching
- Shifting weight
- Panting
- Smiling
- Sneezing
- Huffing and puffing
- Ears back, whale eye, lip lick, looking away
Conflict behaviours
Behaviours conducted when an animal is not sure whether they are interested or not.
Ex. barking and wagging tail- can be considered both friendly and guarding. Humans have created this by wanting both.
Ex. lip lick or slowly going for treat. Animal unsure if they want it or not
Body language of fear
- Cowering
- Lick lipping
- Panting
- Brows furrowed, ears to side
- Moving in slow motion
- Acting sleepy or yawning
- Hypervigilant
- Suddenly wont eat
- Moving away
- Pacing
- Lowered positions
- stiff
- Hackles (can have other meanings as well)
- Belly rub–> submission, paw touching you or licking, eyes watching you= not relaxed, concerned about situation
Cat anxiety and fear body language
- Cat airplane ears
- Puffed up
- wagging tail
- dilated eyes
- crouching
- ears turned back
- furrowed brow
- staring
- hiding
- laying on side tail flicking
- hair raised
- sudden grooming
- ready to jump off perch
- walking with flat back
- tail and head down
Displacement behaviours in cat
- Lip licking
- Yawning
- Grooming out of no where
- Squinting eyes
- Scratching
Ways to reduce/prevent fear, anxiety, and stress
- Set the stage
- Use Pheromones
- Location
- Principles of restraint
Setting the stage to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress
Animals comfortable with the environment, handlers and positions are more likely to remain calm and cooperative for procedures
Includes setting up a Quiet environment and using Non-slippery floors/tables
Pheromones to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress
Pheromones are chemical compounds produced by animals and have physiologic and behavioural effects on animals of the same species.
Includes dog appeasing pheromone (adaptil) and feline facial pheromone analogue (feliway)
Adaptils effects/results
- Reduction of barking amplitude, restlessness, sniffing behaviour in shelters with long term application
- Positive effect on learning ability in classes and long term socialization
- Puppies showed less signs of fear with unfamiliar people
- Relaxation but no effect on aggressive behaviour during clinical exam
Feliways effects/results
- Salivary cortisol decreased in cats (35-day exposure)
- Calmed but not reduce struggling before (resistant) venous catheterization
- Stress reduction during vet visits
