Podcast outline
- 0.00. Introductions
- 3.45. Why mixing perspectives is beneficial to your understanding of animal behaviour.
- 8.40. Understanding animal emotions makes for better training and higher welfare.
- 15.40. How to prevent and reduce fear in the veterinary clinic.
- 22.45. When to use negative reinforcement to improve welfare.
- 33.05. Using memes to spread the word about animal training and welfare.
Karolina Westlund
Karolina grew up pining for a kitten for several years, and pestering her parents until they gave up. The green-eyed black half siamese cat that she got for her seventh birthday became a true friend who lived to be 21 years old, but an easily startled cat who often went into hiding when there were visitors and a great teacher for the young Karolina.
Karolina had grand ideas about becoming a field biologist, but that never came about – the closest she got was working as a nature travel guide in France and Madeira. She studied primate conflict resolution behaviour for her phD, and with this background in primatology, combined with behaviour analysis, started working with primate behaviour management. She is now an Associate Professor of Ethology at the University of Stockholm, with a passion for teaching how behaviour management can be used to improve animal welfare. She started presenting her ideas online in late 2015, launching her blog. Nowadays she offers live workshops, online courses and free webinars as well as the occasional blog post. She lives in Stockholm, Sweden, with her husband, two kids, and an ongoing argument as to whether living with a cat is a good idea.
CLICK HERE to read Karolina’s blog post on “Why you should behave as if animals have feelings even if you don’t believe that they do”
CLICK HERE to read Karolina’s blog post on Meme’s
In the podcast Karolina said “what may be a problem to you could actually serve some purpose to the animal”. In this film (and accompanying blog post), she shows/discusses one way of addressing problem behaviour that’s fun, teaches the animal something and improves the human-animal relationship. Focus on what you want.
Very interesting podcast 🙂 (y)
It also left me with questions.
I love the synergy of these different perspectives. Jaak Panksepp is a really interesting guy, some good stuff on youtube. I read his whole book (Affective Neuroscience) but that might be a bit beyond the casual reader. 🙂 Understanding the emotional systems can be really helpful in giving yourself understanding and realistic expectations when working with potentially emotional animals / people / yourself. 😉
I think understanding emotions is vitally important, not only because you can more easily address emotional behaviour in your fellow creatures.
What’s key I think is that we can impact how animals turn out by addressing emotional processes when animals are really young – they impact brain development, stress sensitivity and social competence, to mention a few.
Want a cat that comes up to you and falls asleep, purring, in your lap? Or would you rather have one that just that comes up, head-bumps against your knee and then walks away? This is one effect of the interplay of the CARE/GRIEF system during infancy…!
I loved this podcast and Dr Westlund’s discussion. As a veterinarian I have really questioned the length of time we fast patients. I have tried to encourage owners to bring pets into the vet and give treats when they don’t have an appointment but no one does. I think people are busy and very concerned about the stress! I’ve also increased the number of treats I used, and tried to “stage” visits if possible. N=1 but this does reduce the stress of the veterinarian also. Nothing is more upsetting than seeing a patient trying to escape from you or fear for their life. I really appreciated your discussion of fear free clinics and would welcome further posts in this area.
I’m also a vet and made similar experiences. I always encourage puppy owners to visit with their puppies regularly my surgery just for fun and a treat. But it’s a rare owner who does this.
This podcast is pure gold!
Dr Westlund is a very clear and perceptive thinker. I particularly liked her thoughts on reducing the hostility and defensiveness between differing training factions. The instance she gave of R- being useful in the case of very scared animals. As a relative newcomer to the science behind animal training, it really blew my mind to realise where the techniques I have used to positively influence wild horses and increase their sense of control in their new environment are actually r-; but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing (I have used it exactly as she describes to get wild horses to connect with me). I also loved her astute comments about how it’s bad rap is often justified in the way people often start with way to much stimulus; and the importance of good timing (the common mistake of not releasing or even increasing pressure once the animal has already responded).
Also the use of memes. I have two very good tie in example memes specific to those two points about r- ; memes that are very well known in the parelli world. They are ‘be as gentle as possible but as firm as necessary’ and ‘it’s the release that teaches’. Many don’t understand ‘gentle as possible’ and get stuck on when to quit.
It also brought home to me the message that sometimes, when we judge a process as bad, we are not judging that process as it should be performed, but by the very worst way someone could actually muck it up! I have often marvelled at the bad rap r- has had apparently based upon the very worst of its students, and often from people who have tried it and moved on. I have in the past been goaded to say ‘if you think that’s what it’s about then you were doing it wrong’.
I think in all areas the key thing is to become self aware of our own failings. Both the pitfalls specifically mentioned here about r- reflect two very distinct skills that many people struggle with. That is just how light you can be to be noticed and responded to by an animal that is far more finely tuned than we are, and just how alert and responsive we must be to the slightest attempt in the right direction from the animal.
Thanks so much!
I was watching a video on facebook about fear and rage in animals/dogs but cannot access it now. Can you tell me where i could find it please ?