Animal Behavior

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Animal Behavior
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What Are We Going To Learn?

• Common animal behaviors
• Wild animal behaviors
• Unwanted animal behaviors and how to correct
  them.
• Training techniques
• Researching behavior

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What is Behavior?

• Give me your definition!
• Definition
• a the manner of conducting oneself
• b anything that an organism does involving
  action and response to stimulation
• c the response of an individual, group, or
  species to its environment
• d the response of an individual or animal to
  past experiences and memories.

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What Are Some Common Animal Behaviors?

• Happy
• Sad
• Anxiety
• Hunger
• Aggression

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How Do These Behaviors Relate to Human Behavior?

• Humans share all of the same behaviors!

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What Are Other Types of Behaviors?

• Living in herds and packs vs. living solitary
  lives
• Two reasons to live in herds or packs
• 1. Protection from predators
• 2. Hunting packs- more efficient at
  capturing prey.

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Solitary Lives

• Why do some animals live solitary lives?
• Some animals live alone because there are not
  enough resources to support more than one animal
  in the territory (i.e. food, shelter, etc)

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Other Types Of Behaviors

• Prey vs. predator behaviors
• Some prey animals react to a predator very
  differently from other prey animals. For example
  

Horses Run away from predators.
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Other Types Of Behaviors

• Predator animals can either live solitary lives
  or live in packs.
• They live in packs not for protection like prey
  animals, but for easier hunting.
• Some predator animals do live in social or family
  groups (such as a pride of lions).

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What Are Some Behavior Differences Between Male
And Female Animals?

• Female animals tend to take care of the young,
  some females are the hunters and gather the food
  for their young and the males.

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Why Do Wild Animals Have These Behaviors?

• SURVIVAL OF THE SPECIES!!!!!
• These behaviors aid in hunting and protecting the
  pack or herd and those two things are vital to
  the survival of the species as a whole!

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How Did Animals Get These Behaviors?

• 1. Genotype - Inherited Traits These behaviors
  are part of the animals genetic makeup and are
  due the evolution of the packs overtime.
• 2. Learned Behaviors The animals learn from
  certain experiences they have had and this can
  shape how they act when presented with that
  experience again.
• 3. Present Environment The animals must adapt to
  whatever environment they are currently in, in
  order to survive.

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Back to Domestic Animals!Why Do We Care?

• Why is it important to recognize behaviors?

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More Detail on Recognizing Behaviors

• Happy-
• 1. Panting, relaxed expression
• 2. Excited tail wag
• 3. Play bow
• 4. Tail thumping on the floor

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How Do You Recognize Certain Behaviors in
Domestic Animals?

• Anxiety in dogs
• 1. One paw raised
• 2. Nervous licking
• 3. Tucked tail
• 4. Barking or whining
• 5. Tail drop for curly tail dogs
• 6. Urination/defecation
• 7. Only wagging the end of their tail.
• Anxiety in Cats
• 1. Swishing tail
• 2. Growling
• 3. Dilated eyes

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Recognizing Certain Behaviors Cont.

• Aggression in dogs
• 1 . Growling/snarling
• 2. Snapping
• 3. Aggressive barking
• 4. Lunging while leashed with snapping
• 5. Standing still with a wide-based stance and a
  low head
• Aggression in cats
• 1. Growling/hissing
• 2. Swishing tail
• 3. Spitting
• 4. Swiping at you with their claws

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Some Unwanted Behaviors in Domestic Animals

• Fear biting Usually due to the animal being in
  a state of panic rather than being aggressive.

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Dog Bites

• Who is most likely to get bit?
• Children under 15 years of age.
• Males
• Dog owners.
• What type of dog is most likely to bite?
• Family pets more than strays
• Scared dogs
• Aggressive dogs
• Hungry dogs
• Any dog can bite!!!

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How To Prevent A Dog Bite

• 1. Keep dog leashed when in public
• 2. Socialize your dog from a young age
• 3. Dont take your dog into situations where it
  might feel unsafe or uneasy
• 4. Be cautious around unfamiliar dogs
• 5. Teach children to ask permission before they
  pet a dog
• 6. Avoid direct eye contact and do not yell or
  run.
• 7. Keep your arms down at your sides and do not
  hover over the dog.
• 8. When around an unfamiliar animal talk in a
  calm, soothing voice so as not to upset the
  animal.

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More Unwanted Behaviors

• Urinating in the house
• 1. Fear
• 2. Submission
• 3. Separation anxiety
• 4. New addition to the family
• 5. Marking territory
• 6. Lack of proper housetraining

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How To Prevent Urinating In The House

• 1. Basic housetraining
• Be sure the dog is outside when it is going to
  need to eliminate
• Go out with the dog to be sure it does eliminate
• Reward the appropriate behavior
• 2. If a dog is submissive urinating, never scold
  it for doing so. Stay calm, try to identify the
  action that caused the animal to submissive
  urinate, and avoid it in the future.

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More Unwanted Behaviors

• Excessive barking
• 1. Alert/warning
• 2. Attention seeking
• 3. Boredom
• 4. Lonely
• 5. Anxious

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How To Prevent Excessive Barking

• 1. Stay calm and do not shout no at the dog.
• 2. Get their attention and make them sit or lie
  down, this will sometimes relax them.
• 3. Do not hug or try to comfort your dog when
  they are barking, this will just reinforce the
  unwanted behavior.

• 4. If they are barking to get your attention,
  ignore them until they stop and then pay
  attention to them.
• 5. If they are barking because they are bored,
  give them more enrichment activities such as toys
  and chew bones to keep them occupied.

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More Unwanted Behaviors

• Jumping on people
• Attention seeking
• Excited
• Asserting dominance (least likely)

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How To Prevent Jumping On People

• 1. Teach them from a young age that jumping is
  unacceptable.
• 2. Never cuddle or hug your dog when they jump on
  you, this sends mixed signals to your dog when
  you scold them for jumping on someone else.
• 3. When your dog jumps at you, turn your body to
  the side to make them miss you, and then ignore
  them so they know they dont get attention for
  jumping.

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How To Train a Dog

• There are 2 ways to train an animal
• Classical Conditioning- A conditioning stimulus
  is applied and the unlearned behavior is then
  performed.
• Operant Conditioning-Uses consequences to modify
  the occurrence of a learned behavior.
• Training

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Clicker Training

• Is a form of operant conditioning
• The clicker is much faster than saying "good dog"
  and it can be used with treats to reward a dog
  for good behavior.
• How to
• 1. Get a clicker and a handful of your dog's
  favorite treats.
• 2. Click the clicker and then immediately give
  your dog a treat, repeat this several times.
• 3. Try using the clicker when the dog is not
  paying attention to you and if he looks at you
  give him a treat.
• 4. Finally, when your dog follows your command or
  does something that deserves a reward, click the
  clicker and give him a treat. This makes the dog
  more likely to repeat the action in the future.

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Crate Training

• Why should I crate train my dog?
• 1. To provide a safe way to transport them.
• 2. To provide a way to keep them confined when
  you are gone, if need be, so they don't destroy
  furniture, walls, etc!
• 3. If there is an emergency and they need to be
  evacuated or boarded they will already be used to
  being in a crate.
• How to
• 1. Select a crate that is large enough (should be
  large enough for him to stand up and turn around
  in.)
• 2. Put the crate in a place where the dog spends
  alot of time.
• 3. Encourage the dog to go into the crate by
  dropping treats in there.
• 4. Feed the dog his meals in the crate.
• 5. Gradually increase the time you keep the dog
  in his crate (start with 5-10 minutes at a time
  and work your way up).

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Other Training Tools

• Many different kind of collars, each for a
  specific purpose. You should talk to a trainer
  to know which one to use and how to use it
  correctly
• Choke collars
• Pinch collars
• Shock collars
• Muzzles
• Halters
• Gentle Leader
• Head or chest and body

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Researching Behavior

• Anti-Bark Collars
• Citronella Spray Collars vs. Shock Collars

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Researching Behavior

• A group of dogs that barked excessively were
  studied.
• The owners were given both a shock collar and a
  citronella spray collar to try out for two weeks.
  
• Citronella Spray Collar vs. Shock Collars
• Which of the two methods of training do these
  collars use?
• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning

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Researching Behavior

• Results
• Most of the owners preferred the citronella spray
  collars.
• Half of the owners reported the shock collar had
  no effect on the dogs at all.
• One owner reported liking the shock collar
  better.

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Why is Research Important?

• Research is vital so that we can better
  understand how to train and correct behavior in
  our pets.
• Also, some of the research done on animals
  carries over into you and me!

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What Did We Learn Today?

• Common animal behaviors
• Wild animal behaviors
• Unwanted animal behaviors and how to correct
  them.
• Training techniques
• Researching behavior

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