Newsletter – March 2011 22009January/February 09

Learning About Animals was set up to provide information and promote interest in the welfare and behaviour of animals. The aim is to bridge the gap between professionals/scientists working with animals and the public.

If you have any suggestions for future events or if you would like to be considered to be a speaker please contact me.

I am also a qualified equine behaviourist and run consultations in Surrey and the Home Counties.  For more details please visit the relevant section of the web site.

EVENTS LIST

DOGS: Aggression in Practice with Kendal Shepherd
Follow-up event to Kendal’s 2010 aggression seminar to explore how to modify the behaviour of aggressive dogs.
16th April 2011 (day event £45, details).
Taking bookings now.

 HORSES:  Equine behaviour and training with Ben Hart A series of three day workshops. Details. To attend the third workshop you must have attended at least one of the first two workshops as we will explore more deeply the issues covered in a more advanced workshop.
9th July 2011
8th October 2011
(£45 for each day. Book the next two at once for a saving) Taking bookings now.

Science in a Nutshell: Animal Welfare
A morning event exploring what animal welfare is, how it can be assessed and what are some of the most exciting initiatives towards improving animal welfare around the world.

HORSES:  An Introduction to Equine Behaviour
Morning workshop exploring what horses need, how they learn and how we can build relationships with our four-legged horse friends. (Morning event, £10, details)

DOGS: First Aid for Dogs... Details coming soon, autumn 2011.

HORSES: Exploring the latest findings in equine cognition 12th November 2011 (morning event; with Leanne Proops; details)

The views expressed by the speakers are not necessarily those held by Learning About Animals

Fish fight update

Since the campaigns launch in January The Fish Fight now has more than 653,000 supporters and has seen some positive steps towards an end on discards. Denmark, France and Germany have signed a declaration in support of gradual introduction on discard bans. Also The Norwegian ministry of fisheries and costal affairs has sent a letter of support. You can catch all the news at http://www.fishfight.net/impact.

Dogs can match sound to size

Psychologists at the University of Sussex recently published a study showing that domestic dogs are able to match acoustics to visual representations. A group of domestic dogs were shown large and small stuffed dog toys and when recordings from either a large or small dog was played the dogs were seen to pay significantly more attention to the stuffed toy representing the correct size for sound ratio. This ability was previously thought to only be found in primates. For more detail folllow this link.

Section written by JW

Event Review – Ben Hart

Ben Hart gave an enigmatic lecture with the key focus on dispelling some of the most common myths held within the horsey world. His myth-busting day was well supported by relevant research and was clearly thought out. The myths were the type of thing you hear around the yard or local tack shop – if you own a horse you will probably have heard ‘show him whose boss’ or ‘never look him in the eye’, or ‘you’ve got to be the dominant alpha mare’. Because these phrases have been said so often it’s easy not to question them and take them to be right. However, recent thinking and research has uncovered some new truths.

These most common phrases are ones that encompass the roles of ‘controller’ and ‘controlled’ and an element of fear of losing control or authority. People often believe the rider must control the horse at all times or the horse will become reckless, naughty and unmanageable. ‘Show him who’s boss’ what does this even mean? It’s common for people to say this when you are having problems trying to get your horse to do something - perhaps you were doing some jumping and your horse refused. Showing him who’s boss in this instance would be forcing him to go over that jump no matter what, using any means imaginable, showing him ‘you have to do what I say because I’m the boss and I’m in charge!’ How about the possibility that on that day your horse woke up with a twinge in his back? Or he didn’t think he would be able to make the jump and would get hurt falling through the poles and injure himself? Maybe something in the distance distracted him. Perhaps his tack is uncomfortable, or he is unconfident in his ability and what you’re asking of him. Maybe when you jump him you accidentally jab him in the mouth. Instead of punishing the horse using a whip why not assume the best of your horse try and figure out what’s really going on for him right there at that point in time and trying to work with him to help him succeed?

People may argue ‘If you let him get away with it the horse has won’! Do you believe your horse thinks you are involved in a competition of will? Do you believe your horse has the mental ability to engage in mind games? In some ways we often think our horses are capable of more complex thinking than they really are. It is thought that horses have no understanding of self, which makes them incapable of being deceitful or cunning, human behaviours that we anthropomorphise onto animals. It’s understandable why we do this, it provides a quick answer to our problem and we do get certain results from our forceful solutions. Horse refuses jump, we assume naughtiness, we whack/kick horse, horse jumps if pain/threat from us is more of a cost than his real reason for not jumping. i.e. if he got a really bad back today no matter how hard we kick him the pain in his back will be worse so he still won’t jump. He will, however, in his own horsey way revaluate his relationship with you.

Ben was keen for us to try to problem solve through negotiation and figure out how to make it work for both of you. Yes it will often take longer but in the long run it will do wonders for your relationship.

The idea of dominance and control over horses stemmed from a study in chickens in 1921 whereby researcher Schjelderup-Ebbe discovered hens have a linear pecking order with the most dominate and successful hen on top and lower ranking, less successful, more submissive hens below. This model of social structure has since been applied to many different groups of animals including horses. In actual fact further studies have since concluded that horses don’t abide by linear hierarchies. Instead horses live in ever changing triangular hierarchies where no single mare is dominant over the entire herd all of the time. Dominance within horse society changes continually depending on factors such as season, group size, reproductive state, health and most importantly resources (food, water, shelter etc.) what this means for us is that we don’t have to dominate our horses, we can negotiate, appease, and loose and they won’t become unruly, unmanageable and unridable.  

If you want to learn more check out Ben’s website at http://www.hartshorsemanship.com/ he also has several fantastic books available. And the next event with Ben is in July, check out the events section and come along to learn more.

This section written by  JW

Dolphins learn to walk

The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) are a leading global charity dedicated to defending whales and dolphins. On-going research by dedicated specialists into a pod of Adelaide’s port river dolphins has highlighted some interesting findings – several individuals within the pod have been seen tail walking.

Tail walking is not known to serve any benefit to the dolphins and is usually only seen in captivity where dolphins have been trained to perform this trick. It seems that some of the group have learned this behaviour from a group member known to the researches as Billie. Billie has had an interesting life and spent some time in captivity where it’s thought she was trained to perform this trick. It seems once she was released she retained the behaviour and other members are now copying her.

You can find out more about WDCS at http://www.wdcs.org/   and you can see Billie tail walking at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlB7oVP8MPY

This section written by  JW

The misunderstood kissing Gourami (Helostoma temminckii)  

Common shop-bought gouramis have a protruding set of lips designed to graze and scrape vegetation off rocks. They are often sold in pairs so the customers can watch them 'kiss' in their own home aquarium. This is a classic case of misconception about an observed behaviour. The kissing is actually performed by two males when sparring over territory. The males will lock jaws, flare gills and grapple until the looser is chased off. Although a natural behaviour, obviously in the wild the fish would have the opportunity and space to stay out of each other’s way.

Although rarely life threatening, when constantly repeated the kissing combat will induce heightened levels of stress. When housed in an average aquarium the increased incident of this behaviour is thought to dramatically decrease life span and lead to great levels of stress either through constant 'kissing' or one male will flee and lead an invisible life to avoid further disputes. 

The kissing gourami isn’t sexually dimorphic so they should either be sold singularly or customers should be made aware of the need to watch out for this behaviour and if seen be given the opportunity to return one of the fish, and the 'Kissing' not used as a sales pitch!

This section written by  JW

Rabbits prefer to drink from bowls

The Veterinary Record recently published an article describing that rabbits prefer to drink from dishes rather than bottles. The amount of effort, and therefore energy expended, for the rabbit in drinking from a typical bottle is three to four times that needed for the same water intake from a dish. It thus takes three to four times longer to drink the same amount of water from a bottle than a bowl.

Also to drink from bottles rabbits have to use their tongues in a different way than they would naturally to drink water, requiring more energy. Furthermore, problems can occur for rabbits with sore mouths - because it takes so much energy, sick rabbits will not bother to drink enough water from a bottle and are at risk of developing dehydration, which can be fatal. Other problems associated with insufficient water intake include urinary tract conditions, gastric impaction and bloat.  

The use of water bottles to feed rabbits started to avoid bowls spilling and wetting the bedding, leaving the animals without water. However, now that the recommended hutch size is bigger than was common when rabbits first became popular as pets, and more are being kept in converted sheds, the use of bowls (ideally heavy ceramic) can be considered again. Alternatively owners could at least provide water bowls when the rabbit is in the run during the day.

This work is a nice example of re-thinking the way we keep our pets and shows how simple experiments can lead to useful information that can make a difference to animal welfare.

Stressed. Lonely. Overweight. Bored. Aggressive. Misunderstood.....but Loved....

According to the recent PDSA Pet Well-being Report those are the words that describe pets in the UK today. Britain loves pets but owners just aren't meeting all their needs. Check it out at the links below and see how well you meet your pet’s needs:

 - the report

- a video about the report

The report will  be used by animal welfare organisations to better target their campaigns.

Advanced events for 2011

In 2011 some events will be aimed at professionals and people working directly with animals that go into a little more detail than other events.

Ben Hart is doing a series of three events on horse behaviour, you need to have a basic understanding of  equine social structure to attend the second event in July (details).

Likewise Kendal Shepherd is back for a follow-up day from her 2010 LAA event on dog aggression - this event will be on 16th April 2011; details). If you work with dogs and would like to come but missed the first event get in touch and we’ll discuss what you missed.

More will be announced as they are planned.

Birdhouses

The daffodils and crocuses are out and that can only mean one thing.... spring is here! With spring of course comes the breeding season for our garden birds. If you fancy a crafty project this weekend why not get yourself some plain bird boxes and give them a makeover? We bought some wooden boxes from hobby craft and had great fun decorating them and water proofing them. It’s not just fun but could help preserve our precious bird numbers. Around 20% of British birds breed in our gardens and songbird numbers are in dramatic decline. A number of factors are attributed to declining populations such as habitat loss, an increase in predators (such as cats, magpies and crows) as well as the use of pesticides. The skylark has seen a 51% decline, the tree sparrow 89% and worse the lesser redpoll a 90% drop.

(http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/gardening/786572/help_save_britains_birds.html)

Sparrow and finch also make some wonderful bird houses and feeders check them out at http://sparrowandfinch.co.uk/

This section written by  JW

Poll result

In the Newsletter we asked ‘Do fish feel pain?’ And 92% of you said ‘yes’. I realise that you are a skewed audience, already interested in behaviour and welfare but this is still very high. It wasn’t so long ago when there was debate over whether mammals feel pain so these are exciting times for animals.

It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. Attributed to Harry S Truman

Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough we must do. Goethe