Newsletter -
Although Britain is considered to be a nation of animal lovers there aren’t many
events where we can learn more about our pets and other animals.
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 2009
Horse Sense and Horse handling: a day with Ben Hart
November 21st 2009, Woking, Surrey
A day packed full of information to give us an insight into life through a horse’s eyes (and ears!). Then how to apply this to horse handling skills with a chance to test our observation and behaviour skills by analysing video clips of horse behaviour in all sorts of different situations. Details.
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Dog behaviour with Amber Batson
**Nearly sold out**Beyond Dominance: understanding
the latest findings in dog social structure and how it affects the dog / human relationship
Saturday morning lecture, 28th November 2009, Woking, Surrey
Details. Amber Batson
is a vet and behaviourist and her lectures are always very popular. £15 (£12 concessions).
10am-
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Small furry pets
Saturday morning lecture, date to be confirmed, winter 2009, Surrey
Rabbits,
guinea pigs, hamsters, rats, chinchillas -
£7
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Animal Sentience
A lecture exploring the emotional lives of animals, looking at the
science but also packed with stories. Woking, Surrey, Spring 2010
Details of topic
and speaker to be confirmed soon.
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Charity lecture: Animal Welfare Worldwide
An event in aid of WSPA, Date to be confirmed,
Spring 2010
The World Society for the Protection of Animals has been promoting animal welfare for more than 25 years. This talk will take you on a journey around the world, learning about WSPA’s work. From projects helping stray dogs, to the orangutan sanctuary featured in Orangutan Diary and the bear sanctuary where Bear Rescue was filmed, from projects helping farm animals and horses to those campaigning for whales, this talk will be enjoyed by anyone who likes animals. £5 adults, £2.50 children under 12. Details.
For further details of all events/tickets/how to book please visit the web site or call 07961 996628.
What topics/speakers would you like to see Learning About Animals cover?
I am planning the calendar of talks for 2010. What would you like to see cover? Who would you like to see speak? Did you attend an event this year that you particularly enjoyed and would attend something similar? Do you think there should be ‘levels’ of talks depending on the prior experience of the group?
My aim for 2010 is to have a list of topics and dates available much earlier to help
you with your planning. However, this is difficult because for my day-
I will also aim to try to cater for a wider range of delegates by running some short
series’ of talks so that we can start of with the basics but get into some topics
in more depth. This will especially help those of you who are recording lectures
and events attended as evidence of continuous learning for your employment or hobbies.
Therefore it would be a great help if you could also tell me what subjects you would
like more advanced lectures and workshops in -
Finally, I’d like to thank everyone who has attended an event, forwarded these newsletters to others and given me very useful feedback. All really appreciated and I’m looking forward to meeting more of you in 2010.
This picture shows a New Forest Pony, free in the New Forest, pawing the ground to
expose some of the plant he/she wants to eat. It was nice to see pawing used in this
way and not in frustration or displacement as is when we commonly see pawing behaviour
in the domestic setting.
which includes the following:
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The Way of the Panda -
Henry Nicholls (journalist, editor, blogger and author of Lonesome George reviewed here) is now in the process of writing his new book.
This time the focus is the giant panda -
Henry is blogging about the process of researching and writing a book here. So far posts have included searching for people to interview, the struggle to think of a suitable subtitle for the book and comments on the release of the movie Darwin. The book isn’t due for release until next year so the blog is something to whet the appetite and keep us going until then.
Quote
One day Chuang-
were walking along a riverbank.
"How delightfully the fishes are
enjoying themselves in the water!"
Chuang-
"You are not a fish," his friend said.
"How do you know whether or not
the fishes are
enjoying themselves?"
"You are not me," Chuang-
"How do you know that I do not know
that the fishes
are enjoying themselves?"
Chinese Proverb
If you like this proverb you might be interested in the event about sentience (see
right) that will explore the emotional lives of animals. We will discuss what capacity
animals have for thinking and feeling. The speaker will be from the CIWF, who have
recently released their new animal sentience webpages.
Christmas List
Before we know it Christmas will be up on us. Here are some ideas for charities to support in your festive shopping! Christmas cards and gifts available online from the following charities:
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Fair Trade and ethical living gift web sites:
Animal adoptions available from:
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Human charities:
Featured Speaker: Ben Hart
Ben Hart will be the speaker at the workshop November 21st -
Ben’s workshops are always so much fun yet thought-
The first time I attended one of Ben’s workshops was memorable for standing in the
rain, wet and cold, watching a fellow student sitting on her horse waiting for him
to move a step forward so that she could reward him and thus shape him towards ridden
work. She had wanted to do this by free-
The last time Ben talked for LAA he took us through an exploration of the relationship
between humans and horses -
The forthcoming event will start with information to give us an insight into life through a horse’s eyes and will then consider how to apply this to horse handling skills with a chance to test our observation and behaviour skills by analysing video clips of horse behaviour in different situations. By understanding a horse’s senses we can understand their motivation and why they do what they do. By understanding the horse’s abilities and limitations we can understand why they react as they do to different forms of training.
For more information about Ben and the way he works visit his web site (www.hartshorsemanship.com) where you will find information about his journey so far and how he works with horses. He was recently featured in The One Show on TV (although the final cut didn’t show the majority of the work, which was done using positive reinforcement). The ‘thoughts’ section on his web site is definitely worth a look and if you’re suitably inspired to find out more you can book your place at the workshop here (a bargain £45 for the day).
Some of the things that people said after the last workshop Ben did for LAA:
“I wish that I could have brought more people from my yard to Ben’s workshop as people and horses may have ended the weekend happier than they started it.”
“I enjoyed the friendly atmosphere where the typical one-
“...The day was well structured and Ben is a motivating and entertaining speaker
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Now, I’m starting to sound like a salesperson so I’ll stop there and think about what else to write below.
Last Chance to See
Surely, Last Chance to See has been the best thing on TV for a very long time. It
was with much anticipation that I watched the first episode. I had been following
the escapades of Stephen Fry and Mark Cawardine on their blogs, months of tasters
of what was to come -
In the 1980s Douglas Adams and Mark Cawardine set off to see some of the most endangered
animals on the planet. The resulting book was a very entertaining read from the very
first page, which includes this description of the aye aye ““The aye-
Douglas Adams sadly passed away but he lives on in these new documentaries as well as in his various books. For this series, Stephen Fry accompanied Mark Cawardine to check on the state of the same species as the original book. I have three favourite scenes so far and I have yet to watch the last episode (only six!).
1) When on releasing baby turtles on a beach and watching them make their way to the sea, guided by an instinct to head towards light, one gets caught by a waiting crab in a hole. Mark Cawardine quickly rescues it and then says “I know you shouldn’t intervene but..hey..” Great presenting, I love it!
2) The scene where Stephen Fry is trying to get into a wet suit and is doing it in the way my Dad probably would.
3) When the very rare kakapo parrot takes a liking to Cawardine and tries to mate his head (video clip here).
Environmental messages are unashamedly weaved through each episode -
A new book accompanies the new series -
Behaviour corner: Stereotypical behaviours
Stereotypical behaviour is a repeated, relatively unchanging sequence of movements with no obvious function. Such behaviours are abnormal and believed to be caused by artificial environments that do not allow animals to satisfy their behavioural needs.
There are many examples of sterotypical behaviour in zoo animals: pacing, rocking,
self mutilation (e.g. excessive grooming and feather picking) are just a few examples.
But our pets can also develop stereotypies if the way we keep them does not meet
their behavioural needs. Examples for dogs include circling, tail chasing, fence
running, hair or air biting, pica (eating non-
Stereotypies in horses includes box walking, weaving, crib biting. Sadly it is all too common for owners to address the symptoms (such as preventing crib biting by covering stable doors with metal so that they can't chew them) rather than the cause (too much time in a stable with nothing available to do in it).
Our small furry pets (e.g. hamsters, rabbits and guinea-
Although to some extent creating these behaviours can help the animal to deal with
their environment, these behaviours can be harmful -
However, stereotypical behavior can sometimes be reduced or eliminated by changing
the way the animal is kept. This might include keeping them in a way that is more
natural (such as keeping horses in a field with shelter rather than in stables),
or enriching their environments in a way that meets their behavioural needs. Further
examples would be to provide larger and more stimulating enclosures, reward-
An excellent way of filling time for animals is to change the way we feed them: not out of bowls but scattered on the floor (for horses and small animals) or providing chews and bones for dogs.
The enrichment must be varied to remain effective for any length of time but as pet owners we should rise to this challenge and flex our creative sides with new ideas of how to entertain our pets.