PAST EVENTS 2008 and 2009
February 2008: Canine communication uncovered with Amber Batson
Did you know that there is more than one way your dog can wag his/her tail and each means something different? Amber Batson discussed this and many other aspects of canine communication to help us better understand what our dogs are telling us. This talk was packed with pictures and video clips to teach us all about canine communication and what we can do to be better listeners.
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April 2008: Canine Communication Practical Workshop with Amber Batson
Following Amber’s popular morning talk on this subject this day provided a more in-depth look at how our dogs communicate with each other and with us. There were practical sessions to practise what was learnt and Amber explained the role of habituation and training and how to recognise frustrations and fears in a training session. The event included watching a training session (with a real dog!) and analysing what was going on taking into account everything covered throughout the day.
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May 2008: Equine behaviour workshop with Ben Hart
This workshop discussed our relationships with our horses and discussed topics ranging from the cognitive abilities of horses, to their emotions, to learning theory all in the context of what this means for how we interact with them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- July 2008: Rabbit behaviour morning with Suzanne Rogers
Although rabbits are the UK’s third most popular pet they are often misunderstood. This year’s Learning About Animals rabbit discussed how understanding rabbit behaviour can help us to better understand what pet rabbits need. The focus of this workshop, however, was building the relationship between rabbits and humans and to this end we explored how rabbits learn and how to tame skittish rabbits.
Although rabbits are the UK’s third most popular pet they are often misunderstood. This year’s Learning About Animals rabbit discussed how understanding rabbit behaviour can help us to better understand what pet rabbits need. The focus of this workshop, however, was building the relationship between rabbits and humans and to this end we explored how rabbits learn and how to tame skittish rabbits.
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September 2008: Problem solving 2-day workshop (dog behaviour) with Amber Batson
This 2-day workshop looked at understanding what is normal, abnormal or normal out-of-context behaviour for dogs and then how to solve some common behaviour problems.
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October 2008: Rabbit behaviour workshop for World Animal Day
A repeat of the July 2008 event held at Raystede Animal Centre on World Animal Day. Although rabbits are the UK’s third most popular pet they are often misunderstood. This year’s Learning About Animals rabbit discussed how understanding rabbit behaviour can help us to better understand what pet rabbits need. The focus of this workshop, however, was building the relationship between rabbits and humans and to this end we explored how rabbits learn and how to tame skittish rabbits.
A repeat of the July 2008 event held at Raystede Animal Centre on World Animal Day. Although rabbits are the UK’s third most popular pet they are often misunderstood. This year’s Learning About Animals rabbit discussed how understanding rabbit behaviour can help us to better understand what pet rabbits need. The focus of this workshop, however, was building the relationship between rabbits and humans and to this end we explored how rabbits learn and how to tame skittish rabbits.
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February 2009: Exploring Language in Animals with Dr Britta Osthaus
Dr Britta Osthaus is a lecturer in Psychology at Christ Church University in Canterbury and an expert in animal cognition and animal behaviour. This event explored whether animals can understand and use human-like language systems - describing the research that has been done trying to teach human language to animals. During the course of the afternoon we learnt about some amazing animals that might make us reconsider the human-animal relationship.
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May 2009: Equine Behaviour Day with Suzanne Rogers
This event will provide a basic introduction to the fascinating field of equine behaviour. During the morning workshop we will consider what horses really need and how we can meet those needs in the domestic environment. We will also cover body language, how horse’s learn and the reasons why problems can develop.
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June 2009: What Science can tell us about the Intelligence of Dogs with Dr Britta Osthaus
This event explored what science can tell us about the intelligence of dogs. The talk covered the history of dog cognition research, problem solving in dogs, detours, social cognition (between dogs and with humans) and miscellaneous things such as counting and odour detection.
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November 2009: Beyond Dominace with Amber Batson
This event explored the latest findings in the social structure of the dog and considered the behaviour associated with the canine social structure. It included information about the body language of submission and confidence, basic learning theory and drew all this together to consider the relationship between dogs and their owners.
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November 2009: Horse Sense and Horse Handling with Ben Hart
What would it be like to be a horse? What could you see and hear? What would it feel like? How would you perceive your two-legged visitors? We first tried to put ourselves in our horse’s hooves and explore what life might be like through their eyes and ears. Then we used this information when considering how we act around horses, what we expect them to do and how we expect them to behave, and how we might better communicate with them and improve our horsemanship skills.
