Study Animal Behaviour

DO YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT YOUR ANIMAL IS THINKING?

A great course for pet owners, veterinary assistants, or people who work with animals on farms, zoos, pet shops and trainers.

The course covers influences and motivation, animal perception and behaviour, environmental affects on behaviour, instinct and learning, socialisation, handling animals and problem behaviour.

An understanding of animal behaviour provides a useful foundation for animal training, or more generally, animal care. It also provides very real insights and a foundation for understanding human behaviour.

This course focuses 75% on understanding how animals think. The remainder has more of a practical application, looking at things such as training, handling and dealing with unusual behaviours.

What do our students think?

"This course has given me a new lease on life as I feel happier in myself and I have really enjoyed the whole experience.  I will hopefully be able to work in a job I love and it has helped me enormously with the training and understanding of my puppy (who is now my helping dog)."  Animal Behaviour Student, UK

Lesson Structure

There are 8 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction: Influences and motivation.
   • What is behaviour
   • Causes of behaviour (eg. genetics, learning, external and internal influences)
   • Reactive, active and cognitive behaviour
   • Conditioning
2. Genetics and Behaviour.
   • Understanding biology
   • Natural selection
   • Genetic variation
   • Development of behaviour
   • Behavioural genetics
3. Animal Perception and Behaviour.
   • How animals perceive things
   • What stimulates them and how do those stimuli function
   • Instinct
   • Neural control
   • Sensory processes, sight, sound, hearing etc.
4. Behaviour and the Environment.
   • Coordination
   • Orientation
   • Homeostasis
   • Acclimatisation
   • Circadian rhythms
   • Biological clocks
   • Reproductive cycles etc.
5. Social Behaviour.
   • Animal Societies
   • Aggression
   • Social constraints
   • Social order
   • Play
   • Biological clocks
   • Communication
6. Instinct and Learning.
   • Conditioning and learning
   • Extinction and habituation
   • Instrumental learning
   • Reinforcement
   • Operant behaviour
   • Biological and cognitive aspects of learning
7. Handling Animals.
   • Psychological affects of different handling techniques
   • Training animals (horses, cats, dogs, etc).
   • The student has a choice of which types of animals to focus on, though a variety will still be covered.
8. Behavioural Problems.
   • Abnormal behaviour (eg. Psychotic, neurotic);
   • Domestication of animals
   • Reducing human contact
   • Reducing human dependence

Aims

• Identify factors affecting animal behaviour.
• Describe the influence of genes on animal behaviour.
• Explain how animals perceive and how they respond to various stimuli.
• Explain the influence of environment factors, such as circadian rhythms, on biological clocks, reproductive cycles, orientation and other animal behaviours.
• Explain the social influences on animal aggression, play, sexual behaviour, communication and other behaviours.
• Describe different ways that animals learn (such as conditioning and habituation) and some effects of learning on behaviour.
• Discuss psychological implications of different handling techniques.
• Identify abnormal animal behaviour (eg. psychotic, neurotic behaviour) and ways to reduce dependence on humans.

What is the Purpose of Animal Behaviour?

It is assumed that all animal behaviour is an adaptation designed to support survival, either directly or indirectly. However, this is not always the case. Animals can behave self-destructively, out of habit, or out of boredom, just as humans can. To better understand the behaviour, we should also consider what motivates it.

What Motivates Behaviour?

Genetics is of prime importance (ie. inherited characteristics). Genetic characteristics are also sometimes referred to as “inborn”, “innate” or “instinctive”. Most animals are genetically programmed to act in certain ways in certain situations.

Experience (ie. learned characteristics). Experience may encompass terms including: “acquired”, “experiential” or “environmental”. Behaviours can be learned through the experience of interacting with the environment (which includes the people or other creatures in it), or it can be learned through personal, subjective experience (perceptions, thoughts and feelings). In the case of animals, these latter factors are usually difficult to identify.

Since genetic and environmental factors both influence behaviour, it is impossible to distinguish particular causes for a behaviour. Particularly in regard to animals, no behaviour can ever be characterised as totally instinctive or totally learned. Even though learned and genetic factors both play a role in all behaviours, the relative significance of each is variable.

Some behaviours in animals can be relatively unlearned and therefore, almost impossible to modify. In such cases, we can determine that genetics is the major influence. Other behaviours are relatively easy to modify, thus mostly learned. In such cases, we can determine that genetics has a minor influence.

Why Study This Course?

• Learn to manage dogs, cats and other animals as pets or working animals
• Help train working animals (e.g., support animals, detection animals, working dogs, etc.)
• Get a job in a kennel, pet shop, on a farm or elsewhere
• Start a business helping people with their animals (animal training, grooming, dog walking, etc.)
• Volunteer at an animal shelter or charity; getting experience and laying a foundation for a career change.
• Improve your understanding of your pets.

Start at any time to suit you!

Enrol Today!

You can enrol on the course now, but if you have any questions about the content of the course or studying with ACS, then please get in touch with us today - use our FREE COURSE COUNSELLING SERVICE to get in touch with our expert tutors. They will be pleased to help you!