Behavior Flashcards
What is the goal of therapeutic handling?
Learning about the dog’s behavior in order for cooperation for therapy
What should behavior modification plans be focused on ?
Reinforcing desired behaviors, ingnoring inappropriate behaviors, and creating behavior plans geared towards each dog’s behavior
What is positive force-free interaction?
Creating interactions that create positive experiences for the dogs. These actions should be consensual
What is positive reinforcement?
adding something pleasant to increase a behavior frequency
What is negative reinforcement?
Removing something to increase a desired behavior
What is positive punishment?
Adding something to decrease an activity
What is negative punishment?
Removing something to decrease the frequency of an activity
What are reflexive signals?
Outward reflexions of a dog’s inward state
What are signs of
a reflexive signals?
- Face: closed mouth, blinking, watching
- Ears: pulled back
- Body: forward and backward facing
- Braced front legs, stretched hind legs
What are signs of shyness in a dog?
- Face: looking away, tense eyes, tongue licks
- Ears: pulled back
- Body: turned away from trigger with lowered tail
What are signs of stress in dog?
Face: tense eyes, dilated pupils, pulled lips, panting, yawning, drooling
Ears: pulled back
- Body shedding, round topline, head down and sniffing
- Tucked tail
What are signs of fear in dog?
- Face: lips drawn back, whale eyes, looking away, low head
- Ears: pulled to side
- Body: Rounded topline
- Tail tucked
What are signs of avoidance anxiety?
Same as other clinical signs
What are examples of calming signals in dogs?
- Face: subordinate licking, sniffing, yawning, tongue licks, soft mouth
- Body: relaxed, turned away, lying down,
What are signs of defensive aggression?
- Face: eyes, ears, nose all toward trigger, dilated pupils, tight closed mouth, showing teeth
- Legs braced
What are signs of offensive aggression?
Face: eyes, ears, nose all toward trigger, dilated pupils,, C-shaped mouth
- Tail high, legs braced towards target
What is the functional threshold?
- The line between rational thinking and survival thinking
What cause dogs to go over their functional threshold?
Stress and fear
What is flooding and is it effective?
Flooding is overloading of an undesirable behavior. It is not effective
A dog yawns. What reciprocal signal should you send?
Yawn
A dog shows whale eyes. What reciprocal signal should you send?
Look away and yawn
A dog places a paw on you. What reciprocal signal should you send?
Look away and yawn
A dog sniffs, licks, or tongue flicks. What reciprocal signal should you send?
Take a break
A dog looks away. What reciprocal signal should you send?
Look away and yawn
What is the first agreement between knowing animals
- Who are you?
- Knowing who the dog is : name, breed, greeting client first, not dog, letting the dog interact with you first
What is the second agreement between knowing animals?
- How are you?
- Understanding the dog’s emotional and physical state
- Not putting dogs in difficult situations
- E.G toss treats a safe distance away from you –> hand feeding keeps it too close to fear-trigger
What is the third agreement between knowing animals?
- Will you do this with me?
- Aim for active participation from dog
- Make sure dog does not feel trapped
What is the third agreement between knowing animals?
- May I do this to you?
- Use least amount of restraint possible
How do you calm a dog for treatment/ evaluation
- speak dog and understand body language
2. Use positive reinforcement
What should you do prior to starting a physical treatment on a dog?
- Ask them to assume a position and reward positive behaviors
