Behaviour Flashcards
What is behaviour?
What an animal does
As movements or responses
Defined based on activity, physiology, purpose
What are the canine relinquishment risk factors?
Client expectations
Insufficient counselling
No obedience classes
Failing to neuter
House soiling
What are the feline relinquishment risk factors?
Imappropriate client expectations
Lack of research and info
House soiling
Lots of other resident cats
What first aid advice for bad behaviour?
Identify stimuli
Avoid situations
Muzzle train where appropriate
Arrange long consultation
What is cognitive decline/cognitive dysfunction syndrome?
Altered response to stimuli
Deficits in learning and memory
Confusion/senility
Changes over time - slow decline
What are the clinical signs of cognitive dysfunction syndrome?
DISHA
Disorientation
Social interactions
Sleep/wake
House soiling - forgetting known behaviours
Activity
What is the typical appraisal response to a stimuli/threat?
Potential threat
Sensory perception
Appraisal of threat
Emotional response
Motor output
Ability to show behaviour
What can cause fly-catching behaviour?
Visual hallucinations from visual cortex
What can affect sensory perception?
Conditions affecting sense organs eg. hearing, vision
Change in pain perception eg, allodynia
Abnormalities in sensory cortex eg. seizures
What can affect stimulus appraisal?
Sex hormones - oestrogen, testosterone
What can affect emotional response?
Limbic system - recieves info from sensory nerves quicker than the cortex so can make hasty decisions
What behaviour changes can hyperadrenocorticism cause?
House soiling - PUPD
Aggression - increased HR
Restlessness
Irritation
Fear and anxiety
What behaviour changes can feline hyperthyroidism cause?
Accelerate metabolism
Vocalisation
Night time waking
Increased irritability
Aggression
What compulsive behaviour can cause dermatological signs?
Acral lick dermatitis
Psychogenic alopecia - overgrooming
When to suspect an underlying medical problem causing behaviour problems?
Changes suddenly - especially in mature animals
Doesnt fit animal history or environment
No learning related cause
Unpredictable/inconsistent
What is the best way to treat behavioural problems?
Combine behavioural and medical assessments
What are the different levels of arousal?
Low level - options reviewed, learning can occur
High level - immediate response, interferes with learning
What can increase arousal?
Conflict - multiple competing motivations
When are displacement behaviours shown? What are some examples?
When arousal increases
Eg. lip licking, yawning, pacing
How can you reduce arousal?
Prevention/avoidance - control stimulus, environment
Improve - behaviour modification, training, medication
What is the incidences ABC?
Antecedent (what happens before the behaviour
Behaviour
Consequences
What is pretraining?
Things to do before training to make it easier
Eg. train useful commands - look at me, touch
Pet control
Markers eg. clicker
Stimulus avoidance
What is a settle exercise?
Teach dog to sit and stay
Stroking, relax dog
Then vary locations and times of day
What are the basic learning theory principles?
Habituation - get used to situation
Sensitisation - opposite, get more sensitive to situation
Associative learning
What are the two different types of associative learning?
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
What is the am of behaviour modification?
Change the animals emotional response to the problem situation
Emotional change rather than behavioural change
How can you control attention?
Owner starts and finishes all interactions
No response to attention seeking
Increases consistency
What is classical conditioning?
Pavlovian conditioning - action => reaction
Associative learning - often associates emotions with triggers
What is operant conditioning?
Trial and error - animal does something first then gets a reward
Associative learning - associates behaviour with triggers rather than emotion
What do you need for operant conditioning?
Need to identify a good reinforcer for each animal eg. food, toy
What is counter-conditioning?
Changing emotion not behaviours
Classical conditioning
The goal of behaviour modification
What are the different types of behaviour modification?
Punishment
Extinction
Habituation
Flooding
Response substitution
Systematic desensitisation
Why should you not use punishment in a dog?
May reduce undesirable but does not teach desirable
Can increase fear and aggression
Ethical concerns, must escalate if ineffective (go from shouting to hitting)
What is extinction?
The withdrawal of reinforcement - remove reinforcers until behaviour stops
Does not teach desirable
What can extinction lead to?
An extinction burst - temporary increase, due to frustration
What is habituation?
Repeated exposure to a stimulus that leads to a decreased response
Introduce to trigger below threshold and provide no consequence so dog not overstimulated and gets used to nothing happening
When should you use habituation?
For low grade fears
What is flooding?
Expose to a fear evoking stimulus with no consequence, but prevent escape
Stimulus not withdrawn until pet habituated
Not recommended for extreme fears or control level
Owners use it by mistake - warn them not to use it
What is response substitution?
Find a desired behaviour to reinforce as an alternative to existing behaviour
Calmly get dog to use a different behaviour
Operant conditioning
Eg. treats, touch hand, muzzle
Good technique to use
What is desensitisation?
Gradual exposure to a stimulus at levels that do not provoke fear
Pet habituates - progress to new threshold
Not easy to implement in real like - have to control everything
What type of exposure exercise is real life applicable and what is ideal life?
Response substitution - real life
Desensitisation - ideal life
