Optimising emotional health Flashcards
Define emotional stability
An individual’s ability to remain emotionally stable and balanced
Define emotional capacity
The level of emotional arousal that an individual can tolerate without significant or long lasting negative outcome
Define emotional valence
The extent to which an emotion is positive or negative
Define emotional arousal
The intensity of the emotional motivation
Define emotional resilience
The ability to adapt to stressful situations and cope with life’s ups and downs - allows the animal to tackle or accept problems, live through adversity and move on with life
What are the responsibilities of breeders when it comes to an animals emotional stability?
Selection of breeding stock
Caring for pregnant bitches
Early rearing of puppies
What are the responsibilities of guardians when it comes to emotional stability?
- Providing an optimal physical and social environment according to species specific needs
- Providing the opportunity for beneficial learning
- Socialisation and habituation
- Training
- Rewarding appropriate decision making in terms of selecting behavioural responses
What is the emotional capacity (size of sink) of an animal decided by?
- Genetics of parents / relatives and emotional health of parents
- Experiences of the bitch whilst pregnant
- Experiences < 7-8 weeks old
- Experiences during the first year or so of life
In the sink model, what is represented by the hot and cold taps?
Cold = Positive emotions e.g. desire seeking, social play, lust, care Hot = Negative emotions e.g. fear-anxiety, pain, frustration, panic-grief
Emotional resilience represents which part of the sink model?
Outlet pipe of the sink -stops overflowing
How does emotional resilience change the interaction with a trigger?
Results in optimal emotional drainage after a trigger has been encountered
Give 3 examples of drainage behaviours
Sleeping
Chewing
Grooming
What is the importance of drainage behviours?
Important for releasing emotional arousal – if these behaviours are seen by a care giver as ‘bad’ you can end up with an animal in a heightened state of arousal over a prolonged period of time
What is displacement represented by in the sink model?
Flow of water through the overflow hole in the top of the sink
What is displacement always associated with?
High level of emotional arousal - a full sink
When is the risk of emotional overflow most likely?
- Low emotional capacity (small sink)
- Emotional disorder (Tap is hot when it’s not justified)
- Inappropriate physical or social environment (hot tap is justified)
- Poor emotional resilience (high level of residue water)
How can emotional overflow be prevented?
- Create an adequate emotional capacity (breeding and rearing)
- Establish good socialisation and habituation (reduce flow rate, positive associations)
- Create optimal emotional resilience: encourage drainage behaviours
What is emotional intelligence?
The capacity to be aware of, control, and express one’s emotions
How do you teach emotional intelligence?
- Involves exposing young mammals to a variety of contexts and establishing suitable emotional associations
- Rewarding appropriate decision making in terms of selecting behavioural responses to negative emotions when they arise
What is the aim of repulsion (fight)?
Increase distance from and decrease interaction with the trigger - influencing the trigger to take action
Give some examples of repulsion behaviours
Growling/snarling
Hissing
Air snapping, swiping
Biting
What is the aim of avoidance (flight)?
Increase distance from and decrease interaction with the trigger - achieved by the individual taking action
Give some examples of avoidance behaviours
- Bolting on walks if there are loud sounds such as gunshots
- Moving away from people who want to engage with the pet
- Taking a wide berth around other dogs in the park
- Hiding from visitors
What is appeasement?
Actively gathering information - increase availability of information about the trigger
Give some examples of appeasement behaviours
- Jumping up at people
- Attention seeking
- Urination on greeting
How are inhibition and appeasement often misinterpreted?
- Inhibition can be misinterpreted as the animal being relaxed
- Appeasement is often misinterpreted as affection & trust
What is behavioural inhibition?
Passive gathering of information - state of behavioural shut down where the animal does not interact with the threat in any way but continues to gather information about it
When does behavioural inhibition occur?
If a potential threat is overwhelming in terms of:
- Perceived magnitude of threat
- Speed of its approach
- Proximity of stimulus
What are the benefits of inhibition and appeasement behaviours?
Allow the dog to gather information while maintaining the potential for positive social interaction
Which behaviours are indicative of a negative emotional state but are often overlooked or encouraged?
Low intensity avoidance (averting eyes), repulsion (grumbling and curling lip), inhibition (looking intently) and appeasement (licking faces)
