Problem Behaviours and Behavioural Problems Flashcards
1
Q
Causal factors
A
= factors that cause behaviour to start and stop
2
Q
Motivation
A
= process whithin the brain controlling which behaviours and physiological changes occur and when
- can be positive or negative
- motivation to approach or avoid situation
- driving force behind any type of behaviour
- intervening variable between input (causal factors) and output (behaviour)
3
Q
What happens when animal cant satisfy its motivations
A
- fustration behaviour that satisfy important motivations are common cause of behavioural problems
- rodent given no opportunity to dig in conditions provide, still have motivation but display in undesirable way
- cats motivated to hunt, survival mechanism, no opertunity = redirect agression or damage environement to redirect motivation
4
Q
Behavioural problems or problem behaviours - owner reporting
A
- many behaviours only reported by pet owners when become inconvinient ~ destructive ~ inappropriate elimination ~ barking ~ aggression ~ phobias ~ separation anxiety
5
Q
Problem behaviours
A
= behaviours unwanted by owner but may not represent a difficulty for animal
- normal response to situation
6
Q
Behavioural problems
A
= behaviours that are indicative that the animal is experiencing a difficulty with its living conditions
- its welfare is poor
7
Q
Abnormal behaviour
A
= behaviour which differs in pattern, freq or context from that which is shown by most members of the species in conditions which allow full range of behaviour
- e.g. captive animals behavoir varies from wild of same species
8
Q
Barking in dogs
A
- normal behavior for dogs
- high freq of barking ininnapropriate contexts may be a problem for owner
causes:
~ teritorial
~ play
~stereotypic barking = repetitive, hard to break out of
~ social facilitation
~ leaned response
~ fear anxiety
~ fustration
9
Q
inappropriate elimination in cats
A
- eliminating normal behaviour for cats
- inappropriate locations problem for owners
- older, kidney disorder can affect ability to eliminate normaly
~ litter tray aversion (dirty, not secluded, too close to feed, litter preference not met)
~ stress (change in routine, threatening cat)
~ territorial marking
~ medical problems
10
Q
How to reduce instances of problem behaviours
A
- improved knowledge of pet behaviour and requirements by owner
- not rewarding dogs when bark
- provide appropriate litter box for cats
- realistic expectations about behaviour we desire in pets
- dont expect turn on affection when convenient for you
- start young leave for increasing periods of time to prevent separation anxiety
11
Q
Anthropomorphised responses
A
- performing a problem behavior immediately after you have denied your pet something is likely to be either a stress response or a leaned response
e. g. destroying furniture or urinating on bed when left alone
12
Q
Guilty look
A
- people think dog knows done something wrong and looks guilty
- dog left in a room with food, told not to eat, person comes back in and asked based on facial expression if dog eaten food
- entirely un related if food gone or not
- guilty look more to do with human signals
- more guilty behaviours seen in dogs that were scolded, even if not eaten treat
13
Q
Behavioural problems - two common
A
- stereotypes
- redirected behaviours
- often used as indicator of animal welfare
14
Q
Stereotypes
A
= repeated relatively invarient sequence of movements that has no obious purpose
- compulsive disorders
e.g. self grooming/rocking, feather pecking, pacing
- occur in environments where the animal has little control (unable to satisfy motivations
- indicates that the animal difficulty coping
~ in particular if animal performs sterotypies often (>5% of day)
- over inactivity, hard to identify (hiding, sleeping for long time)
15
Q
Causes of sterotypies
A
- specific causes are multivariate and not fully understood
- occur more often in situations where individuals lack control over enviro and animal severely restricted
~ feed restriction
~ severe confinement
~ social isolation
16
Q
Oral sterotypies
A
- sows
- pigs normally spend large part of day foraging and rooting the ground
- rooting behaviour = appetitive behaviour
- rewarding for sows
- motivated to root even if provided with feed by humans
- in stalls still motivated but no substrate to manipulate
- motivation to root = increases due to hunger
- intensively housed sows are restrictively fed and experience greater deal of hunger
- redirect foraging behaviour to oral manipulation of environment
~ bar biting
~sham chewing
~ drinker pressing
~snout rubbing - behaviours indicate difficulty coping with conditions
17
Q
Appetitive and consumatory behaviours
A
- behavioural sequence used to satisfy a motivation and is composed of two parts
~ appetitive behaviour = the behaviours involved in obtaining the resource
~ consumatory = behaviour involved in using the resource to satisfy the motivation - both behaviours rewarding for animal
- consumatory benefit to survival
- appetitive evolved to be rewarding so animal performs it without receiving an immediate reward
18
Q
development of sterotypies
A
- sterotypies can arise from fustrated behavioural sequences over long periods of time
e.g. pacing may develop from fustrated escape beahviour - process not fully understood
- animal may develop sterotypical appetitive behaviours
~ if behaviour restrictited, animal still may be able to perform some rewarding behaviours (e.g. calves motivated to groom and feed, taken away from mother, still able to groom)
~ if only rewarding aspect in enviro, behaviour performed excessively
19
Q
Persistence of stereotypies
A
- once developed sterotypies are part of the beahioural repertoire of animal
- though constant repitiom they become fixed, unvarying behaviour that the animal performs for the rest of its life
- they persist even if source of fustration removed
- freq of performance change but can re-occur in stressful situations
20
Q
Sterotypies as a coping mechanism
A
- some evidence that performing sterotypies may provide form of coping for some animals
- may provide sensory input in barren enviro
- may allow some behavioural expression in situation of behavioural restriction
- some evidence that is may improve welfare in some situations e.g. tongue roling
21
Q
Redirected behaviours
A
- occur when a behavioural sequence is fustrated so the animal directs the behaviour to another aspect of the environemnt
- e.g. hungry sows redirecting their foraging behaviour to the bars of their pen
- redirected behaviours can be differentiated from sterotypes in that they stop coccuring when the source of fustration is removed
22
Q
Inadequacy of function
A
- genrally due to suboptimal social environment when young preventing animals from developing appropriate social skills
- inadequate sexual/parental/social behaviour
23
Q
Separation anxiety in dogs
A
= apprehensive anticipation of threat - func = broaden animals attention so prepared to react - dogs with this disorder typically eliminate, vocalise or engage in destructive behaviour when left alone - reported by 20% owners - contributing factor to destructiveness ~ abense of owners ~ lack of environmental ~ barrier or enclosure fustration ~ breed
24
Q
Preventing behavioural problems - breeding
A
- growing evidence that puppies can inherit less desirable genetic behavioural traits from parents
~ noise sensitivity
~ nervousness
~ idiopathic aggression = agression no clear cause for toward other dogs or people
~ higher propensity for anxiety/stress when presented with novel environmental stimuli
25
Q
Pre-natal stress
A
- initiating factor for dogs presenting behvioral problems
- puppies born to mothers who experienced acute or chronic stress more likely to show
~ retarded motor and learning development
~ abnormal exploratory, play, social, sexual and maternal behaviour - avoiding stress could help minimise this
26
Q
Worm burden during prgnancy
A
- prenatal infection of toxocara canis can occur by larvae crossing placenta and milk into unborn pups
- infestation of worms impairs food absorption, stunt growth, may cause gastrointestinal dysfunction and can lead to anaemia
- pups who have a large burdan may apper to be lethargic and intollerant to be picked up = discomfort from swollen bellies
- behavioural consequences little researched but in mice large burdan of T.canis can cause impaired learning, increased fearfulness of non-novel stimuli and increased aggression
27
Q
Socialisation
A
- appropriate socialisation can prevent behavioural problems
= process whereby an animal learns how to recognise and interact with its own species and the species wit which it cohabits - most sensitive period of behavioural development in terms of socialisation = 4-14 weeks in puppy
- not critical period, therefore preferences can be formed and altered outside time boundries (but socialation at maximum in this period)
- pups need to be introduced to wide range of experiences, people and animals
28
Q
Understanding cats
A
- cats are solitary survivors and social relationships largely limited to relatives
- need to be in control
- free and immediate access to resources
- limited behaviours to facilitate co-operation
- avoidance prefered defence strategy, need to be able to evade sources of stress
- privacy/seclusion = positive features of enviro
29
Q
Problems related to ownership
A
- humans own pets as source of companionship and put certain demands on cats in terms of social interaction
- human perception = cats need comapny in same way we do
- feline perception = cats do not need company in same way
- difference leads to problems
~ living in groups of unrelated animals
~ sharing important resources
~ denied oppertunity to hid or reterat potential conflict
~ repeatedly lifted of ground and restrained as humans source of affection - cats may live in state of chronic stress and social tension may display behavioural problems and medical conditions
30
Q
Fear
A
= apprehension of a stimulus, object or event
- highly adaptive response essential for survival
31
Q
Phobia
A
phobic fear
- intense and out of context so limits normal behaviour
- “all or nothing” once threshold has reached, fear becomes intense and unrealted to intensity of stimulus
- unlike normal fear as it persists after threat has gone
- sonophobia = fear of sounds (most common phobia in dogs e.g. fireworks)
- visually-related phobias = can develop with or w/o a connection to sonophobia e.g. hot air baloons
32
Q
Elimination problems (dogs)
A
- incomplete house trianing
- anxiety urination - loss of control due to intense emotionality
- excitement urination (increased arousal)
- submissive urination (need to demonstrate appeasement)
- marking behaviour
- incontinence (potentially life threatening disorder)
33
Q
Aggression dogs and cats
A
- most commonly reported catagory of behavioural problems in domestic dogs
- behaviour of victim important factor in dog attacks
- many bites can be avoided if owners better educated about behaviour
- many types (play, defensive, redirected)
- most common = intercat aggression
34
Q
Feline soiling issues
A
- some most common behavior problems presented to vets only coming to light when cat presented for euthanasia due to this problem
- variety of medical causes that can lead to innappropriate urination/defication which shold be ruled out first
- a full clinical examination and urianalysis before considering underlying behavioural issues
- once cat pronounced healthy import to determine if the cat is toileting in the house or is it using urine or faeces as markers.
- Urine marking can easily be confused with elimination but can be distinguished by body posture, positioning of the urine or faeces and quantity produced.
35
Q
Refferal for behaviour problem
A
- At present, there is no regulation of the clinical behaviourist profession and so quality of practitioners varies.
- In order to refer, the most appropriate method is via a veterinary surgeon.
- This ensures referral to a competent practitioner and also the opportunity to rule out any underlying medical issues.
