Animal Antics

06/10/2026

06/10/2026

Kind can be boring.
Sometimes it needs to be.

We want to show them their new life.
But they might need time to recover from the old one first.

And I completely understand the excitement.

You've brought this dog home and you want to give them everything.
All the things that say, "look how good your life can be now"!

But they don't know that yet.

They don't know this house is permanent.
They don't know which noises matter.
They don't know the people walking through the door.

Even the routines they relied on have changed.
Everything's changed.

But one thing we do know.

They arrived with a history.

Sometimes one we know quite a lot about.
Sometimes one we know almost nothing about.

So while we're thinking about all the wonderful things we'd like to add into their life, they may still be trying to make sense of the life they have just landed in.

That's why making their world smaller for a while isn't necessarily depriving them.
It can be giving them fewer things to process at once.

And then, when their new world starts making a bit more sense, it can grow.

There is plenty of time for adventures.
But they don't need to experience their whole new life in their first week.

06/10/2026

"I've tried that reinforcement thing, it doesn't work".
.. is a statement you might hear sometimes, especially from traditional trainers.

Well, if it didn't work, it wasn't reinforcement.

Per definition, reinforcement is about an increase in behaviour - the animal starts doing more of some behaviour in order to get access to some resource. If behaviour didn't increase, reinforcement hasn't occurred.

So if we ask ourselves WHY didn't it work, I can think of a couple of things off the top of my head:

- Motivation. Maybe what's being offered as a reinforcer isn't a functional reinforcer for this particular individual in this context? If the animal isn't willing to work to get access to it, it's not reinforcing - behaviour won't change.

- Communication. Maybe it's not clear to the animal what he should be doing? If the animal hasn't understood the connection between his own behaviour and the resource, behaviour likely won't increase.

Motivation and communication are keys to successful animal training - you need both to bring about behaviour change.

And looking at the flip side of this coin, we might say:

- Did behaviour change? If so, it was likely reinforced.
- Alternatively, the animal changed his emotional state (that will also lead to behavioural change).

***

This topic is covered in the Operant Conditioning module of the course Getting Behaviour – the Foundations of Animal Training.

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06/10/2026

Of course, extreme breeds (extreme conformation or torture breeding *Europe*) exists in many pet taxa. Much like the deleterious genes we discuss in our policy regarding reptiles.

REPTA has become a trailblazer in self-regulatory policy development with a view to safeguarding animal welfare by actively trying to eradicate problematic genetically inheritable traits from entering the market or retaining any value.

When you consider much of the extreme conformation seen in traditional companion animals is often informed, paradoxically by breed standards seeming to encourage the continued production of welfare impaired animals.

05/10/2026

I have met this very special girl!! PLEASE Share 🙏🙏🙏

27/09/2026

27/09/2026

26/09/2026

We are in need of your help so, we can keep helping more animals!

08/09/2026

08/09/2026