Module 1: Introduction to Pet Psychology

What is animal psychology?

In this first module about pet psychology, you will learn the following concepts and how you can
apply them for a better interaction between you and your pet:

What is animal psychology?

A quick word on evolution

Historical background of animal psychology - Instinct, Learning, Teaching

The videos in this course summarise the information in each module, as well as including additional
content, but you will need to read the text to be able to complete any worksheets and final test.

Introduction to Pet Psychology – 5m33s

1.1 What is Animal Psychology?

Animal psychology is also known as ethology, which is the scientific name given to the
objective study of animal behaviour in various settings.

The main goal of animal psychology or ethology is to view the animal in its natural habitat in order
to observe its behaviour on an evolutionary scale. It can also include the study of animal behaviour
in an unnatural or lab context in order to assess instincts, learning, and training abilities.

Naturalists, such as Steve Irwin, Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, John Muir, John Audubon and Rachel
Carson, have all studied animals in their natural habitat as a way to observe and learn about their
environmental and evolutionary adaptations and behaviour. Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey have both
worked with primates in their natural habitat, studying these animals to help the world understand
their unique attributes, behaviour and plight.

Other scientists have spent time in laboratories, determining levels of adaptations, mutations,
evolutionary changes, instincts and ability to learn through concept formation.
Ethology includes disciplines such as neuroanatomy, evolution and ecology.

Ethologists have studied specific behaviour, group behaviour, communication, emotions, sexuality
and cultural elements. The goal of animal psychology is to understand animal behaviour that can
lead to training animals or saving their species.

Animal psychology is important in training your pet, in terms of understanding natural behaviour
and instincts. Why does your cat or dog continue to follow the same behaviour patterns? Is there a
way to stop behaviour you do not like when they come from natural instincts?

The modules throughout this course will answer these questions and more, helping to solidify the
concept of animal psychology and behaviour.

1.2 Evolution

Charles Darwin is considered the father of evolution and natural selection.

His trips as a naturalist allowed him to notice and record very subtle differences between species of
finches. The definition of evolution states that there is a change in heritable traits within biological
populations that occurs over several generations.

Through evolution, species, organisms and molecules have either adapted or become extinct. New
species have also arisen from evolutionary changes. Evolution is the word we assign to the changing
of any species, human or otherwise, over time. The evolution of a species is how we have
domesticated animals and turned them into pets.
Certain animals have been revered throughout the world, but early humans were more concerned
with hunting animals than domesticating them, as animals were a primary source of food.

Evidence suggests that from 20,000 up to 10,000 years ago, humans mainly focused on hunting
animals. Anthropologically speaking, it is fairly clear the first animals to be domesticated were
wolves. Stone-Age drawings indicate that wolves and humans co-existed, even living together at
times. In turn, approximately 12,000 years ago, the first species of dogs existed.

An animal jawbone in a cave was found to be smaller, with smaller teeth, indicating that selective
breeding of certain traits occurred in wolves to form a new breed of animal — one that would be
more of a companion and less of a predator to humans.
According to reports in the National Geographic and the Encyclopaedia Britannica, goats and sheep
may have been one of the first animals to be domesticated followed by chickens in South East Asia.
Dogs were domesticated about 15,000 years ago in Central Asia.

The first species of dogs, for example, existed about 12,000 years ago.

Eventually “draught animals”, or animals capable of helping on farms and living with less water,
were domesticated. For example, the ox was used to pull carts in India and Southeast Asia. The
water buffalo began to be domesticated in 4,000 B.C.

Cats were actually a much later species to be domesticated than other animals. Evidence would
suggest cats started to become domesticated about 3,000 B.C, but it could have been much earlier
than this time. Cats tended to live alone and in the wild but had no trouble taking what they wanted
from humans such as shelter, food and entertainment. The concept of symbiotic relationships meant
that the cats would give back by hunting pests such as field mice and other critters.
The important point is that all animals that are domesticated today had in some way a beneficial
relationship with humans brought about by a slow evolution of traits humans wanted to see in these
animals.

1.3 Historical Background

Scala naturae was first proposed by Aristotle, and it was the most accepted concept of
animal behaviour in the world until the 19th century. Aristotle classified living beings on a
pyramid, which represented animals at different levels.

The lower levels of the pyramid were filled with the simplest animals, increasing inability, intellect
and behaviour towards the top. The belief was that animals were created to fulfil a certain purpose.
Even in these times, it was noted that animals could adapt and that there were many different
species and behaviour.
Despite these observations on animal behaviour, it would take many years before the concept of
animal psychology or ethology would be put forward.

The world first had to learn about evolution from Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. His theory stated that
animal physiology and behaviour could change, and those changes would be reflected in the next
generation. Of course, Lamarck had some trouble getting his theory known to the world. It was not
until Charles Darwin took Lamarck's theories and injected more life into them that others started to
make headway in understanding the behaviour of animals.

George Romanes, Darwin's protégé, started researching animal intelligence and assessing
anthropomorphic traits and cognitive functionality in animals. Romanes did not gain much support
even in the scientific community, however. Other ethologists were looking at behaviour as natural or
instinctive. Scientists began recording primary behaviour and the frequencies with which these
behaviours occurred in an ethogram. It was an objective way to accumulate data.

The 1970s marked another change for ethology. John H. Crook, an English ethologist, published a
paper stating that there were two types of ethology: comparative and social.

He further stated that most of ethology had been comparative, with animals being examined against
humans. He wanted ethologists to examine groups of animals based on social interactions and
structure. The social aspects of ethology led to new approaches like animal cognition, comparative
psychology, behavioural ecology and sociobiology.

Most biologists, vets, primatologists, anthropologists and physicians now study animal psychology in
order to study animal social groups, animal welfare, and animal cognition, to apply it to their various
fields of study, whether it is specifically a study of human or nonhuman animals.

FACT

The oldest intact fossilised remains of a pet canine date back 33,000 years. It was discovered in
Siberia in the 1970s.

Source: waggingworld.com

1.4 Components of Ethology

Niko Tinbergen believes there are four categories ethologists must look at when they are
studying a group of animals and learning about their behaviour: function, causation,
development and evolutionary history.

Function: Why does an animal respond in a certain way and not in any other way?

Causation: This is the stimuli that has 'caused' or triggered the response

Evolutionary history: This is the way the behaviour compares with similar behaviours in other
species.

Development: Examining how the behaviour of the species changes with age and circumstances
and the experiences that were necessary to trigger the behaviour.

Ethologists need to ask:

How the behaviour affect the animal's reproduction and chance of survival?

Why does the animal respond with certain behaviours rather than in a different way?

What stimuli create the response see and how has this response changed due to recent
 learning?

How will the behaviour of an animal change as it gets older and what experiences in early life
were necessary for the animal to show such behaviour?

Does evolutionary history explain how the behaviour compares with similar behaviour in
closely related species, and how might the behaviour have appeared in new generations?

Tinbergen believed the answers to these questions to be complementary instead of being mutually
exclusive. In other words, the answers to the behaviour shown must be found by looking at the four
levels: function, causation, development, and evolutionary history.

As a trainer, animal caretaker or pet owner, you can examine these same four areas of the animal's
behaviour. You will have responsibilities in assessing behaviour, helping the animal learn, and
teaching with appropriate positive reinforcement.

The following are three areas that are important to animal psychology:

Instinct

Instinct is defined as "a largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a
complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason", according to the
Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Instinct is a behaviour you observe in any animal that is not learned or taught.

It is a reaction to the environment, stimuli, or situations that the animal cannot control.

An example of instinct would be an animal defending itself from a perceived attack because it feels
threatened. You could also call cat scratching an instinct. Even cats that have had their claws
removed still scratch because they are programmed to do so.

Oskar Heinroth calls instincts a fixed action pattern. Konrad Lorenz took this concept further and
stated "sign stimuli" create an instinctive response, which is a reliable response based on that
specific stimuli.

Learning

Learning processes include habituation, associative learning, imprinting, cultural, observation and
imitation.

Habituation is one of the simplest forms of learning any pet or animal will undergo. Rather than
responding to stimuli, the behaviour becomes innate. You can think of this as a routine the animal
undergoes.
One of the best examples is an animal in a zoo. The animal becomes accustomed to a routine such as
when it is time to get fed or go inside for the night. Sounds may happen that indicate food is
forthcoming, but the animal is already anticipating it, or the door to go inside will open, but the
animal is already waiting.

Associative learning will be discussed in further detail in concept formation; however, it is a learning
process where new responses are associated with certain stimuli. Pavlov is the discoverer of this
concept. An example would be a dog showing excitement when it sees a lead because it has learned
that a lead means a walk.

Imprinting is about discerning members of one's species versus other species. It is the way a baby
penguin knows its mother after it hatches. It is also the reason that unless an animal is going to be
domesticated from the wild, a human should not interfere in its early days. By feeding a new baby,
the animal could assume the human is its mother or relative instead of the actual mother.

Cultural learning is seen in pack behaviour.

Young animals will learn about their culture and way of life through the community around them. It
is different for various types of animals, but the environment plays a key role in the cultural learning
an animal or pet receives.

Observational learning is best seen by pet owners when there are multiple pets in the home.

Perhaps you have trained your pet well with regards to certain behaviours. Later, a new pet is added
to the household. Perhaps this new pet, a cat, for example, likes to purr and meow when about to be
fed. The older cat, that had learned to sit in its spot, quietly and patiently, sees this other cat getting
fed with the purr and meow and starts following suit. Rather than sitting in the spot and remaining
patient, the older cat starts to beg for its food. Through observation, the older cat decides that it
might get food faster or receive more attention by imitating the younger cat.

Imitation is considered an advanced behaviour because it requires observation and then a

Teaching

Teaching occurs through other animals or humans training their pets.

With teaching, there is a need to adjust behaviour so the pupil or observer can learn the behaviour
required.

Orcas are a good example of teaching, where the teacher adjusts their training to see success in
their offspring. An Orca will ride waves all the way onto the beach itself to catch a seal, and the
mother will help her offspring learn this by altering the behaviour for the lesson.
As a pet trainer and one who studies animal psychology, it will be important that your teaching
methods are adjusted to the animal. Some animals will take longer to learn a skill or behaviour you
want to see.

Summary
In this module, you have learned what animal psychology is; the evolution and background history of
animals and animal behaviour; as well as key elements to the field of study.

Whether you intend to own a pet and want to have a better understanding of your pet and how to
train it, or you are to work in a professional capacity with animals, you now have an understanding
of what this course entails.

You have the knowledge of the components involved in studying various behaviour, how animals
learn, and how a good teacher makes it possible for the pupil to learn the desired behaviour.

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