"Animal welfare: contemporary understanding demands a contemporary approach to behaviour & training"

[leashedForLife]

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a paper by Elizabeth McBride & David Montgomery, published in People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice, available in full text here -

Animal welfare: a contemporary understanding demands a contemporary approach to behaviour and training - ePrints Soton

free - click the 'download' hyperlink under the paper-icon; it's at the upper right, below the title.

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[leashedForLife]

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the introduction sums it up -

Contemporary understanding of One Welfare highlights the intrinsic link between animal and human welfare and ethics, regarding physical and psychological well-being as equally important. These principles apply to all animals we keep, regardless of why we keep them.
One factor influencing psychological welfare is how animals are prepared for their life, including how they are taught (trained) to behave. Where such preparation is lacking or inappropriate methods are used, animals will be fearful and/or frustrated, resulting in impaired welfare, problematic behaviour, & potential injury to humans and other animals.

How animals are trained & by whom are the focus of this paper. Currently, animal trainers & behaviourists are unregulated. Thus anyone can claim to be a 'professional' or 'expert', with no required testing of knowledge or skill. This enables the continued use of outdated, less-humane methods, increases confusion for those seeking competent help, and for those looking for a career path.

With increasing numbers of companion animals, there is commercial incentive to work in this sector, and an urgent need for clarity & regulation, if One Welfare is to be enhanced. This paper catalogues the UK experience of developing a regulatory framework for this sector. It argues the need for and benefits of regulation, & maps the progress of the Animal Behaviour and Training Council since its inception in 2010, with the bringing together of various stakeholders, including veterinary organisations, animal welfare charities, & associations representing practitioners.
It describes the rationales leading to the development of agreed standards, academic provision to support those standards, & assessment procedures common to all. It considers future challenges within a turbulent political & economic environment, including securing government recognition for a single UK regulatory authority.
Though this goal is yet to be realised, significant progress has been made, & momentum is gathering.

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As a trainer, i would welcome some clarity & regulation in the USA, but for the moment, training & B-Mod are the Wild West, with anyone hanging out a shingle as a "behaviorist" or a "dog psychologist", & charging a gullible public for their services.
The only group that wants to control & set standards for training here, unfortunately, is the AVMA - the veterinary association has stated that "only vets" have the needed knowledge to offer behavior services, which as a prospect is terrifying - most vets know virtually nothing about behavior, of dogs or any other nonhuman species, let alone training or the modification of unwanted behaviors.

Some of my former clients were advised to sign-up for training classes with mandatory shock-collars, & then handed a brochure from the trainer by the vet's receptionist, on the way out. Others have described their vet restraining their dog by laying them belly-up on the exam-table, with the vet-tech scruffing the dog's neck below the level of the table as the vet pinned the dog's chest, & another tech held both hocks - all this to get vitals!?!? - how the H*** do U get a normal pulse or respiration, from a terrified dog who is being half-strangled & is struggling in panic?

In my lifetime, i've had good, mediocre, & awful vets; once, unknown to me, the vet was working solo, when I brought my pup in; both his receptionist & his tech were out. He casually injected a sedative & left the dog on the exam table, leaving the room; the pup felt sick & funny, crept to the edge, fell to the floor, & crawled to the waiting-room to find me.
I was reading a magazine, all unaware, when something landed on my foot - it was Wolf's chin. . He was drooling, nauseous, terrified, & confused. I had to carry him back into the exam room, & i stayed with him for the rest of the appt - I was furious with the vet, but he was It, there were no others, & poor Wolf had a lifelong terror of vets for the rest of his 12-yr life.
This was to be nothing but a healthy-pup visit, & he gave him an injectable knock-out for his own convenience, rather than ask me to help him, or merely to stay with my puppy. Ar$ewipe.

- terry

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[Flobo]

Maybe you need to leave America? I know it ain't perfect here and we have our own kind of madness like every other country, but the things I read that you post actually boggle my mind, in this day and age, I don't know,there is some thing desperately wrong with a lot of people/professionals as I have said before, maybe you need to stay where you are and see them all right??!! But then I think if people can't work it out with other people, what hope do we have with animal welfare?
The pitball stories make me most sad, they are beautiful, loving family dogs, in the right environment(like most)and usually total softies.. maybe it's the owners that need to be not allowed to breed/pts? Radical yes, but..
Ahwell, I will just continue waiting for the mothership to come and take me home, it's all good there, honest!

 

[leashedForLife]

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@Flobo - it's the same in the UK.
Anybody in the UK can buy some business-cards & call themselves a "trainer"; the ABTC is trying to persuade the UK govt to regulate dog-training as a profession... with requisite qualifications, experience, etc, just like any other licensed or regulated profession.
Hairdressers / barbers, a masseuse / masseur, a plumber, an HVAC servicer, they're all regulated, yes?

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