Ethological Analysis and Behaviour Modification

Aim

The course aims to give the students an opportunity to apply their skills in ethology and psychology in order to handle relevant scenarios with both animals and the surrounding humans.

The student will practice how to analyse and reflect upon animal behaviours in an interaction, and during training and behaviour modification. Furthermore, practice is provided in developing mechanical skills in animal training through applications of learning theory. The student will, based on knowledge from previous courses, develop basic training plans for animals and apply scientific theories to modify and achieve a desired behaviour. The student will, during the course, write a summary on scientific literature in a course-relevant field, and also give feedback on summaries from other students. The student should after the course be able to:

• Handle an animal and analyse its behaviour
• Apply learning theory with well-developed mechanical skills
• Analyse animal behaviour and plan for behaviour modification
• Describe how to apply enrichments for animals
• Describe the personal emotional state and advisory communication
• Summarize scientific literature within the field of the course

Content

The course contains concepts of functional behaviour analysis and its applications. Besides theoretical and practical training and behaviour modification, the students will meet professionals working in the subject area. In addition, the students will be trained in relevant scenarios with both animals and their surrounding humans.