For the first time in Québec, attend our seminar by special guest Lara Joseph, specialist in the behaviour and training of exotic animals!
Lara Joseph is the owner of The Animal Behavior Center an international, educational center teaching people internationally the approaches in using behaviour analysis and positive reinforcement training with animals, focusing on exotics and undomesticated. The Animal Behavior Center also has an array of resident animals and temporarily houses animals that come in for training from zoos and wildlife education centers.
She specializes in the training of birds and is an expert in problems and behaviours related to being kept in a captive environments. She has worked in shelters and zoos, and sits on the board of many organizations to improve the well-being and conservation species around the world.
Lara Joseph is known for her dynamic presentations, her simple explanations and her practical and useful tips that apply to anyone working or living with animals!
The first day of the seminar will be on abnormal repetitive behaviours
While some obsessive behaviours are easy to spot, some others are more subtle. In both cases, they have a direct impact on the animal’s well-being and physical health. While they may seem counterproductive, these behaviours have function and serve a purpose for the animal. As their caregivers and guardians and for their mental and physical well being, we need to understand why these behaviours exist in the first place.
The second day will be on the living conditions of animals in captivity in both home-settings or naturalized-settings
Learn how being able to make choices, to have control and to have access to some challenges have a direct impact to improve the animal’s mental and physical well being.
What are abnormal repetitive behaviours :
Abnormal repetitive behaviours are more common with prey and exotic animals due to their inability to escape feared situations due to confinement. We can learn to identify more subtle behaviours, reinforcers, and aversives with prey and exotics. They are harder to care for than most domestic animals because we have many more replacement behaviours to incorporate.
Having the ability to work with undomesticated and exotic animals from wildlife education, zoo, and shelter settings gives the opportunity to use applied behaviour analysis with multiple species. Training and putting behaviour modification plans in place for undomesticated species and prey animals fine tunes our training skills through the observation and use of identifying reinforcers and potential aversives. The protocols derived from those studies have been applied to other animals like cats and dogs with great success!
Don’t miss this one of a kind two day seminar!
Thanks to her years of experience working with exotic birds, Lara Joseph will present this two day seminar, focusing on the dissemination of the scientific approach of behaviour analysis into the causes and behaviour modification plans of numerous species showing exhibiting abnormal repetitive behaviours.
Detailed behaviour modification plans will be explained showing the use of choice, control, and complexities in the animal’s daily environment. This workshop will also review case studies and effective training implementation! Improve the quality of lives of animals in efficient ways! Help your human and dog clients with real solutions, real strategies and real plans never presented before in the Eastern part of Canada.
✓ Learn how to help your clients and the animals in your care dealing with problems for which there are very few resources!
➜ A 12 hour seminar never taught before in Québec. Many case studies, explanations, theory, videos, behaviour modification plans and scientific resources.
Where and when :
- February 2nd and 3rd, 2019. From 10am to 5pm at the Collège Maisonneuve in Montréal, Québec
Register right now! If you have any questions, feel free to call or write us an email!
What are the prerequisite of the formation?
- Knowledge in animal training
Who is this seminar for?
Dog Trainers
Learn about the possible consequences of living in captive domestic settings. Improve the happiness of your canine (and human!) clients and their relationship at the same time. Learn protocols that works to reduce and stop obsessive behaviours.
People working in shelters
Keeping the animals in your care happy isn’t always easy. But it doesn’t have to be this way! Improve their lives, prepare your pet-parents to their future life with their dog and ease the transition toward their new livestogether!
Veterinarians and pet-health professionals
Guide with confidence your human patients with training plans that will have a direct impact on their pet’s life. Help your canine, feline or exotic patients by giving their guardians the right advices. Improve their well-being to achieve a happy mind in a healthy body!
In this 2-day seminar you’ll learn :
Abnormal Repetitive Behaviours
Definition and Observation
- What we see and what we don’t see
- Feather destructive behaviors
- Mutilation
- Self injurious behaviors
- Physical health
- Lack of motivation
- State of mind
- internal health
- Mental health
- Case studies
Reinforcers
- Why is it prevalent in exotics birds and animals?
- Development
- Inability to observe antecedents through behavior display
- Housing
- Lack of enrichment
- Lack of challenge in captive environments, boredom and stress
- Lack of education of keepers
- Imprinting
- Ethics in breeding
- Biology
- History of reinforcement
- Frustration and learned helplessness
Common issues being kept as pets
- State regulations
- Re-home
- Shelter overflow
- Euthanization
Case Studies
- ARB’s – abnormal repetitive behavior
- SIB’s – self injurious behaviors
- Schedules of reinforcement in behavior modification
- Using positive punishers and interruptors in behavior modification of SIB’s «
- Problems in common treatment plans
Behavior Modification Plans
- enrichment
- environmental design
- variable stimuli
- foraging
- training
- shaping complexities
- generalized behavior modification plans
- reduction – the five broad forms
- intrusive studies vs. unintrusive studies
- extinction alone
- differential reinforcement
- evaluation
- shaping change in phobic responses
Prevention
- identification
- planning for the species
- planning for the individual
- case studies
Choice, Control, & Complexities – affects on welfare
- Defining welfare
Choice
- Affects in welfare
- Studies in the effects of choice
- Flooding and shaping
- Providing space
- Contra freeloading
- Effects of choice in rearing
- Behavior observations in under-enriched rearing
- Shaping change in young vs older enriched and unenriched environments
- Choice through training
Control
- Defining
- Control through enrichmen
- Control through training
- Affects in welfare
- Manipulative objects and studies
- Predictability has its place
- Observation, predicting R+’s and aversives
- Learned helplessness and the loss of control of env. stimuli
- Effects of light, temperature, and access in mammals and avians
- Effects of sound, light, and manipulation in enrichment
Complexities
- Affects in welfare
- Debates in providing natural enrichment
- Captive and natural environments
- Predictability
- Predictability has its place in training
- Social complexity
- The challenge of challenge
- Interaction fall out
- Considerations in providing space as complexity
- Effects of loss of complexity through choice
- Observations of behavior through enriched and unenriched housing
Case studies
You want more? We have some interesting reads for you (in French only) :
- L’impuissance / résignation acquise chez le chien
- Faire le deuil de son chien
- Prendre soin de son chien en été
- Top 5 des conseils pour dresser son chien
More seminars and workshops? (in French) :
