ICAWC

We need to understand animals to get emotional and physical balance right.

EMRA = Emotion, Mood, Reinforcement and  Assessment

Its from www.coepra.org – Dennis just talked about Mood.

Mood state assessment  goes from mania to despair; if you have a depressed pet you tend to overreact and over compensate. Wood Green uses this in rehoming process and it is part of the in house staff training.

Wood Green assesses dogs wearing different clothes and hats to see how animal will cope with life outside the shelter.

It’s all about understanding how the environment affects animals. You need to assess the environment or pet becomes depressed. You can improve mood state by providing good hygiene as stress can effect the immune system.

In kennels dogs have a raised bed, a den to hide in, and a box of toys. Things that replicate a natural environment. It’s also important to realise a breed’s physical needs e.g. greyhounds don’t like slippery floors, so blankets put down on floors and duvets to sleep on make them feel comfortable and reduce stress.

This applies to all animals but a sick animal is more in need of environmental enrichment. In sick bay, get rid of glare and give animals somewhere to hide and do simple things like keeping food away from the litter tray. Good mood helps aid recovery.

Obviously the ideal place for animals is in the home. Dogs are often more comfortable giving birth in a home than kennel, fostered dogs are happier.

Now we’re onto goats! If the animal’s previous environment was not good then there will be problems, particularly for animals not able to display natural behaviours.

Simple things are plants and climbing for cats. Feeding pets takes away fun of scavenging. Hide treats in a garden to allow dogs to display natural digging behaviour. Terrriers  like to disect a soft toy to mimic rat catching!

Educate the public: love does not conquer all.

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Animal Welfare by admin