Thursday, October 12, 2017

Distress in Animals

By:  Niki Tudge, Pet Professional Guild
www.ShockFree.org

Temple Grandin and Mark Deesing's paper, "Distress in Animals: Is it Fear, Pain or Physical Stress?", reviews the most current understanding of two of the most basic types of suffering - fear and pain - only to arrive at an unexpected conclusion: in most vertebrates, fear causes greater suffering than pain.

Just think about that, think about all the times we see pets that are not physically hurt but are scared or fearful!

Fearful of being alone!
Fearful of being punished!
Fearful of being isolated!
Fearful of loosing safety or security!
Fearful of meeting a stranger!
Fearful of meeting or encountering a strange dog!
Fearful of loud noises or bright flashes
The list goes on .....


Why are we quick to administer medications for physical pain but not for mental suffering? If a dog is suffering from fear we must remedy it as quickly as possible. We can either use the appropriate non fearful approach to conditioning a new emotional response and/or administer medications with the help of a veterinarian to help bridge the gap so a behavior change program can work. We cannot train out fear, it's not a behavior it is a emotional response!


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