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It turns out that volunteering at the animal ambulance means I have free access to loads of courses run by Stichting Dierenlot Academie (Animal Fate Foundation Academy). I browsed through their agenda, and found a course called “Dogs and Emotions”.
I don’t own a dog and none of my friends have dogs, so I know nothing about them other than:
A wagging tail = a happy dog! 🙂
So I signed up! I figure understanding more about how dogs feel will help me approach them on a dog rescue!
The Course
First off I must admit I found it funny that dogs have been hanging around humans for 40,000(?) years, and in this time they have learned to recognise human emotions from our faces. Yet here I am taking a course to learn about theirs! It seems they’re smarter than I am…
The course was given by Carlian Brauckman from Tinley Gedrags Therapie voor Dieren (Tinley Behaviour Therapy for Animals).
I was really impressed with how she structured the course, explaining first what emotions are, and then the biology of it – how brains deal with stimulation with emotions and behaviour, diving into neurotransmitters in the brain and hormones in the body, and the limbic system.
Interestingly, a dog’s basic brain map is the same as a human’s! (Although the size of some regions differ).
Understanding the foundation of emotions, Carlian lead us through what this means for a dog. Dogs have different basic emotions than humans and we learned valuable insights into interpreting a dog’s behaviour and body language into their emotions, and how best to (re)act to it.
This was all a complete eye-opener for me, and I suppose like a lot of things, it’s only when you start learning about something that you realise how much you don’t know! And it was really clear from the way Carlian handled and answered questions smoothly from the floor that her knowledge goes much deeper than the information she presented.
When I told the co-ordinator at the animal ambulance that I’d been on course, she immediately asked me whether it was useful. Of course I was quick to answer in the affirmative!
Meanwhile I’ve asked for a copy of the slides from the presentation because looking back, my notes are clearly inadequate (as is my memory…). For now, these are my key take-home points:
- Dogs are much more complex than I’d originally thought!
- Understanding the origin of a dog’s emotion is key to dealing with him.
- Never approach a dog from the front. Come from the side, and offer him my side.
- Reach for a dog from the underside which is seen as less threatening than coming from above.
- Dogs recognise our facial expressions. So smiling at a dog (and showing your teeth whilst doing so) is not a bad thing to do!
Many thanks again to Carlian at Tinley Gedrags Therapie voor Dieren for giving the workshop, Stichting Dierenlot Academie for organising and making it available, and Dierenambulance Nederrijn for letting me volunteer there so I’m allowed on the course! 🙂
Call of the Wild
On a social level, I surprised myself during the coffee break. At the start of the workshop there were brief introductions where we told each other where we worked and why we wanted to follow the course. I had a genuine interest in my fellow students, so I asked some of them about what they did in more detail.
This was a first for me! In my previous professional life when I was at conferences or whatever, I made small talk only because I knew it was expected of me, and to be honest, I was barely interested in describing my own work, let alone what some random stranger was doing on his computer on the other side of the world.
In short, I feel I’m finding my natural calling…
I’ve signed up for Landelijk Congress Dierenhulpverlening (National Congress in Animal Assistance) in November which will be bustling with 1,500 other people interested in animal welfare, and I can’t wait to meet them and talk to them! Now that is something I’d never have said about a conference in my previous professional life!!!
