Would you use an animal behaviourist?

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lynspop

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Just out of interest, would you or have you ever used an animal behaviourist/ trainer to help with your cat/dog/horse etc?
If you have used them, did you feel it was beneficial or a waste of money?
If you wouldnt use them, what are your reasons for it?
The reason im asking is that im about to start a course in animal behaviour/psychology and part of the study is the role of/ or becoming an animal behaviourist and just wondered if anyone had experience of using one!
 
Hi there,

Yes, I have used one for my Belgian Shepherd dog who was becoming very dominant, this was about 8yrs.ago, he is now 14 ! I found it very useful and it helped with solving the problem .

Good luck!! :
 
No, as I am one (sort of!) Well I have a degree in horse psychology, probably similar to what you are going to do. I founf it very interesting and informative and certainly feel i understand horses a lot better now because of it. I don't use it as my proffession though, I am a groom/artist, but it does help in my groom job.
 
What sort of services would you offer? I have had somebody out to help me with training my horse on the ground who you probably could classify as a behaviouralist.
 
I think you really have to define your terms. After all, any good horseman, who understands how horse tick and can get to the bottom of problems is technically a "behaviourist" but most likely calls him/herself a trainer, perhaps with a "problem horse" bent. Often these people have experience with hundreds if not thousands of horses, in many situations, and have devoted years to their study. Honestly, someone like that SHOULD be able to get to a the root of a problem and/or make progress faster and more easily than a one horse owner with limited experience of a small number of horses for the same reason an electrician will be able to wire a house more quickly, efficiently, and safely than you or I can.

How would a behaviourist differ from a trainer?

Now, whether or not people choose to use a trainer to help them over whatever rough patches come up is obviously personal preference. I guess it depends what they think they're paying for.
 
I lived with a dog behaviourist for a year. I leant so much about how to deal with various dog problems and saw how the methods actually worked. Most of it's just people who have dogs and no common sense - turning up for their appointment with the dog in the front seat and granny in the back then wondering why the dog has dominance issues.
 
The dog side of behaviour is what im really enjoying studying,and as you say, most of it seems just to be common sense.
I think the equine market is fairly flooded with books and people who claim to be behaviourists or have methods for working through problems. I enjoy my teaching etc,but would not go down the route of equine "behaviourist" i dont think.
Of course, most people on here are probably fairly knowledgeable about animals in general so are perhaps not the sort of people who would consider getting in someone like a behaviourist
 
I had one come out to my youngster when I was starting to lose confidence with him as he was getting rude and bargy - total waste of time and a lot of money, made one visit and I said - no thanks, don't bother coming again!!
 
If they have a good qualification I think a behaviourist can be useful. However from this thread you can see there is a lot of confusion about what a behaviourist does. I don't think they are necessarily going to be someone who is going to handle your horse and deal with training issues, but they might be the person who can help to identify why your horse has a problem and what you might be able to do about it.
Some horse people can work out the reasons for a problem for themselves, but even experience people can sometimes benefit from someone outside taking a fresh look at what is going on.
As always, I think recommendation is the way to choose someone who is good over one of the many wanabees that are applying this label to themselves.
 
There is only one behaviourist I would call on if I needed him and that's Ben Hart. Woeisme makes a very vaild point about people applying this label to themselves, when what in fact they have done is read a couple of books by a 'guru' and followed them letter for letter. Because they don't understand the principles behind what they've learnt (and in many cases even the basics of behavioural terms, such as positive/negative reinforcement and reward), they get it wrong and in these cases, it IS a waste of everyone's time.
 
Yes Definitely! Unfortunately, people are too quick to blame their animals when the reality is that they are the cause of the problems 99.9% of the time! Listen to your horse and for Gods sake - don't turn to Parelli!

I could go on for hours and hours about this, so I will get off my soapbox (for now!)
 
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