Animal Behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Research Group Uni. of Lincoln

10/02/2025

Want to read more about our own Dr Andrew Cooke's dolphin research? It was covered by ABC Australia here!

In rare evidence for alliance-forming behaviour beyond humans, a famous Queensland dolphin may have formed a "wingman" relationship with a friend.

09/02/2025

So our very own Daniel Mills, professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine , and Milly Jones, Certificated Clinical Animal Behaviourist, here at Lincoln's Animal Behaviour Clinic, have a new new podcast series: Pet Behaviour Odysseys.
It looks at problem behaviour from a client's perspective. The whole series (8 episodes) is built around a single case and the clients have been so candid about their feelings and experiences throughout. The presenters really hope it will be of help to many owners and those working in the field, so please do spread the word. Please note it is produced by them as a hobby, and is not an official UoL publication.
You should be able to listen on whatever platform you use for podcasts or you can access it through YouTube at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUFWM7VL9Os or via: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1258604/episodes/16586051.
Episode 2 is out tomorrow and then they will probably come out weekly.

In this episode we introduce you to Becca, Craig and Drax. We find out how Drax came into Becca's and Craig's life, including the emotional background that s...

23/01/2025

🚨New papers alert!🚨
ABCW's own Dr Andrew Cooke has new publications on goats 🐐 in Africa!

He says, "Across Sub-Saharan Africa millions of people rely on goats for food and financial security. However, the challenges of climate and poverty are barriers to goat health and performance, impacting livelihoods.

We worked with local smallholders and stakeholders to understand the challenges they face and identify realistic opportunities to address them, using freely available natural capital."

Read all about this fascinating new research across THREE new papers:
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-024-01509-1
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.2989/10220119.2024.2428295
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-024-01452-1

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12571-024-01452-1

06/01/2025

🚨New paper alert!🚨

A new paper from the ABCW's own Emily Cooper, Daniel Mills, and Helen Zulch investigates chase behaviour by breeds in dogs! In an owner survey, they found that while most dogs would chase wildlife if given the chance, more impulsive dogs would chase vehicles, cyclists, and joggers, while German shepherds were the most likely to chase after cats!

Read all about it in full here: https://repository.lincoln.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/The_role_of_breed_versus_personality_and_other_demographic_factors_in_predicting_chasing_behaviours_in_dogs/28033958

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2024.106463

Photo by Furkan Elveren: https://www.pexels.com/photo/dog-chasing-cat-in-istanbul-20861635/

16/12/2024

🚨New publication alert! 🚨 Want to find out more about how humpback dolphins 🐬 make social bonds and form alliances? New research from Tamzin Barber and our own Andrew Cooke looks into dolphin behaviour in Australia!

They find evidence of males forming alliances, not just mother-calf pair bonds. Read all about it at:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159124002831

10/12/2024

Come see our own Dr Helen Zulch talk about dogs and ageing! BVBA Study Day is scheduled for Wednesday, 19th March, 2025, in Manchester during BSAVA Congress Week. This year’s theme is ‘Behaviour Through the Ages’ and it will feature presentations from Dr Helen Zulch, Dr Sarah Caney and Dr Gwen Covey-Crump.

Booking is now available on the website and they are also now accepting abstracts from those who would like to present their research findings on the day. Further information can be found here: https://www.bvba-org.co.uk/news-and-events

28/11/2024

Fascinating new paper from colleagues here on the welfare priorities for parrots. Open access and so free to read.

29/10/2024

Interested in our research group's work? University of Lincoln has just featured us in an article on their homepage: https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/researchatlincoln/researchfeatures/animalbehaviourcognitionandwelfare/

They discuss our research on how dogs learn when distractions are going on, how we catalogue animal emotions, and whether eye size has an effect on how we speak to our dogs!

25/10/2024

🚨Publication alert! 🚨

A new paper by our own Kun Guo, Catia Correia-Caeiro, and Daniel Mills looks at how humans perceive dog emotions and body language! People were better at characterising body language than facial expressions, but there were issues in confusing happiness and fear. Read all about it here:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159124002752

17/10/2024

🚨 Publication Alert! 🚨

Our own Dr Holly Root-Gutteridge has just published a paper on how to use animals' sounds to find them in their environment with her colleagues from around the world. Together, they detail how to automatically find and detect animal calls to be able to find elusive species such as whales, wolves, and frogs, among many others.

Read more at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/brv.13155

16/10/2024

Want to know more about life as a postgraduate student with the ABCW at University of Lincoln? Read this great new interview with our PhD student Erica Cheung: https://www.lincoln.ac.uk/studywithus/postgraduatestudy/postgraduateresearch/meetourstudents/ericacheung/

"It really is incredible how much you grow as a person when undertaking a PhD. Studying at this level allows you to think more deeply and be braver in your research choices."

Erica's work is on horse welfare with Prof Daniel Mills and Dr Beth Ventura. We'll post more about her work as her research progresses!

15/10/2024

🚨 Publication Alert 📝🚨
A huge congratulations to our own Bev Wilson on the publishing of her first paper from her PhD! 🎉 Along with Prof. Daniel Mills & Prof. Carl Soulsbury, she looked at how emotions in our pets are perceived by behaviourists and how it can be difficult to find the right language to use, especially for problem behaviours.

The paper is titled: "Problem Behaviours and Relinquishment: Challenges Faced by Clinical Animal Behaviourists When Assessing Fear and Frustration" and appears in "Animals".

This will be of interest to Clinical Animal Behaviourists (CABs) in particular, as it examines how CABs assess the emotional state of an animal to inform their behavioural assessment.

You can read it here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/14/18/2718

01/10/2024

Do you take your dog for walks? Or do you not take your dog for walks? Would you like to contribute to research to help understand some of the factors influencing owners’ decisions about walking their dogs?

To participate you must be over 18 years of age, currently own a dog, have internet access.

To find out more, follow this link: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/lincoln/decision-making-around-dog-walking

Ethics reference: UoL2024_15906

18/09/2024

🚨 New Publication Alert! 📝🐾
Excited to share our latest paper, this one is by Dr Beth Ventura and will be of interest to anyone working in the field of animal welfare education. It is titled "AWECoP has made my teaching experience so much better: Creating community and improving teaching practice through an Animal Welfare Education Community of Practice (AWECoP)" published in the journal Animal Welfare this month.
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/animal-welfare/article/awecop-has-made-my-teaching-experience-so-much-better-creating-community-and-improving-teaching-practice-through-an-animal-welfare-education-community-of-practice-awecop/D4869CFE8F185A280D706D28A1A8E795?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_source=socialnetwork
Discover how AWECoP fosters a sense of community among educators and enhances teaching practices in animal welfare education. Check out the full article here:

“AWECoP has made my teaching experience so much better!” – Creating community and improving teaching practice through an Animal Welfare Education Community of Practice (AWECoP) - Volume 33

17/09/2024

We're very proud of our amazing clinical MSc students, today presenting their research in our poster session!

Here's just three of the great posters we saw today!

16/09/2024

A new paper by our group examines lateralised behaviour in dogs, highlighting the issues with simple generalisations concerning lateralisation and emotion. There is a need to carefully consider and distinguish sensory form motor lateralisation. Find more details here:

10/09/2024

Animal science at Lincoln rated number 1 in the UK in new Guardian guide. Very proud of all the staff and students who have got us here.

The study of land-based industries, such as farming, countryside management and animal rearing - includes agriculture, forestry, food and beverage studies

09/08/2024

We are very pleased to announce thedevelopment of this new diagnostic app for separation anxiety! We believe this to be a world first.
This profiles a dog's behaviour according to the four groups identified in our earlier work, which you can read about here: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2019.00499/full
This app is completely FREE for all to use.
This app has been developed in collaboration with colleagues at ZigZag and Anna Zamannsky. A big shout out to Dr Luciana Assis who did so much original work as part of her PhD.
If you have a dog suffering with a separation related problem, you can use this app to help understand the nature of your dog's distress in relation to separation. This should help you and your vet or behaviourist to create a more focused plan to help.
Likewise, if you are a trainer or behaviourist or vet - you can use this with your clients to help assess which type of separation related problem their dog has, and so build a more focused behaviour modification plan for your clients.

Please forward this to anyone you think it may be helpful to https://separation.zigzag.dog/