21/06/2024
Here’s a fabulous post from Daniella at Woody's Holistic Grooming.
The work going on nowadays to train zoo and captive wild animals in cooperative care is incredible. With our pet animals, cooperative care may take some time, but the benefits of putting the work in include less stressful and safer care/grooming/vet procedures, and a stronger bond with our animals. Plus, it can be so much fun! 💙
This week I had the absolute honour of speaking with Jim Mackie, the Animal Training and Behaviour officer at ZSL (Zoological Society of London). We spoke in depth about the methods and techniques used with the animals in captivity to help make medical treatments easier for them and reduce the need for tranquilizing.
Jim explained how they have an entire team of dedicated keepers who are all taught how to train specific behaviours such as a target, positioning and so on. These behaviours are then adapted and developed on so they can be used for either moving animals around their enclosures, for blood draws or other medical examinations and for transportation. Having a tiger walk into a transportation crate rather than having to be tranquillised is much less stressful for them and means they’re more likely to settle in their new environment.
Jim and his team train a whole variety of animals, from monkeys, raptors, birds all the way up to Elephants.
We spoke about the challenges they come up against, such as the animals being out of their natural habitat, limitations on resources etc. Things that are all relatable to the grooming environment too.
I first witnessed co-operative care during a workshop run by Chirag Patel, who is actually a good friend of Jims. He demonstrated how they had taught a cheetah to offer his body for an injection. It was at that point, I stood in awe and disbelief. If we can teach wild animals to be co-operative for care procedures, why on earth aren’t we doing the same for our domestic (and in theory much more tactile) animals?
Teaching co-operative care is easy, and for most in the zoo the behaviour can be taught in just a matter of weeks. So why is it so hard for us and our domestic dogs?
Well firstly, we are not all dog experts and training specialists. We don’t all spend every day devoting time to train our dogs (even though it only needs to be short sessions). Often we expect others to do it for us, or for our dogs to “just get used to it”. As a groomer, I usually see your dog once every 6-8 weeks sometimes more if I’m lucky. There is no way I can teach solid co-operative care techniques in such a short amount of time and it would be unfair to expect that of me.
In my personal opinion, this is why alot of groomers struggle with the idea of giving choice in the grooming environment. They don’t have the time to train co-operative care techniques, and so when they’re faced with a dog who is several matted or has overgrown nails then they have a difficult choice to make. Do they send the dog home and trust the guardian to do training with the dog first? Do they try their best to remove the matting as quickly as possible using restraints, risking their relationship with the dog? Or do they refer to the vets for sedation?
A groomers heart is in the right place, but we also know that guardians aren’t zoo keepers and are unlikely to dedicate the time and resources needed to train properly. And similarly groomers aren’t specialist trainers who can spend weeks with a single dog (at least not without charging a considerable amount). They do what they can to help the animal in the least damaging way they can.
This is not about blaming anyone. But as a nation of dog lovers, we owe it to our dogs to teach them and support them. We need to do better.
We share our lives with one of the most intelligent, inspiring animals in the world. Let’s follow ZSL’s example, and start focusing more on husbandry skills, start collaborating more with experts and start to prepare to care.
