Careers with Dogs. Kim Campbell Thornton
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is a certified applied animal behaviorist in Tacoma, Washington.
Once this information has been gathered, the behaviorist develops a program to help a pet deal with the circumstances that trigger the behavior. This can involve behavioral modification, environmental adjustments, or drug therapy. Only a veterinarian can prescribe medication, so an applied animal behaviorist who is not a veterinarian often works in partnership with one.
Behaviorists can work in many different settings. Clinical behaviorists who specialize in the behavior of companion animals work directly with clients, either in their own offices, in veterinary clinics, or at clients’ homes. Like trainers, they may hold classes for pet owners, not only to assist with training but also to help prevent or solve behavior problems.
Sometimes they are employed by pet day-care programs or humane organizations. Behaviorists can become science writers, producing content for book and magazine publishers, Web sites, and broadcast programs.
Some behaviorists, such as John Wright, go into teaching and research at the university level in animal science, biology, psychology, wildlife biology, or zoology, or at veterinary or medical colleges.
It takes a certain kind of person to be a behaviorist, someone who turns to science when seeking answers to dog training and behavior problems. The principles of a behaviorist’s approach include positive reinforcement and behavior change through rewards, prompts, and other methods, says Mary Burch, a certified applied animal behaviorist.
Brelands and Pryor: Clicker Icons
Graduate students of legendary behavioral scientist B. F. Skinner, Keller Breland and Marian Kruse (Breland) applied their professor’s concepts of operant conditioning to the worlds of advertising and entertainment. In 1943, they opened Animal Behavior Enterprises to train a variety of animals using operant conditioning. They revolutionized the use of secondary reinforcers (clickers and whistles) to train dogs (as well as pigs, cats, ducks, and hamsters) for movies and television, decades prior to the positive-reinforcement training revolution. The Brelands also trained marine mammals for the U.S. Navy in the 1960s.
Behavior biologist and dolphin trainer Karen Pryor was using the Brelands’ operant training methods at Sea Life Park in the mid-1960s. The clicker-training revolution that electrified the dog community in the 1990s was triggered by her 1984 publication Don’t Shoot the Dog (Sunshine Books), which was excerpted in Reader’s Digest. Through her book and her subsequent seminars around the country, she reached tens of millions of people. She also promoted her clicker-training methods on the Internet, still new to most people in the early 1990s. It helped deliver her gospel of positive training methods to all who cared to click on her Web site. Pryor also developed her own version of the clicker, which she called the I-clicker.
Who Behaviorists Are
Not surprisingly, the study of animal behavior attracts people whose breadth and depth of interests can be overwhelming. It’s not easy for them to fit in everything they’d like to do.
“The most challenging thing is trying to have time to do everything I want,” John Wright says. “I love the teaching, I love the research, I love the practice, I love my household of strange animals. Trying to find enough time to do justice to all of those endeavors is my biggest frustration.”
In a post on her The Other End of the Leash blog, certified applied animal behaviorist Patricia McConnell lists the knowledge needed to work with canine behavioral problems. Ethology, the study of animal behavior, includes the influence of genetics on behavior, developmental influences, normal social structure of dogs, communicative signals, play behavior, and predatory behavior.
Well-known trainer Victoria Stilwell, who also serves as a behavior adviser on rehabilitating rescue dogs, receives a warm welcome at APDT.
McConnell adds that a good dog behaviorist—in addition to having profound knowledge of the most common behavioral diagnoses, which behaviors are symptomatic of these problems, and the best ways to solve them—also has an in-depth understanding of which behavioral problems are often caused by or associated with medical problems; this includes a good working knowledge of canine structure and function, basic physiology, and which behavior problems necessitate a visit to the veterinarian.
A good behaviorist is also a good trainer, McConnell believes, with the ability to read a dog, know what the dog is or is not ready for, use movement and voice to influence a dog’s behavior, and interpret a dog’s visual signals.
“No one should ever give clients instructions about what to teach their dog without being able to demonstrate how to do it successfully to the same dog, in the same context as the clients,” she writes.
The ability to work with people is also an essential skill for a animal behaviorist. For instance, a good behaviorist must know how and when to interrupt the direction of a report from a client. Not all information is important to the assessment or treatment of an animal’s behavior problem.
TRAINER VS. BEHAVIORIST
Sometimes the terms trainer and behaviorist are used interchangeably, and there are certainly times when their skills and knowledge overlap. In general, however, trainers teach manners, obedience, and other skills to animals who don’t have any emotional problems, whereas behaviorists deal with pets who are aggressive, fearful, or have some other problem with a strong emotional component.
“A lot of people just want to talk forever about their animals, and you need to be able to direct or redirect some of the conversation,” says Wright, who is now a certified applied animal behaviorist and a professor of psychology at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia.
McConnell notes that it’s important to be able to help a client understand what can and can’t be known about what is motivating a dog. This ability and the ability to teach clients how to interact with their pets require excellent verbal communication and teaching skills.
“Being a behavioral consultant means knowing how to successfully influence the behavior of two species, knowing how to present information in a way that clients can use and adopt,” McConnell writes. “Consultants must have fantastic social skills with people and be able to create a welcome and supportive environment.
DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES?
BEHAVIORIST
An applied animal behaviorist should have these characteristics:
An understanding of canine or feline ethology
An understanding of operant and classical conditioning, counterconditioning, and desensitization, and when and how to use each
The ability to read animal body language and other communicative signals
Experience working with pets who have behavioral problems
The willingness to refer pets to a veterinarian when necessary
Good people skills, including the ability to teach pet owners
Patience
Good listening skills
“Specialists who are great with dogs but not with people are not suited to do behavior consulting. There is no equivalent of surgery in behavioral treatment and rehab in which the specialist never has to interact with the ‘patient.’ You’re either really, really good with people or you’re in the wrong field.”
Education and Training
Even though anyone can claim to be a behaviorist, most people in the field have at least a