Animal Welfare Animal welfare used to be of least importance. Lack of knowledge about animals and about their welfare was often the cause of minimal welfare. Nowadays we know a lot more about animal welfare in captivity due to research. This caused opinions on animal welfare to change and gladly animal welfare now has an important role. It is important to regularly check on your animals’ welfare. Together we can look at the animal welfare and improve where needed.
Welfare, habitat and training A good and safe habitat is very important to the welfare of your animals. A suitable layout of animal enclosures is essential for this. Problem behavior is often caused or even increased by enclosures that do not suit your animal’s specific needs and characteristics. Coach for Animals can help you find the best and most suitable solution to improve the quality of the habitat; either by making small or bigger adjustments to your animals current enclosure. Of course we can also create opportunities to safely train animals within that enclosure. Coach for Animals is also available for advice on developing (completely) new enclosures. We like to take the species’ individual needs as principle when we advise, so that new or renewed enclosures will always improve animal welfare.
Coaching for medical procedures Good coaching will prevent unnecessary stress. In many zoos it is custom to sedate animals to undergo treatment like blood screens, pedicures, echoes or other small procedures. It is obvious that capturing and sedating an animal causes a lot of stress to the individual animal as well as to other animals it is sharing its enclosure with. Coach for Animals will draw up a plan with you to train your animal to voluntarily undergo several medical and husbandry procedures. This will help the animal to experience the procedures more pleasurably.
New scientific knowledge Through scientific research we have been able to learn more about animal behavior. This has a positive effect on insights and new approaches on behavior of various species, a development that is very useful in coaching your animals. Coach for Animals can share this knowledge through coaching days, which will help to improve your carers and trainers professionalism. This information is also great to use in presentations for park visitors to encourage knowledge about the species.
Is one of your animals scheduled for transport? To minimize the impact and stress for the animal and to make transport go smoothly it is essential to start training far in advance. Coach for animals will help you with these preparations and with adaption to transport.
Problem behaviorWe all have seen an animal exhibiting problem behavior; an animal refusing to enter their night enclosure, or an animal showing aggressive or fearful behavior.Often miscommunication between the animal and the caregiver is the cause; sometimes because behavior is interpreted wrong or sometimes the animal interprets the humans’ behavior wrong. Sometimes what we see as a problem is no more than natural behavior for that species. Other causes of problem behavior can be found in incorrectly applying rewards or punishment.
Plan of Action (poa)Coach for Animals will start with a behavior analysis to determine the cause of the behavior. Than Coach for Animals will advice you and together we will start a project to divert or solve the problem behavior. If the behavior cannot be diverted, Coach for Animals will give you suggestions to deal with the behavior.
Are you interested in Coaching or in a workshop for your company don’t hesitate, you can contact us!
Workshops We are offering specialized workshops for your company, for groups of all sizes, about: -animal welfare -coaching and conditioning -animal behavior -animal aggression -body language -etc. We are open for any personal suggestions and wishes, so we can incorporate these in the program. Coach for Animals has a large network in animal care to benefit improving your animal’s welfare.
