Temple Grandin

[Journey]

What an excellent book! I am only part way through it but a couple of areas jumped out at me. I highly recommend this book as well as her first one "Animals in Translation"

 

Regarding Amelias' comment on the Tobey thread and sacking out horses in the book Temple writes "Rage: Dr. Panksepp believes that the core emotion of rage evolved from the experience of being captured and held immobile by a predator. Stimulation by the subcortical brain areas causes an animal to go into rage. Rage gives the captured animal the explosive energy it needs to struggle violently and maybe shock the predator into loosening its grip long enough that the captured animal can get away. The RAGE feeling starts at birth Further into the book an example is given of a dolphin simply falling to the bottom of the pool - the FEAR overcame the rage and the dolphin gave up.

 

Another interesting area is where she write - The German Shepherd was intentionally bred to look as much like a wolf as possible. Dr. Goodwin says that may mean that once a breed has lost a behavior you can't bring the behavior back just by changing its appearance. So although looks and behavior go together genetically, they can also be separated genetically.

 

In talking about aggression she writes "Until we learn more, I think dog owners should assume that a lot of unexplained aggression in dogs has a basis in fear or anxiety, and they should tale steps to relieve that painful emotion. Instead of focusing on dominance, which isn't an emotion, they should focus on two things" "Identifying and treating the aggressive dogs fear and/or anxiety" "training the aggressive dog for emotional restraint and good manners"

 

So far it's been a great read, not an easy read, but well worth it!

 

Karen

[bcnewe2]

Love her books!

[Lenajo]

This one is not as easy a read as her past book but I think it has the most information she's ever offered. Her thought process is amazing to me, like being given a window to another world with a human voice.

[Ooky]

I thought it was fascinating, particularly the chapter on dogs. But after the chapters on cattle and horses, I found myself really wishing for a chapter on sheep!

 

One thing she talked alot about was "traditional" stockmanship (using that term because I'm not sure what else to call it), where horses are sacked out and cattle are beaten into chutes and stuff like that. Then she explained how prey/herd animals have these hard wired behaviors that they reliably offer in response to stimuli, like someone walking past their shoulder makes a cow shoot forwards. She then went on to explain how utilizing these behaviors as much as possible allows for great control of the animals while stressing them less - I think she likened it to predator-prey software in the brain. The more you can tap into the software that is already there, the less stress is created.

 

I got to thinking about all she said about cattle in this way and started thinking about good, quiet dogs I've seen work. They obviously "know" about the software and a nice working dog can excite that software much better, with better timing and physical coverage than any human, IMO. I wonder what she would have to say about the ability of good dogs to reduce stress on livestock. Again, talking about quiet, honest workers, not landsharks.

 

She also had an interesting section about cowboys on horses trying to keep stubborn cattle out of a riparian area because of grazing allotment restrictions, in basically the stupidest, least efficient way possible. I kept thinking, all they need is a couple dogs to hold them out steady, save the poor cowhorses!

[juliepoudrier]

I guess I'll be adding this to my reading list.

 

J.

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

The most interesting story I heard is about Dals mom.

 

They went to a sale and a bull went down they were shocking him and pulling doing everything to get him up. Bonnie weighs about 100lbs and she only had Jingles with her. The guys all laughed that they could "let her try to do better" Jingles hopped in and up went the bull. They were then all trying to buy her. A good dog is worth their weight in gold.

[Sue R]

I particularly appreciate her ability to get the reader to look at things "from a different angle". I find her books very readable, thought-provoking, and an eye-opener for anyone involved with animals and particularly the species she covers in her books.

 

Ed got to meet and talk with her, and was very impressed. She seems like a good woman with a sound head on her shoulders, who has overcome some potential limitations to become a great force for improved handling of animals of all sorts.

[KrisK]

I'm just finishing that book. I find it is a book that I have to read a bit at a time to absorb what she is saying. The cattle section was particularly interesting as well as the horse section. All in all, it is a book that certainly makes you think about how we relate to our animals!

[Sue R]

This is probably just me but I have a "natural tendency" to feel like amping up the "assertive" behavior when the cattle or calves don't respond as I would like. Temple's books have helped me to understand that that usually just results in the animal(or animals) getting more anxious, and responding less and less like I would like them to respond.

 

Lots of times, it's a matter of reducing pressure (when what I am doing is inside the flight/fight zone) so that the animal feels comfortable in turning away from me and going forward. I am having to learn and reprogram myself to do it right, which certainly reduces the stress on all concerned. Sometimes pressure is needed but, with our kind of cattle in particular, the least pressure that will get the job done is much more productive than more pressure in most cases.

 

Meanwhile, Celt tends to do this naturally because he's bred to read the stock and have stock sense. I certainly am not. The dog should be in charge of handling the livestock, not me, I'm beginning to think. If he's got a head for numbers, he should also be doing the bookeeping and a lot more of the decision-making. Then maybe we'd make a profit.