Beeching Animal Behaviour

Well said it’s not ok . We don’t teach kids to smack the dog . I really think we all adults included can move past the use of punishment . Especially given it’s so ineffective . We certainly should be supporting younger generations to do better .

➡️ If you see someone do something with an equid, and you feel a little uncomfortable watching, 🌟YOU ARE RIGHT🌟.

Don’t let anyone change your heart with “reasonable” words.

People can make us believe anything with “reasonable” words, especially if they are older than us or we perceive that they have more experience than us, but your heart knows the truth.

People will tell you that you *have* to treat equids a certain way because they’re so big and they’re “dangerous”. They’ll tell you that you *have* to treat them this way because that’s how they treat each other and that’s what they understand.

None of that’s true. Push away the they’ll try to make you feel. Deny the they’ll try to make you follow. Go with what your tells you. Your heart is right ❤️.

New study published in Animal Behaviour found that pairs of pack-living dogs who had good quality relationships became less stressed when they encountered unusual situations together.

Social relationships between animals serve many purposes. Scientists think that one function is to enable animals to better cope with stressful situations. In this study, scientists wanted to test if better quality relationships are more effective at buffering stress.

Pairs of dogs living in 4 captive packs (total 14 dogs, 15 pairings) were observed and tested. All dogs were raised by people and from 5 months old lived as part of a pack in a large enclosure. When living as a pack they had daily training sessions.

Extensive observations were made of the pairs in their enclosures. From this, pairs were scored on their friendly behaviours towards each other, and on the time spent in body contact.

The 15 pairs of dogs were then tested in a series of stressful situations one after the other: being in a novel environment, being separated from their partner, reuniting with their partner, exposure to a novel object, and exposure to an oddly dressed and oddly behaving human. Cortisol (stress hormone) samples were taken before and after the series of tests. Stress and social behaviours were also recorded throughout the tests.

Pairs who were more friendly towards each other during normal pack-living, became less stressed during the stressful situations. The individuals in these pairs produced less stress hormone during the tests.

However, more friendly pairs were less likely to display stress behaviours when separated from each other and more likely to display stress behaviours when exposed to the odd human. This could be because dogs display stress behaviours to communicate with their partner and will do so more if the bond is stronger.

The study provides evidence that closer bonds between two dogs can be more effective in buffering against stress. For dogs who don’t have a close relationship with another dog, a good bond with their human might have the same stress buffering effect.

Do you live in a multiple dog household? Do you think the bond between your dogs helps them cope with stressful situations?

Paper: Relationship quality affects social stress buffering in dogs and wolves – Animal Behaviour, August 2021.

Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347221001755

Brilliant to see this

Some quick information regarding canine heat injury treatment: Don't let the age-old myths get in your way of preventing this deadly condition, or providing life-saving treatment of canine heat injury.

Beautiful post from Dogs Disclosed

IF DOGS COULD WRITE … A BILL OF RIGHTS
What a better world it would be for them !

Important position statement with regards to the use of Acepromazine (ACP)

This will be an interesting read

Can This Dog Be Rehomed to You? A Qualitative Analysis and Assessment of the Scientific Quality of the Potential Adopter Screening Policies and Procedures of Rehoming Organisations Unwanted dogs are an international problem, and rehoming organisations are tasked with finding many of them appropriate homes. Whilst the processes involved in assessing dogs' suitability for rehoming have received considerable academic attention, the policies and procedures organisations employ for...

This is a lovely read

Experience: I lived as a wild turkey My aim was to become indistinguishable from the rest of the flock, but I felt they saw me as the village idiot

Please consider participating in this study.

*CALLING OWNERS OF DOGS WITH BEHAVIOUR PROBLEMS IN THE UK*

Have you sought advice, in the UK, for a behaviour problem with your dog in the last 2 years? If yes, an MSc student (Julie Daniels) at the University of Edinburgh needs your help with some important research.

We would like to invite you to participate in a short online survey of your experience of the behaviour consultation process, and of the factors that led you to follow (or not) the treatment plan afterwards.

Your involvement in this study would be very much appreciated as it will help us to understand, from the dog owner’s perspective, how to guide best practice. The study has ethical approval, and your participation would be voluntary, confidential and anonymous.

The more participants we can enrol, the more reliable the results will be, so please do SHARE THIS POST if you feel able to support us in this way.

The survey will close on 26th March 2021. Thank you very much in advance, your help is much appreciated. For more details and to take part in the survey, please use this link https://edinburgh.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/daniels-survey.

Julie Daniels Survey Online survey BOS

Really brilliant post from Understand Animals

"Results suggested that, when practical, owners should be encouraged to remain with their dog during routine veterinary examinations."

Published just a few weeks ago, this new paper (reference below) found that overall dogs were less stressed when their owners were present with them during a veterinary examination than without.

This is pretty interesting stuff and I would always have said the same preCovid. However over the last 6 months, many vet practices, certainly in the UK, have been carrying out examinations without the owners present in order to limit the number of people in the indoor environment. Having carried out possibly hundreds of examinations myself during that time, I have actually noticed somewhere between the same level of stress or even less stress in the dogs I have examined without the owners present.
I personally think there are three main reasons for this:
1/ The dog has waited in the car with the owner until I go get them for the examination. NO stressful waiting room scenario.
2/ The owner is often stressed during the consultation! Worrying about their pet, about their pet's behaviour, about being late for the rest of the day, the cost etc etc etc Totally understandable, but dogs pick up on our stress. So if the owner is anxious, with an increased breathing rate heart rate, production of stress pheromones, tense body language, the dog will react to that.
3/ I bring the dogs in and let them explore the room by themselves before I do anything else. I use this time to type up the notes that the owner has already given me in my conversation with them before I got the dog. I observe the dog as I type and and chat quietly to them. Then when I m ready to examine, I examine them on the floor! Yep, even Chihauhaus. I sit down and see if they want to come to me, and I d say >80% do, and then examine quietly with both of us on the floor. When the owner is present I still try to do this, but its a bit more crowded with myself, 2 adults and 3 children present in the room! Also many owners seem keen to crack on and get the dog on the table so the dog has already been handled, lifted etc before I ve had the chance to explain why I start off on the floor.

Now we are returning to being able to have people present in the consult room, I definitely want that to happen. BUT I would like the dog not to have waited in the waiting room. I would like only one adult in the consult room if possible. I would like the owner to know in advance that we are going to leave the dog on the floor for most of the consult and to let the dog have time to explore before we start any interactions. I would like the owner to know that dogs pick up on our stress and if they themselves are likely to be very distressed, it may be better to chat out in the carpark first and let me see the dog by myself first. I would like owners to know the dog doesnt need to perform or behave themselves! Dogs get scared at the vets and its my job as the vet to help that dog feel better - not the dog's job to behave differently. I would like owners to know that its ok to reassure a dog, even when (particularly when) they are fearful but to do so in a calm, gentle manner, ideally with the dog on the floor and not picked up.

Let's help dogs "fear less" at the vets!

Stellato, A.C., Dewey, C.E., Widowski, T.M. and Niel, L., 2020. Evaluation of associations between owner presence and indicators of fear in dogs during routine veterinary examinations. Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 257(10), pp.1031-1040.

This is a wonderful podcast with Dr Bonnie Beaver

#007 Bonnie Beaver

Wonderful post about Drax . Safety and time is so important for animals (and humans) who have experienced trauma. Drax’s Galactic Adventure is a wonderful example of working with fear from Nat Light Ccab an excellent Certified Clinical Animal Behaviourist .

New favourite bed and new favourite spot. No more staying in his room like a teenage recluse, he’s a properly integrated member of the family. Once he can settle like this in the lounge, we’ll all be together, a perfect family of 7 🥰

This looks fascinating

DNA methylation in canine brains is related to domestication and dog-breed formation Epigenetic factors such as DNA methylation act as mediators in the interaction between genome and environment. Variation in the epigenome can both affect phenotype and be inherited, and epigenetics has been suggested to be an important factor in the evolutionary process. During domestication, dogs h...

This. It is the same for your horse. Please think about the words you use to describe your dog or horse who is someone you love.

Alexandra Horowitz on Twitter “if you tell me your dog is stupid, you've just told me a lot about you and nothing about your dog”

Stressed elephants at Warsaw zoo to be given medical ma*****na Three African elephants to get liquid doses of the cannabinoid CBD through their trunks. Early trials suggest they like it

Really interesting to consider

Clicker training does not enhance learning in mixed-breed shelter puppies (Canis familiaris) Clicker training has been a popular form of training for decades and is utilized in zoos, aquariums and shelters. Only a handful of studies have inves…

Very important post from Understand Animals sleep is so important for all animals including horses . It also plays a role in anxiety and performance .

This is a VERY important study

Words below copied and pasted from Understand Animals because these are important too

This study looking at incidence of cancers and joint disease as undesired effects of neutering in different breeds has just been published.

Overall, the general trend remains as many have previously suggested: the larger the breed, the greater the risk factors with earlier neutering. However there are some noteable exceptions such as the Shih Tzu with higher cancer risks and Irish Wolfhounds with low joint disease risks.

Personally I think this study reflects the complex nature of neutering as a huge physiological change to the body which impacts far reaching effects involving epigenetics of course. Years ago the advice was to spay female dogs before the first (or certainly second) season to significantly reduce mammary cancer risk, this new study suggests (but due to small amounts of data on older dogs we must be careful of over interpreting) that the actual risk of mammary cancer (MC) is lower than that perceived. Maybe those earlier studies were not wrong but epigenetics has changed - perhaps mammary cancer in the late spayed or entire bitch is reduced by higher quality diet, as an example.

This study intentionally does not consider “behavioural” risks of neutering. So when we consider the effects of neutering on behaviour, cancer, joint disease, other endocrine diseases (eg thyroid) and how this varies with breed and individual factors, we have a complicated decision to make - to neuter or not to neuter, and then when would be optimal FOR THAT INDIVIDUAL.

What this study clarifies is that we can no longer use a “blanket” statement about whether and when to neuter a dog.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2020.00388/full?fbclid=IwAR0ni4Ozm4f2m7gWzGFfG3gKYHMLEVpaWNvelK9Gt3KFUn3fprHSSZlV5sA

Assisting Decision-Making on Age of Neutering for 35 Breeds of Dogs: Associated Joint Disorders, Cancers, and Urinary Incontinence Neutering (including spaying) of male and female dogs in the first year after birth has become routine in the U.S. and much of Europe, but recent research reveals that for some dog breeds, neutering may be associated with increased risks of debilitating joint disorders and some cancers, complicating...

Yes the same with horses !!

Why Dogs’ Happiness, Not Obedience, Is What Counts When we focus on making dogs happy, it’s better for them and us.

Why Dogs’ Happiness, Not Obedience, Is What Counts When we focus on making dogs happy, it’s better for them and us.

Fantastic blog from Risë VanFleet on giving our animals agency

Do We Sell Them Short? Supporting “Agency” in Animals Sometimes, in our eagerness to provide a happy life for our animals, we step in too quickly to help them with certain challenges. There are times when we sell them short, perhaps not realizing or forgetting that they have their own unique capabilities and skills. This blog post explores the concept....

Great post from Barking Brains please also see Understand Animals writing on the subject

TRANSITIONS: SIMILARITIES BETWEEN REHOMING AND PUPPY DEVELOPMENT
This is Raven, who I have rehomed to me from Northumbria Police (our journey together, and the neuroscientific principles that underlie her transition into a pet home, will feature on this page going forward).

She was loved and well cared for by her handler and is a calm, affectionate beauty, but the transition from a working home to a pet home will necessarily involve a considerable amount of new learning and physiological adjustment. This phase will involve an increase in neuroplasticity as some connections strengthen, some weaken and new ones are formed between individual neurones and different brain areas. The number, density and location of hormone and neurotransmitter receptors will modify, along with the rates of production of those substances (much more on this later). All of these changes and more are to modify the processing and integration of sensory and non-sensory stimuli, modify the physiological responses to stimuli and support habituating (or automatising) new behaviours and bonding with me and my other dogs.

These processes (although less ‘flexible’ in the adult dog) are very similar to the processes occurring when you start exploring the outside world with a new puppy, as many people are now doing post lockdown.

Raven and I met Harvey the labradoodle this morning, a gorgeous, bouncy, happy puppy both excited and sensibly cautious about the big wide world. Harvey, having been in lockdown, is now at the upper end of his critical period for socialisation (arguably considered to be up to 16 weeks old). But his brain doesn’t stop developing at that age, and in fact this period has been functionally defined largely by deprivation studies ie depriving animals of social contact at various points during their development and showing that those deprived during the critical period suffer more negative impact in terms of behaviour outcome and brain development. Such data are not really applicable in Harvey’s case as he hasn’t been deprived of social contact at all, and has in fact been learning lots of social skills within his new home environment. His experience thus far serves him well, as he has progressed through his critical period for socialisation without an adverse event and was demonstrating some beautiful socially appropriate behaviours around both myself and Raven.

So the good news here is, yes it’s important to ensure puppies have positive social experiences during the critical period but that doesn’t necessitate them having all of their new social experiences at that time. And in fact, in terms of brain development what’s most important is that negative social experiences are avoided during this period of maximal neuronal flexibility, as the pro-social brain networks are coming on line and integrating with those involved in resilience and coping mechanisms.

Thank you Harvey and his dad for inspiring this post. And thank you Northumbria police for trusting me with Raven 💖🧠💖🧠

This is so cool

Crows are watching your language, literally That crows can recognize humans faces (and other physical attributes) has been a staple of our experiences with them for thousands of years.  It’s part of what has allowed them to take s…

Tossing "Permissive" From My Vocabulary: Living Respectfully With Adult Dogs — Dog Training with Kristi Benson Positive Isn’t Permissive! I have probably seen a hundred beautiful info-graphics with this phrase splashed across the top, along with a vivid picture of a well-trained dog heeling or doing a down-stay. I have certainly shared a couple, in my time. Heck, I lived that credo when I first started

The gut microbiome whilst research is still in its infancy appears to have an impact on behaviour including playing a role in aggressive and phobic responses. Thanks to Understand Animals for this.

Gut microbiome structure and adrenocortical activity in dogs with aggressive and phobic behavioral disorders Accompanying human beings since the Paleolithic period, dogs has been recently regarded as a reliable model for the study of the gut microbiome connec…

This speaks volumes for the power of connection and social buffering during stress .

🐾🐾 Furry Family Friday 🐾🐾
We have an extra special pet to show you today 💕 The little rat in the middle is Bubbles. She has just has a large mammary tumor removed. However she isn't recovering well from anesthesia. You can see the iv fluids running into her tail vein and the oxygen mask on her snout. Beside her are Frank and Baby. Her companions were bought in and provided her with the most remarkable comfort and support. They groomed and petted and cuddled her, patiently staying by her side for 40min. Amazingly she recovered! This is an amazing testiment to the power of love and the depth of the bond rats form.💕💕

If you would like us to showcase your furry (feathered, finned or scaly) family member please send us a photo and short description to our page 😊

Great read

A Trans-Species Perspective on Nature « On the Human The general term trans-species perspective derives from and encompasses Trans-Species Psychology, a new paradigm of science, knowledge, and culture established by psychologist/ecologist Gay Bradshaw. Bradshaw is currently the Executive Director of The Kerulos Center, a non-profit organization that i...

Genetic basis of fear

Fearful Great Danes provide new insights to genetic causes of fear Researchers have identified a new genomic region and anxiety-related candidate genes associated with fearfulness in dogs. Findings support their hypothesis that fearfulness and anxiety are hereditary traits in dogs, and there may be shared factors underlying anxiety in both humans and dogs.

Interesting

City foxes are becoming more similar to domesticated dogs as they adapt to their environment Urban red foxes are becoming more similar to domesticated dogs as they adapt to their city environment, according to a new analysis.

Great post from Understand Animals

I ve been stuck in this traffic queue for over 20 minutes now. When I drove up a man explained to me that a farmer had dropped some bales on the road and was picking them up, he s be 5 minutes.
I could have turned round and gone a different way, the other option adds about 5 minutes on to that journey.
I decided to wait 5 minutes isn’t long.

So here I am at nearly half an hour still waiting. No one else in front of me has turned back either.

What has this got to do with animal behaviour?! Well, how long we have invested in something (in this case waiting in the queue) affects our behaviour. We ve invested time. Sometimes energy, sometimes money.
It’s well known that the more we ve invested the more inclined we are to stick at it.

Perhaps we picked the wrong approach to training our pet. But now, several months later, whilst things still aren’t changing, we feel we should stick with it. We ve invested too much to give up now. All that time, effort, money will have been wasted.

Except it’s not. Assuming there’s been no genuine improvement, what it’s done is help you learn what’s not going to work for your pet. Move on. Consider change!

It’s been 40 minutes now. I m going to turn round! 🤣

Love this

Orphaned elephants always line up to hug woman who saved their lives - Animal's World African elephants are being hunted more and more every year, because of their precious tusks, so when we see stories that these amazing animals get saved is truly touching. Dozens of orphaned baby elephants are being cared for at Nairobi Elephant Orphanage in Kenya. A dedicated team of conservationi...

Fascinating

Cats domesticated humans to get our mice, archaeologists prove ***

Lovely enrichment exercise if you have an older dog

Easy Enrichment for a Senior Dog and a Senior Person | Dog Dementia Help and Support It's wonderful how many enrichment games are out there for senior dogs now. How about one that is also easy on a senior owner?

Fascinating

Why are horses resistant to brain-wasting prion diseases? Researchers investigate - Horsetalk.co.nz Most people had never heard of prions until the rise of so-called mad cow disease in Britain in the late 1980s.

Words from Understand Animals

Puppy Teefs!
Puppies are born without teeth. By the time they are 8 weeks old, they have 28 ‘temporary’ puppy teeth that are super sharp and enable your puppy to eat solid food. These ‘puppy teeth’ will start to fall out from 14 weeks, starting with the small tiny incisors… you may find these but puppies can swallow them during play with other dogs or when chewing edible chews and toys. The last ones to fall out are the big pointy (and painful) ones…once teething is over at approx 30 weeks, your puppy will boast 42 adult teeth. The good news is that the adult teeth once through aren’t as sharp as the puppy teeth
(phew!)
When your puppy is teething you will notice an increased desire to chew – furniture, clothes, shoes etc. It’s important during this time to provide your puppy with lots of edible chews and toys for them to chew on. Our favourites are:
• Pizzles
• Skippers Fish throw Sticks
• Animal Earth No Hide Chews
• Stuffed KONGS
• Ostrich Braids
• Buffalo Ears
Be careful about shouting ‘ouch’ when your puppy bites you as they may think you are playing and it may make them worse.
Turning your back or standing still may make your puppy frustrated and escalates the biting.
Our advice is to be ‘proactive’ and have chews ready for them to choose to chew rather than your shoes…. Keep your house clear of shoes, clothing and items you don’t want your puppy to chew. Also be mindful that getting toys out and having a game or playing with them once they’ve started nipping you may unwittingly reward the nipping and biting. Try to get in there before they start biting and mouthing and give them something appropriate to chew on. Also bear in mind that if your puppy is particularly bitey, could they be hungry? Could they need the loo? Could they be over stimulated and need to sleep?
Always remember they aren’t doing it on purpose to annoy or hurt you… they are a young puppy and it’s all normal. If you’d like any help with your bitey puppy then please get in touch, we are going through it too – our Billy is 12 weeks old! We totally understand what you’re going through and we are HERE TO HELP YOU!

Puppy Teefs!
Puppies are born without teeth. By the time they are 8 weeks old, they have 28 ‘temporary’ puppy teeth that are super sharp and enable your puppy to eat solid food. These ‘puppy teeth’ will start to fall out from 14 weeks, starting with the small tiny incisors… you may find these but puppies can swallow them during play with other dogs or when chewing edible chews and toys. The last ones to fall out are the big pointy (and painful) ones…once teething is over at approx 30 weeks, your puppy will boast 42 adult teeth. The good news is that the adult teeth once through aren’t as sharp as the puppy teeth
(phew!)
When your puppy is teething you will notice an increased desire to chew – furniture, clothes, shoes etc. It’s important during this time to provide your puppy with lots of edible chews and toys for them to chew on. Our favourites are:
• Pizzles
• Skippers Fish throw Sticks
• Animal Earth No Hide Chews
• Stuffed KONGS
• Ostrich Braids
• Buffalo Ears
Be careful about shouting ‘ouch’ when your puppy bites you as they may think you are playing and it may make them worse.
Turning your back or standing still may make your puppy frustrated and escalates the biting.
Our advice is to be ‘proactive’ and have chews ready for them to choose to chew rather than your shoes…. Keep your house clear of shoes, clothing and items you don’t want your puppy to chew. Also be mindful that getting toys out and having a game or playing with them once they’ve started nipping you may unwittingly reward the nipping and biting. Try to get in there before they start biting and mouthing and give them something appropriate to chew on. Also bear in mind that if your puppy is particularly bitey, could they be hungry? Could they need the loo? Could they be over stimulated and need to sleep?
Always remember they aren’t doing it on purpose to annoy or hurt you… they are a young puppy and it’s all normal. If you’d like any help with your bitey puppy then please get in touch, we are going through it too – our Billy is 12 weeks old! We totally understand what you’re going through and we are HERE TO HELP YOU!

This is cool

Scientists Discover 400-Year-Old Greenland Shark Likely Born Around 1620 Some of these guys could live more than 500 years...

Wow.

Killer whale pod spotted off Northumberland coast Fishermen are joined by a pod of killer whales while collecting lobster pots in Northumberland.

Fantastic piece from Hear Your Horse Whisper

"Studies into animal behavior have not always had a positive influence on animal training. Early studies into animal behavior tended to concentrate on how animals organize their social systems and many early papers reported that species lived in hierarchies that were maintained by aggression (Allee, 1938). These studies showed that the dominant individual gained control of the others in the group through the emission of aggressive behavior toward subordinates (i.e., threats and attacks). Similarly, some studies by anthropologists and ethologists seemed to indicate that some pastoral peoples in Africa controlled their cattle by assuming the role of the alpha individual (Lott & Hart 1977,1979). Thus, the scene was set for animal trainers to apply such techniques with their animals (e.g., Grandin, 1981, with farm animals); this type of training, although it was principally punishment, was justified on the basis that it mimicked natural processes and therefore was not considered to cause animal welfare problems. Already, by this point in time, research into animal punishment had shown it to be largely ineffective as a method of training animals, as the undesired behaviors tended to reappear (see Chance, 1998). Perhaps the most well known example of using punishment during animal training was with pet dogs: Owners were recommended to dominate the dog as an alpha individual would do in the wild. Often dog trainers instructed owners in the use of the alpha roll; this was the turning of the dog onto its back and pinning it down by the throat (see, for example Monks of New Skete Staff, 2002). These domination techniques sometimes produced short-term improvements in training but most commonly resulted in an extreme aggressive response from the dog towards the owner. It was not just dogs that suffered. This line of aggressive animal training was also used with elephants (see Stevenson, 2002, for a review of literature) and has been suggested as a method of gaining cooperation from farm housed pigs (Grandin, 1981).
These methods were unsuccessful because they were based on punishment, and because many species of animals do not always respond to humans as if they were conspecifics (see Hemsworth & Barnett, 1987; Hemsworth & Gonyou, 1997). Thus, the reaction of the animal to human training was one of interspecies interaction and not intraspecies; this result would not have been a surprise to comparative psychologists who knew that animals could classify objects.

(...) An animal living in an environment where access to resources are controlled is living in an environment full of opportunities to receive positive reinforcement (i.e., access to resources). Evolutionarily, it appears easier for punishment to evolve as a method for dominant animals to control subordinates. However, theoretical and experimental studies into animal behavior all demonstrate that animals try to avoid aggressive encounters due to their high costs in terms of injuries and energy expenditure (Krebs & Davis, 1987). It is difficult to imagine how a system of intraspecific interactions could have evolved using positive or negative reinforcement because animals do not carry reinforcers with them. Or do they? Many social species of birds and mammals undertake social grooming whose function is not only to clean skin and feathers but also to increase the strength of social relationships (Dunbar, 1991). Grooming sessions are known to be pleasurable to animals, for example, horses and primates groom each other bodies in places where neuronal responses produce positive sensations (Feh & Mazieres, 1993;
Keverne et al., 1989). Thus, the use of intraspecies positive reinforcement in the
animal kingdom might be more widely spread than we have appreciated. Perhaps herein lies the reason why positive reinforcement is the most efficient way to train animals: it is the most natural method.

(...) Punishment, therefore, is not recommended in animal training programs for four reasons: (1) its effects are short-lived; (2) animals can respond very aggressively to punishment; (3) animal welfare concerns (the application of punishment would be illegal in some countries); and (4) animals learn more effectively from positive reinforcement, therefore the use of punishment is a false economy.

(...) Factors influencing animal learning are varied but one factor shown to disrupt learning and memory is stress (Sapolsky, 1996). Studies on laboratory animals exposed to high levels of stress show that their performance in tests of learning and memory decrease dramatically. For example, domestic pigs exposed to stress find it difficult to relocate previously visited food sources (Mendl et al., 1997).

(...) The implication for animal trainers is that animals should only be trained under nonstressful conditions, if a high rate of success is to be achieved. Intuitively, most good animal trainers know this and ensure that the training environment is as stress free as possible (...)"

Robert J. Young (2002). Uncloaking the Magician: Contributions of Comparative Psychology to Understanding Animal Training.International Journal of Comparative Psychology,15, 174-185.