Back in the saddle, as it were..

After some time being relatively  inactive professionally, I’m back in the world of Companion Animal Behaviour and hoping that this new initiative will fill a hole in the field in South Africa. Thank you to all those who sent their good wishes throughout my difficult times in 2010, and especially to those kind friends, colleagues and clients that conveyed their condolences following the passing of my brother in November. This sad event capped off a horrendous year all round – 2010 was not a good year by any measure. But 2011 promises new beginnings, and hopefully this blog is the genesis of exactly that.

The reason it has taken months to reach launch day is that rather than using a hosted service such as WordPress.com, this site has been designed almost entirely by me (with a little help from a great Pagelines theme). This has meant a sharp learning curve, having to get a grip on some crucial editing and styling skills (PHP and CSS) of which I have absolutely no prior experience. And to be honest I’m pleased (and just a tad proud) with how it’s gone so far. To start off we are just sticking to these basic pages, and will add more, such as ‘downloads’ and ‘links’ pages, as is needed. To start the ball rolling in the comments section, perhaps you can tell me what you think of the design and layout of the site so far.

Why another Animal Behaviour site?

There are a great many internet sites covering the field of Companion Animal Behaviour, some excellent and far too many really awful. It’s a massively contested field in many ways, especially at the moment. It must be remembered that it wasn’t until about 10 – 15 years ago that we started acquiring any volume of high quality information about the behaviour of domestic dogs and cats outside of laboratory conditions. For many decades scientists were reluctant to study these classes of animal in any meaningful way as they were considered ‘corrupted’ by human intervention, and they also had little perceived value agriculturally. So much of the information that has circulated for decades about the behaviour of both cats and dogs (but especially dogs) is more folklore and surmise than actual, empirically-derived fact.  As James Serpell commented in the introduction to his 1995 book The Domestic Dog: it’s evolution, behaviour and interactions with people: “The lives and loves of wolves, coyotes, jackals and most other wild canids have been studied in meticulous detail, but, with one or two notable exceptions (e.g. Lorentz, 1954; Scott & Fuller, 1965; Fox, 1978), the domestic dog has been largely ignored by scientists, except when it has become a ‘problem’, or when when it has been used as a substitute for humans in biomedical and psychological research. This apparent lack of of basic scientific interest in dogs is partly due to the ‘stigma’ of domestication.” ¹

Things have improved substantially since then, and we now have a great deal more solid information about dogs, as well as cats, than was the case in the mid-1990′s. Unfortunately, not enough of this has managed to seep down into the public’s perception, and far too many of the old myths are still commonplace. Furthermore, the pace at which we are accumulating new evidence, not only of animals and behaviour, but about the foundations of all behaviour, is constant and unrelenting. This makes it difficult to keep up for all but the most dedicated to the subject. Even many veterinarians I know are prone to making declarations that may have been common currency back when they were at vet school, but have long since become redundant.

The situation in South Africa is even starker. Whilst many of my colleagues have excellent websites with a load of information about how to fix problems (as well as some commentary about general issues), we want this website to be entirely educative and interactive. So we will soon make some of our information sheets available for download, but I don’t want to create a “recipe book” solution for problems. One of the things we have learned over the years is that behaviour problems in animals can’t be removed from context – whether than means the current environment or the developmental context for that animal – and one-size-fits-all solutions are not only ineffective, but potentially damaging.

Our vision

This website therefore has different aims. It isn’t the digital storefront for a business but exists for it’s own sake. It’s aims are informational and conversational, as said, and aimed at providing some access to the more obscure but fascinating world of behavioural science that is opening up around the world. Our primary focus is on the ‘outcasts’, but we also recognise how many animals end up in the welfare sector as a result of behaviour problems, and we are determined to re-examine what is currently perceived as ‘problems’ to see whether or not they in fact are that. And we will examine commonly touted ‘fixes’ to some of these problems to see whether they indeed do help, or either redirect the problems or make it a lot worse.

And we hope to be allowed to go off on occasional tangents and include things that do not seem immediately relevant to the bigger topic, as well as include some of the lightness and humour that is so essential to surviving a life anchored in such a fraught topical environment. This is such a big subject with so much serious information available, but also a rich and fun part of most pet owner’s daily lives.

Your opinions

As stated, the comments section of the blog posts will be a core part of this project. We really want it to become a vehicle through which people can express opinions or criticisms, and have an important conversation with each other and ourselves regarding a subject about which I know many are extremely passionate. To make it more managable, we will be using the Disqus comments facility and if the situation eventually calls for it, a dedicated forum may also be introduced.

But I’ve also been around the internet long enough to know how quickly the comments facility can degenerate into a festival of insults, bar-brawls, or a haven for trolls. We really don’t want that to happen so whilst we will begin with an open comments section, if needed we may have to place ‘awaiting moderator approval’ delays on new commenters in the future, or even introduce a login facility. I have spent a significant part of my life involved in free speech activism and I really don’t want to have to act as internet policeman – but the longterm sustainability of a project like this, as well as necessary legal inhibitions, means that we will have to be strict. Please help us prevent that from being necessary. These subjects are very emotional ones for many people, but shouting and getting angry at things you don’t agree with will not move anything forward. Change is a gradual process, and sometimes you may discover that deep down you aren’t actually as far from the person you’re digitally spitting at as you initially thought.

So, welcome to the site, please bookmark it and return often. Initially I aim to post as frequently as is possible, but circumstances may determine the output on this blog. And remember that you do have the option of subscribing to our RSS feed by clicking the RSS button on the top right hand side of every page (also a link in the footer, under the ‘more’ heading). We really hope that this can plug a hole in the animal welfare / behaviour field, and provide a really useful resource for the many animal lovers in South Africa. Please help us make this website the success we think it should be.