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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Practical guidance to improving animal wellbeing by changing human behaviour
Practical Human Behaviour Change for the Health and Welfare of Animals is the practical guide to helping people change behaviour for the welfare, wellbeing, and health of their animals. Grounded in evidence, this book enables readers to understand some of the underlying causes of human behaviour towards animals and deliver the crucial techniques and skills to help people make needed behavior changes. These techniques, including the use of the Stages of Change model, Motivational Interviewing (MI), and skilled Active Listening, support practical interventions for owner’s behaviors such as those around diet, exercise, weight control, and breeding; the text also supports professionals through difficult conversations such as euthanasia, hoarding, and giving up ownership. These approaches have been found to improve outcomes for animals as well as engagement with workers by owners. This way of working also reduces psychological burden on workers and help with job satisfaction.
To aid in reader comprehension, Practical Human Behaviour Change for the Health and Welfare of Animals is complemented by case examples, analogies, and exercises. A supporting website provides worksheets and resources to further support the reader’s learning and help put skills into practice.
Written by a highly qualified author with more than 20 years of experience in human behaviour change for animal welfare, the book discusses topics such as:
- What helps people change—and what doesn’t—covering traditional techniques that are less likely to help, and alternative methods that have been proven to support behavioral change in others
- Principles and key ideas underpinning motivational interviewing and active listening skills for motivational interviewing
- Structuring conversations with a focus, developing understanding of the owner’s situation and experiences, working with ambivalence, and supporting people to prepare for change
- Preparing for action via goal setting and action planning, supporting people to move into making changes and to maintain change in the long-term
Practical Human Behaviour Change for the Health and Welfare of Animals is a valuable resource for veterinary surgeons, veterinary nurses, and animal care providers; it is also highly useful for animal welfare and sanctuary workers, animal rehoming workers, and individuals working in health, environmental, and trading standards where animal welfare issues are encountered.
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Seitenzahl: 546
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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Table of Contents
Cover
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Preface
Introduction to the Contents and How They Might Be Used to Develop Your Skills
How to Develop the Skills Described in This Book
How to Use This Book
About the Companion Website
1 Understanding What Lies Behind Behaviours
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Behaviour Change Is Difficult
1.3 Frame of Reference
1.4 Humans’ Frame of Reference and How They See Animals
1.5 Conclusion
References
2 Behaviour Change – Traditional Methods and Other Ways to Support Behaviour Change in Others
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Traditional Methods Used to Try to Get People to Change Their Behaviour
2.3 Stealing All the Best Lines
2.4 What Has Been Found to Work to Support Behaviour Change: Behaviour Change for Human Health and for Animal Health, Care, and Welfare – Similarities
2.5 The Increasing Interest in Behaviour Change for the Good of Society
2.6 Conclusion
References
3 The Stages of Change Model
3.1 Introduction
3.2 The Stages of Change Model (or Transtheoretical Model)
3.3 Precontemplation Stage
3.4 Contemplation Stage
3.5 Preparation Stage
3.6 Action Stage
3.7 Maintenance Stage
3.8 Discord
3.9 Relapse or a Trip / Slip Up
3.10 Using the Stages of Change Model in Animal Welfare, Care, and Health Work
3.11 Conclusion
References
4 Motivational Interviewing
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Motivational Interviewing
4.3 Motivational Interviewing for Animal Welfare, Care, and Health
4.4 How We Listen
4.5 Philosophy of Motivational Interviewing – The ‘Spirit of the Approach’
4.6 Discord
4.7 Traps We as Workers Can Fall into
4.8 More about Ambivalence – Discrepancy
4.9 Working with Ambivalence Including Sustain Talk
4.10 The Principles Underpinning Motivational Interviewing: Motivational Interviewing – The ‘Spirit of the Approach’ or Key Ideas
4.11 How the Spirit of the Approach Transfers to Animal Health and Welfare Work
4.12 Final Thoughts on This Chapter
4.13 Conclusion
References
5 Active Listening
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Active Listening
5.3 An Active ‘Stance’ for Active Listening
5.4 Communication and How We Do It
5.5 Non‐verbal Communication
5.6 A Communication Model – Thomas Gordon
5.7 Use of Silence
5.8 Active Listening – Practice Like a World Class Athlete
5.9 Being Responsive in the Moment or Reflexive
5.10 Reflection‐in‐Action and Reflection‐on‐Action
5.11 Active Listening Skills for MI
5.12 Three Communication Styles: Direct, Follow, Guide
5.13 Active Listening – Specifically for MI
5.14 OARS – Open Questions
5.15 OARS – Affirming
5.16 OARS – Reflecting
5.17 OARS – Summarising
5.18 Stages of Change and Active Listening
5.19 Conclusion
References
Recommended
6 Finding Focus and Setting the Agenda
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Contact and Engagement
6.3 Agendas in Animal Welfare
6.4 Agendas in Animal Health and Care
6.5 Using MI for Engagement and Rapport Building
6.6 Agendas: Shared Agendas, Complimentary Agendas, or Opposing Agendas?
6.7 Matching / Mismatched Aspirations and Agendas
6.8 Working with Other Agencies or Other Workers
6.9 Focusing the Discussion: Agendas Not Goals
6.10 A Word about Having a Chat
6.11 Move from Multiple or Complex Agendas to Specific Agendas
6.12 Specific Agenda for a Consultation or a Visit
6.13 Agenda Mapping
6.14 Agendas – How They Help
6.15 Agendas and the Stages of Change
6.16 Conclusion
References
7 Three Structures to Understand Behaviours and What Change Might Mean
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Structuring Conversations to Aid Understanding
7.3 Timeline
7.4 Using a Timeline with an Owner or Client
7.5 Timelines in Use – Experiences from Welfare Workers
7.6 Typical Day
7.7 How to Use a Typical Day
7.8 Tips to Aid Typical Day
7.9 Further Reading
7.10 Exploring Importance and Confidence
7.11 Using Scales to Explore Importance, Confidence, and Possibly Readiness
7.12 Using the Scaling Questions
7.13 Importance (the Why)
7.14 Confidence (the How)
7.15 Readiness
7.16 Conclusion
References
8 Working with Ambivalence – The Key to Making Change
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Exploring Ambivalence
8.3 The Structure of the Exploring Ambivalence Framework
8.4 Current Behaviour / Situation
8.5 Changed Behaviour / Possible New Behaviour / Situation
8.6 Supporting Information for Using Exploring Ambivalence
8.7 Bear in Mind – This Is Not a Trick
8.8 Exploring Ambivalence Can Be Emotional for the Owner
8.9 Using Exploring Ambivalence in Difficult Conversations
8.10 Where to Next?
8.11 Conclusion
References
9 Supporting Preparation for Change – Envisaging Change
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Preparation Stage of Change
9.3 Envisaging Change – A Hypothetical Look Over the Fence
9.4 Inviting the Owner to Think Hypothetically About a Possible Change
9.5 Another Way of Supporting Envisaging – The Miracle Question
9.6 Asking the Owner What Advice They Would Give to Someone Else
9.7 Giving Information
9.8 Ask‐Offer‐Ask
9.9 Offering Information – Asking to Be Invited
9.10 Conclusion
Reference
10 Preparation – Setting Goals, Making Action Plans and Contingency Plans
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Goals
10.3 Goals Are Different to Agendas
10.4 Goal Setting
10.5 Goals and How to Support People to Formulate Them
10.6 Break Goals Down
10.7 Developing Action Planning and Contingency Plans
10.8 Using Avoidance Initially and Then Using Exposure
10.9 Action Planning
10.10 Contingency Plans
10.11 Questions to Support Conversations Around Planning Change
10.12 Contingency Plans and What May Get in the Way For People – What May Cause Trip Ups or Slip Ups?
10.13 A Model to Help in Problem‐Solving – Falloon’s Model
10.14 Regularly Reviewing Goals
10.15 Support to Build Confidence and Self‐efficacy
10.16 Goals for Welfare Issues
10.17 Conclusion
Reference
11 Supporting People to Move into Action
11.1 Introduction
11.2 When to Start a Behaviour Change
11.3 Supporting Resets
11.4 Supporting People When They Are Starting to Make Change and Moving into Action
11.5 People Need Practical Skills to Make Changes or Do What We Ask, Advise or Prescribe
11.6 Building Confidence for Action
11.7 Stages of Change
11.8 Keeping on Track
11.9 Habit Stacking / Chaining
11.10 Cue Card Prompts
11.11 Examples of Potential Cue Card Statements
11.12 Listing Achievements
11.13 Helping People Make Change – How They See Themselves in Relation to Behaviour Change
11.14 Self‐esteem
11.15 Self‐efficacy
11.16 Four Elements for Improving Self‐efficacy
11.17 Conclusion
References
12 Maintenance of Change and Beyond
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Maintenance Stage of Change
12.3 Why Support People Who Are in the Maintenance Stage of Change?
12.4 How We Might Support People in the Maintenance Stage
12.5 Supporting People to Develop Skills to Make Behaviour Changes
12.6 Return to Self‐efficacy
12.7 Early Warning Signs
12.8 Conclusion
References
13 Looking Forward
13.1 Introduction
13.2 How Behaviour Change and Motivational Interviewing (MI) Sits in Our Increasingly Complex World
13.3 Sustaining Momentum – Continuing to Use and Develop Skills in Using Behaviour Change Methods Including MI
13.4 Final Thoughts
Reference
14 Templates and Appendices
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Socratic Questioning (To Support Chapter 5, Section 5.14.3)
14.3 Example of Socratic Questioning – Using a Guiding Style with Socratic Questioning to Help the Owner find the Answer Themselves (See 5.14.3)
14.4 Chapter 6, Section 13: Agenda Template (Adapted from Miller and Rollnick 2013)
14.5 Chapter 7, Section 7.11: Importance, Confidence and Readiness Scales (Reference: Miller and Rollnick 2013)
14.6 Chapter 8, Section 3: Exploring Ambivalence Template (Adapted from Miller and Rollnick 2013)
14.7 Chapter 11: Goals and Contingency Plans
14.8 Chapter 11: Contingency Planning Template
14.9 Chapter 11: Task/Activity Recording Sheet
14.10 Chapter 11: Task Tick List
14.11 See Chapter 11 Box 11.11 for Information about How to Use This Self‐Efficacy Scale for Yourself
14.12 Chapter 12: Maintenance
14.13 Stages of Change and MI Strategies
Index
End User License Agreement
Guide
Cover Page
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Preface
About the Companion Website
Begin Reading
Index
WILEY END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT
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Practical Human Behaviour Change for the Health and Welfare of Animals
Bronwen Williams RMN, PGCHE, MSc
This edition first published 2024© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by law. Advice on how to obtain permission to reuse material from this title is available at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
The right of Bronwen Williams to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with law.
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of WarrantyThe contents of this work are intended to further general scientific research, understanding, and discussion only and are not intended and should not be relied upon as recommending or promoting scientific method, diagnosis, or treatment by physicians for any particular patient. In view of ongoing research, equipment modifications, changes in governmental regulations, and the constant flow of information relating to the use of medicines, equipment, and devices, the reader is urged to review and evaluate the information provided in the package insert or instructions for each medicine, equipment, or device for, among other things, any changes in the instructions or indication of usage and for added warnings and precautions. While the publisher and authors have used their best efforts in preparing this work, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this work and specifically disclaim all warranties, including without limitation any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives, written sales materials or promotional statements for this work. This work is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a specialist where appropriate. The fact that an organization, website, or product is referred to in this work as a citation and/or potential source of further information does not mean that the publisher and authors endorse the information or services the organization, website, or product may provide or recommendations it may make. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication DataNames: Williams, Bronwen, 1964– author.Title: Practical Human Behaviour Change for the Health and Welfare of Animals / by Bronwen Williams.Description: Hoboken, NJ : John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2024. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2023028997 (print) | LCCN 2023028998 (ebook) | ISBN 9781394178858 (paperback) | ISBN 9781394178865 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781394178872 (epub) | ISBN 9781394178889 (ebook)Subjects: LCSH: Animal specialists–Psychology. | Volunteer workers in animal shelters–Psychology | Animal welfare–Psychological aspects | Motivational interviewing. | Behavior modification. | Human‐animal relationships.Classification: LCC SF80 .W55 2024 (print) | LCC SF80 (ebook) | DDC 636.08/32019–dc23/eng/20231214LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023028997LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2023028998
Cover Design: WileyCover Images: © mgstudyo/Getty Images, © AzmanL /Getty Images
Foreword
The skills covered in this book – which were taught to me by the author – have had the single biggest impact of anything I have learned in over two decades working in animal welfare.
I have lost count of the number of owners I have spoken to about their horses through the roles I have held at World Horse Welfare over the past 20 years. I am office‐based, so my conversations have largely taken place over the phone, and these skills have proven invaluable in that context. Many of my colleagues, who have undertaken the same training, speak face to face with a huge variety of horse owners and other individuals on a daily basis. I have the privilege of a rare insight into the work they do, the challenges they face and the way in which so many of them have embedded these skills into that work in order to help horses – and their owners – as effectively as possible.
I first met Bronwen back in 2016 when she gave a fascinating presentation on animal hoarding behaviour to some of the World Horse Welfare team. Bronwen has a great depth of knowledge and experience to draw on: she is a mental health nurse with 42 years’ experience working in the NHS, volunteered in equine welfare for 30 years and has been a trainer of motivational interviewing for 22 years. I was privileged to be given the opportunity to complete a motivational interviewing course in 2019, delivered by Bronwen, which was primarily aimed at World Horse Welfare’s team of field officers. This approach has since become embedded within the organisation, as a number of colleagues across various roles and departments have been trained over the past few years, with more to come in future. I could not have predicted the profound impact that course would have on me and the way I communicate, not just with owners but with colleagues, friends, family and even with strangers. More recently, I have been fortunate to co‐train with Bronwen, delivering this training to others in the animal welfare world, and in turn have continued benefitting from her considerable knowledge. Bronwen would be the first to say that the skills covered in this book are no magic solution. They will not suit everyone, nor will they work in every situation. However, I have been amazed at the range of circumstances in which my colleagues and I have successfully used various different elements, and how it has helped to enable purposeful conversations in very difficult situations. The skills can be challenging to learn, and it takes work to embed them into practice, but for me and many of my colleagues, the outcomes have justified every ounce of effort put in.
Many animal health and welfare workers face the same regular frustrations. They encounter particular scenarios unfolding time and again with different people. They see owners repeating certain undesirable behaviours, despite the worker’s best interventions. Workers are sometimes desperate to share critical information but find their audience unwilling to receive it, or they might even have thrown their hands up in despair, feeling that, however hard they try, nothing they do makes a difference. Whilst we can all absorb this if it only happens occasionally, it can quickly build up and start to have a noticeable impact on the individual: the risk of compassion fatigue and burnout in the animal welfare world is widely recognised. However, I hope that this book will provide some insight into how you can build on your own significant, existing knowledge and experience by giving you fresh ways to approach these long‐standing difficulties. I have witnessed how these skills have not only helped to resolve welfare situations more quickly and effectively but also have been used peer to peer to facilitate better outcomes and allow constructive reflection on – and indeed, preparation for – difficult conversations and situations, therefore helping to mitigate some of this risk.
One of my colleagues remarked that, thanks to this training, she now has the ability to be able to handle any scenario that comes her way. Whilst she acknowledges that she won’t always have the right answer, she now has the skills to help people and to have a conversation about absolutely anything, and I know she is not alone in feeling that way. I hope this book will give you the same confidence.
Sam ChubbockHead of UK Support, World Horse Welfare
Preface
Introduction to the Contents and How They Might Be Used to Develop Your Skills
This book is designed to support anyone whose main element of their work is animal health, care, or welfare as well as those who come across animal welfare issues as part of their wider roles. You may need animal owners to make changes for the welfare of their animals, and perhaps for their own good and that of others or even communities and the environment.
It is designed to be accessible and suitable for all types of workers, including those employed in animal health, care, welfare, veterinary work, charities, rescues or volunteering, those having to enforce animal welfare legislation, and those in associated agencies who come across animal welfare cases such as environmental health, trading standards, and housing workers.
For all of us, changing behaviour is difficult. When we work with others, especially in animal health and welfare, we desperately need people to change their behaviours for the well‐being of animals. But behaviour change is not easy for anyone, and few people respond well to being told what to do and that they need to make changes.
No book can take the place of learning face‐to‐face, especially with the skills required for supporting behaviour change, including one of the main interventions described in this book, motivational interviewing (MI). However, it is hoped that working through the chapters will help the reader think about themselves as well as others, and about how we all make changes and then to consider what skills work and what don’t and how we can build on our existing abilities to support others to make changes.
This book is the culmination of several decades of teaching the intervention called MI to health and social care staff and more recently, to animal welfare workers. It has come out of the author’s interest in how human mental health can be affected, for good or for ill, by animal ownership or responsibility for animals. The author is a mental health nurse who has worked clinically in the NHS for many decades as well as an educator both in the NHS and in higher education and as an independent trainer for animal welfare agencies. She also volunteered as an equine welfare worker for over 30 years and used the techniques she teaches in that work.
MI was initially developed as an intervention for those with substance misuse problems and its use has moved into a number of other human health areas such as working with those with other addictive behaviours (e.g. gambling) and within smoking cessation programmes. It hadn’t been recognised as an intervention that can transfer across to supporting those who need, or are required, to make changes in their behaviour for the well‐being, welfare, and health of animals. As a mental health nurse trained in MI and then delivering training to mental health colleagues, the author found herself automatically using MI approaches and skills when undertaking equine volunteer work over three decades. Conversations about MI occurred with other equine welfare workers and the organisations that they worked for. Now, the MI training courses have been adapted and developed specifically for those who work with animal owners and carers. This book is based on, and supports, those courses. Much of the content of this book has come about through the experiences of teaching MI to a wide range of people, listening to how they go on to use it in their own practice, and also the author’s own human clinical work and animal welfare experience. Many of the examples given in this book are from those who have successfully transferred the ideas and skills to their own work.
Many people have helped the author along this road, not least as her co‐trainers over the years, especially Keith Noble, Beth Stranks, and Kelly Skinner, with whom many conversations have helped form or develop the ideas here and who are mentioned specifically in places in the book. Many people from the international equine charity World Horse Welfare have shared their experiences of learning and using MI in their welfare work and supported the development of MI in the animal welfare arena. Specifically, Sam Chubbock, who really ‘gets it’ and has been a co‐trainer as well as one of the author’s writing buddies. Also, Claire Gordon who first identified that the author’s ideas could be used within World Horse Welfare; and Tony Tyler and Roly Owers who supported this work and have been so enthusiastic about its use in the organisation. Finally, a friend, Ian Glass whose greatest support was just listening when it was most needed.
How to Develop the Skills Described in This Book
Throughout the book, you will find suggestions of how you might take elements, techniques, or approaches and practice them. Try finding willing friends, family, and colleagues to help you and who will allow you to practice with them. Almost everyone likes to talk about what they might change in their lives, especially their own health behaviour changes. This means that we can usually find people who will help us on our journey of learning about how to support others to make changes. But bear in mind that it can be very hard to practice with those closest to us. Often, we have a vested interest in a possible change, so sometimes family members especially, and others we are close to, can be more challenging for us personally than some of those we might come in contact with at work or in our other roles.
The ideas and approaches described in this book are not designed to manipulate people into doing what we want, so please undertake any practice openly and for the right reasons. That said, when we ask others for support when we are learning new techniques, very few will say no. I have had a few people report back after practicing some of the skills on their partners that it was not easy, even when the partner had agreed to help them practice. One student who decided to try the skills on their husband, but without telling him, had the response, ‘Why are you being weird?’ Although it was funny and made her colleagues in the training group laugh when she shared it, this demonstrates that people, especially those who know us well, will pick up very quickly that we are being ‘different’.
Therefore, look for opportunities to practice with people, be prepared to ask them for help in supporting you in using new approaches. People can be very generous in their time and help, so use it. I suggest you look for those who may aid you to practice the techniques in the early stages, who will work with you and are not as complex as some of your other work.
Many of us come to behaviour change and MI courses, literature, or a book like this looking for the key, or the magic wand, to resolving the most difficult cases or owners that we have. I suggest that instead, we start with those who will be slightly easier for us. I liken this approach to that of learning to drive. When we start out on our first driving lessons, we usually have a suitable smaller, lower‐powered car (some of us may have started out on ancient tractors). We wouldn’t put a learner driver in a high‐powered sports car. We give them a chance to learn with something that isn’t so tricky and is more forgiving to errors and adjustments. Therefore, I suggest you find people to practice with or to try out the skills with who are the least complex of your clients, owners, or friends and family. Learn with a Ford Fiesta or an Opal Corsa, not a Ferrari!
Get feedback from anyone you can find to practice with. Many of the suggested exercises in the book can be used with willing friends, family, and colleagues. But our greatest feedback can be from our clients and owners, so ask their views about what helped, what didn’t, and what they think we might have done differently. When asked, clients can be very generous with their help. Also, be realistic about what you can learn in a short period of time, and give yourself opportunities to practice, refine your skills and adapt the new ideas and techniques into your own particular style of working.
It can be, at the very least, disheartening and frustrating to feel that we are working with people who won’t or don’t do what we recommend or advise. Over time, this can wear any one of us down and affect how we feel about our role and its worth. The good news is that those who I have taught MI to over the decades, often report that they enjoy their work more, it is less stressful, and that they experience more job satisfaction and less friction with their clients and other colleagues.
Learning to use different methods to support others to make behaviour changes is in itself a behaviour change for us. Therefore, we need to use with ourselves the same approaches and attitudes described in this book when we endeavour to make changes and learn new skills. Everything takes practice, effort and thought and that is very much the case when changing our approaches and the ways that we work with others. Be kind and compassionate to yourself, be prepared to have a go, try out new ideas, and techniques and reflect when they work and when they don’t work so well. Be curious, and prepared for the unexpected. Find a little time to reflect on your practice. Perhaps even write down some notes or use a journal. As professionals, we all need to reflect on our practice. But, be balanced in your reflections, think about what skills you do already have, and how the ideas offered here in this book add to and build on those skills.
Remember, change isn’t easy for anyone. It takes time and effort, and we need to make mistakes in order to perfect our approaches and to develop. Working through the ideas, skills, and techniques in this book is no different.
How to Use This Book
The book is designed for you to move through the chapters, but with reminders of ideas and skills that were mentioned earlier in the book. Especially in the chapters that describe and outline particular techniques, it will be useful to return to them perhaps a number of times to refresh yourself with some of the underpinning ideas discussed earlier and linked to in that particular chapter.
One chapter that it is suggested you revisit most frequently is the active listening chapter, as this underpins everything else. Without the skills outlined in that chapter, helping others to change their behaviours is very unlikely to be successful. In our courses, we know that if we don’t include some active listening practice on day one, the rest of the course doesn’t go so well. We still do this with experienced human health clinicians, including mental health nurses, psychologists, and social workers who all know about active listening and usually have high levels of skill in this.
At the start of this introductory chapter, I said that this book doesn’t take the place of face‐to‐face training and learning but is designed to be as close to that as possible. Therefore, the moving backwards and forwards through the chapters allows you to build up layers of learning as you go. It has been written holding the reader in mind throughout and thinking of how the ideas can be best put across to help you and your clients get the best from your work.
Remember, if you are reading this book, it is very likely that you already have many skills and methods that work. Don’t forget the skills that you do have and what you get right. Although learning and adapting to some of the ideas and skills may not always be easy, they will compliment your existing skills, rather than learning a whole new way of being with people. Think of it as a way of honing your approaches. Be confident in what you already do and what already works, and hopefully, this book will assist you to get different outcomes with people that will benefit them, you and most of all, their animals.
Are you now ready to make some changes to how you work?
About the Companion Website
Practical Human Behaviour Change for the Health and Welfare of Animals
is accompanied by a companion website:
www.wiley.com/go/williams/human
The website includes:
Templates
1Understanding What Lies Behind Behaviours
1.1 Introduction
This chapter outlines some ideas that can help us understand why people may behave as they do. One idea, the frame of reference, can help explain and so aid our understanding about why people develop views, attitudes and underpinning beliefs and values that drive behaviours. Understanding someone’s perspective, or frame of reference, and how their situation came about, can significantly improve our knowledge of them and their world, thus aiding us to engage and help them. Through understanding, but not necessarily agreeing with or condoning someone’s behaviour, we can help them feel listened to without judgment. Enabling someone to talk about how they arrived at their current situation allows us, and often the owners themselves, to more fully understand their backstory.
1.2 Behaviour Change Is Difficult
We have all made behaviour changes throughout our lives. Some of these changes have worked, and we have stuck with them. Some haven’t, and we gave up and returned to old behaviours. Perhaps we have stopped, started, stopped, and then again restarted some behaviours. Thinking about the behaviours we have changed, those that were successful, and those that didn’t work out, or at least not at first attempt, gives clues about how change is neither simple nor straightforward for anyone. This includes changes that people need to make for the well‐being of their animals. People arrive in their current situation due to particular and unique experiences. People’s behaviours, including those that may need to change, will be underpinned by beliefs, values and experiences.
Box 1.1 Exercise
You might take a couple of minutes to think about behaviour changes you have made over time, even in your lifetime. Which ones stuck? Which didn’t? With what you know now, what would you do differently?
Beliefs, values, and traditions underpin much of how humans behave and often influence how they relate to animals in their lives. Understanding these and how they underpin behaviours, especially if people hold different values and views to ours, will be essential to supporting behaviour change for animal health and welfare. Owners, and others’, experiences are going to be important to help us understand them and to appreciate how they got to their current circumstances. Someone’s backstory is key: how they came to be where they are when we encounter them. Often, this backstory is much more complex, interesting, or unusual than we could ever imagine. We just need to ask in the right way and, more importantly, listen in the right way, to get an understanding of this backstory.
Box 1.2 Example – A Backstory
An example of this is a very moving backstory told by my colleague Jan about her neighbour, Mary. Mary could be somewhat irritating for others living in their close community. She often did things that appeared thoughtless to others, although she was recognised as being generally well meaning. Those living nearby, including Jan, were very amused by Mary’s anger when her plants were suddenly eaten by wildlife. Then, one day, Jan had the presence of mind to ask Mary why these particular plants were so important to her. Out came a backstory that was very unexpected, detailed, and so personal that the finer points were never shared with others, including me. As soon as Jan understood Mary’s reasons, why these plants were so important, she felt very differently towards her. Instead of being frustrated and joining in with other neighbours who found Mary’s upset funny, Jan now understood Mary’s position. She could empathise greatly with her, and their relationship deepened and was much more tolerant from both sides. One simple enquiry – stopping to ask the reason why something was important, getting the individual’s backstory – and everything changed.
In the world of human psychological work, seeing a situation or an issue from a completely different perspective is known as a ‘cognitive reframe’. Those who need to change their behaviour to improve the well‐being of their animals often need to undertake a cognitive reframe or experience a change of perspective. I suggest that this also needs a cognitive reframe from others, including us as workers. We need to have professional curiosity, put our default perceptions to one side, and attempt to find out why something is happening to understand the other person’s experience.
Box 1.3 Example – A Paradigm Shift
Stephen Covey, in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, tells a story of when he was on a train on a Sunday morning. All was peaceful until a man and his out‐of‐control children entered the carriage. While the kids ran riot, disturbing everyone’s peace and quiet, the father seemed totally unaware and unbothered, much to the irritation of the other passengers. Eventually, Stephen Covey spoke to the man, drawing his attention to the way his children were behaving. The man then roused himself and apologised and said quietly that his wife, the childrens’ mother, had just died in the hospital, and that he and the kids didn’t know how to handle it. In that moment, Stephen Covey’s whole perspective changed and his concern became focused on the bereaved family, what he calls a ‘paradigm shift’ – when a person sees a situation in a completely different way.
Whatever title we give this – ‘paradigm shift’, ‘a cognitive reframe’, or ‘understanding the person’s backstory’ – whenever we can do it, it makes a huge difference to the quality of our engagement with someone and how we can work with them. It allows us to be more patient, understanding, and empathic. We don’t have to agree with what they think or do, but we can get alongside them and be more effective. It can also mean that the work and any interactions can be easier for us as workers. Understanding and having empathy is hard but it is a lot easier than being the recipient of anger, frustration, and general annoyance from the person we are trying to work with.
A welfare colleague I was teaching described a response from an owner when they were called out to a welfare report, and which perhaps demonstrated a different and unexpected view. The owner, whose animals had no welfare issues, said, ‘It’s good, isn’t it that someone cares enough about animals that they ask for their welfare to be checked?’ What a great example of a very different view of the world!
We all have our own perspective or lens through which we see the world, and this is what we will look at in this chapter, along with what may support the development of our perspectives.
Box 1.4 Exercise
Take a couple of minutes to think about the cases in animal health, care, or welfare you have seen over your time working or volunteering in this field. Think about a couple of specific cases in which owners of animals had very different views, beliefs, or values from you and from the organisation you work for. They may have been small things or very big differences. Which ones come to your mind right now? How did you manage these? What impact did these differences have on your working relationship with those individual/s?
1.3 Frame of Reference
Where do people’s beliefs and traditions originate from, whether these are general or specifically about animals? A model called the ‘frame of reference’, first coined by Schiff and Schiff (1975), suggests that we all have a complex set of assumptions and attitudes which allow individuals to assess and build meaning which creates a unique view of the world. This underpins how we see ourselves and everything else in the world. It gives us a ‘filter on reality’ or a lens through which we see things. The old adage of someone being a ‘glass half‐full or glass half‐empty’ type of person may be an example of a basic view on the world. If you are a glass half‐full person, you tend to see the best in a situation, life and people, and a glass half‐empty view of the world would be more pessimistic about life events and situations.
There is a saying about seeing things ‘through rose‐tinted glasses’; when one has a tendency to see situations in a positively biased way or by putting a warm and comfortable gloss on issues. The reality is that we all see the world, ourselves, and others in it through our own ‘tinted glasses’, but rather than being of one hue (rose coloured or otherwise), the world is viewed with very complex layers to our ‘glasses’.
Depending on our beliefs, views, and current emotions as well as our backgrounds and experiences, our ‘tinted glasses’ or frame of reference will cause us to interpret reality, situations, and other people in a unique way. Our frame of reference may therefore be very different to other people’s views, or interpretations of a very similar experience, issue, or event. Even those with whom we are closest – family, siblings, partners, spouses, friends, and colleagues – may interpret, experience and respond to something very differently from us.
This unique, complex lens on the world, our frame of reference, will affect how we make judgements, how we understand the world, ourselves and other people. It will impact how we view animals including those we own and those belonging to others. It also affects how we act or behave.
This frame of reference is developed by many things. The diagram below shows experiences, events, and individual traits that build an individual frame of reference or colours the lenses in our glasses through which we look at the world.
Box 1.5 Exercise Part 1
Spend a little time, if you would like to, thinking about your life experiences and what may have influenced you to see the world as you do, your frame of reference. You might want to make some brief notes in the form below if that is useful.
Next, consider if any of these factors from the frame of reference impact your view of animals? Has anything influenced you to do the work that you do with animals? Make a few notes in the last column against each of the areas
Some factors that may influence our view or frame of reference of the world
Notes about your own experience that may impact how you see the world
Notes about your own experience that may impact how you view animals
Inner circle
Values
Spirituality
School / education
Middle circle
Further education
Travel
Work experiences
Achievements
Outer circle
Family situation, size, etc.
Relationships and friendships
Gender
Place of birth and Early childhood
Age
Aspirations
Hobbies and interests
Likes and dislikes
Cultural influences
Box 1.6 Exercise Part 2
What do you make of this exercise?
What stands out when you look at or think about your answers or notes in each area?
How might these be different from those of your closest friend, your partner or spouse, or even a sibling?
How do these experiences impact the way you act and behave in the world and the decisions and judgements that you make?
Box 1.7 Exercise Part 3
Now reflect on your beliefs, values, and attitudes towards animals and animal ownership (those you own and those others keep). Think about your beliefs and attitudes towards how animals should be fed, how they should be kept, and how they are used to work for humans or for food and other products. Lastly, think about your beliefs, values, and attitudes regarding the death of animals. Do you have views on euthanasia? Where do these beliefs and attitudes about euthanasia come from? Have these changed over time – if so, what influenced the changes?
1.4 Humans’ Frame of Reference and How They See Animals
Each of us hold beliefs and values about animals and yours may have influenced your decision to work in animal health, care, or welfare. Your behaviour will be underpinned by a very individual and unique frame of reference, or view of the world. Many experiences and events, such as the areas outlined in the frame of reference, will affect how humans relate to and interact with animals (Dodman et al. 2018).
Let’s look at each of those areas from the frame of reference again in a bit more detail and about how this might be for people who own animals.
1.4.1 Inner Circle of the Frame of Reference
Let’s start with the inner circle. Values, spirituality, and education, all of which can develop very early on in life, can be very personal but evolve due to our experiences and the impact of other people upon us.
Values: Our values often come right from our earliest experiences in life. Whether or not life was good when we were children, helps form our values. People who were influential when we were young will significantly impact on our values about, and views of, animals. We all take on the values of those most important to us – our families; our communities; our spiritual, cultural, and religious experiences. Values may be re‐evaluated and adjusted in adolescence and again in adulthood. Sometimes, as Serpell (2004) discusses, values and beliefs about animals can be held over many generations, even after they are no longer relevant or useful. As humans, we can therefore inherit some or even most of our values about animals that may have come from many generations before. These may be outdated and no longer appropriate, yet difficult to let go of as they form part of our history, identity, and feelings of connection and belonging.
In animal health and care work, when we need people to change their behaviours, it is important to explore, understand, and appreciate the beliefs and values that underpin their actions and decisions, or their lack thereof. This is the same no matter which country or continent we live and work in.
Spirituality: Spiritual perspectives on life and on animals may be formal and come from religions and cultures, or they may be personal, formulated by our thinking and own life experiences.
School/Education: Early education will probably lay the foundation for how we are able to access and develop in further and higher education. Animals and our relationships with them, in our early formative education may develop our views. Animals do tend to appear in stories and tales, modern and old. For example, The Bible has animals in it. Fairy tales have many animals, often as central characters, and many to be afraid of. Some schools have pets or some farmed animals such as chickens, to allow students to look after them and appreciate where food may come from.
1.4.2 Middle Circle of the Frame of Reference
Further Education: For many people, this may be minimal, or something that they did not experience at all. Further education usually means mixing with, often living among, people who may not have come from the same or even similar backgrounds as us. This allows us to widen our experiences of the world, sometimes through hearing other people’s experiences or sharing our day to day lives with them. Further education teaches us to be more analytical, more critical, to question, and to change the ways in which we think and reason.
Serpell (2004) mentions that scientific developments and research can change how humans see animals. However, people need support through education and perhaps further education in order to become critical thinkers, and to take on what evidence scientific information presents, especially if it is completely different or at odds with how they have been brought up and to what they have been practicing for many years.
Travel: The ability to travel may be very limited in some of the communities you might work with, and for others, travelling experience may be much more extensive. Some people may not have had opportunities to be exposed to alternative ways of living, thinking, and working with or keeping or interacting with animals.
Work Experiences: Animals may feature in people’s work lives in a variety of ways including farming, the leisure and tourism industry, pet and companion animal industries, conservation and wildlife, animal welfare, transportation, environmental and trading standards, pharmaceutical and other testing, butchery, food and other manufacturing, assistance animals, and working animals such as dogs and horses in the police and armed forces.
Cultures within work settings may impact upon an individual’s frame of reference. People may hold particular views about, or attitudes towards, the animals they work with. These can be very different to how they view those they may have at home, such as companion animals. Work environments may mean that people have prolonged exposure to particular ways of treating animals, that then become the norm for them.
Achievements: What we have achieved, or aspire to achieve, can affect how we view ourselves and others, and the world as a whole, including the animals within it. For some, competing against others may be a way of aiming for or obtaining achievements. For some, activities such as breeding and showing animals can bring a sense of achievement. This may lead to welfare issues if the individual puts more value on the achievement rather than animal welfare. This can be seen in the breeding and animal showing world, when breeding is done in the pursuit of producing the winning animal, the one who will be held as high value by others or who may make or reinstate the breeder’s reputation and social standing. This type of breeding for achievement, described as ‘chasing the one’ (Williams et al. 2020) can result in animals who do not meet the required standards being discarded as ‘waste’ products.
1.4.3 The Outer Circle of the Frame of Reference
The Family Situation / Size: The position a person is born into within a family, the eldest or youngest for example, may affect how they see the world and their place in it. The need to secure an income and resources for the family may be a key part of someone’s life, especially for men in many cultures. A sense of responsibility for siblings or other family members or gender expectations and roles within a family will influence an individual’s frame of reference. We can inherit our family’s behaviours and beliefs about animals, but the unique experiences for each of us due to our place in our family and its dynamics can create differences in frames of reference even between siblings. Added to this, when animals are part of a family situation, whether as companion animals, farmed, hunted or as working animals, this will have an impact on how they are viewed and treated.
Gender: Our gender, and what it means to us – how we were treated as a child and growing up – may influence how we view the world. An example of this was an owner of a number of animals who came in contact with animal welfare workers. She had married young, had been expected to have children and did so, having a number in quick succession. This owner didn’t want her animals rehomed as she was worried that the female animals would be used for breeding by those in her culture. This very personal experience led her to not want a similar life for her animals.
Relationships and Friendships: Relationships and friendships help form our frame of reference. Experiences with fellow humans can drive how people choose to keep or how they treat their animals. Peer pressure and requirements to fit in with a group or community can influence how we see the world. This may encourage people to obtain and keep animals similar to those which are owned by friends to enable them to be accepted into a group. This can happen with reptile keeping, for example. Other examples may be young men who obtain horses or ponies when they are living in urban areas without the appropriate environments for equines. Other people may choose to keep particular breeds of dogs which fit with an image that their group has and which they want to portray to others.
Groups that support people with young animals can have a significantly positive impact on the treatment and management of animals by new owners. An example of this is puppy training courses. More problematic may be groups of young adolescents who influence each other to seek out and torment or harm animals. An individual might not have done this on their own but may take part when they are part of a social group and experience peer pressure.
Place of Birth and Early Childhood: Birth and how children are raised, especially in the very early years, will have a huge impact on their frame of reference. Attachments with primary caregivers are formed in the first two to four years post birth. These attachments set the template for how an individual will build relationships and connections with others throughout their life. Attachment patterns may also inform how people build relationships with animals. These may drive some to have overly close bonds or intense feelings for animals leading to problems for them, for others, and for the animals involved. An example of this may be a person who won’t allow an animal to be euthanised even when it is very necessary and is in the animal’s best interests. Another example could be those who keep inappropriate numbers of animals, causing welfare issues, including cases which could be considered to be animal hoarding.
Childhood abuse is increasingly recognised as a significant factor in how individuals develop and the few who go on to abuse animals. If people have experienced violence such as beatings as children, then it is very possible this effects how they see the world and they feel that they too need to use such behaviour.
However, others may decide that they will not behave in the same way as adults did with them. They may choose to do something radically different, but they will still be influenced by these early experiences. Monty Roberts might be an example of this. Roberts is a well‐known American horse behaviourist. In one of his books, he described how he felt he was treated by his father in ways that were very similar to how horses in the USA were treated and traditionally ‘broken’ by using harsh and cruel ways in preparation for being ridden. Roberts says he decided that he wasn’t going to behave in the same way, rather he was going to use different methods (Roberts 1997). This led him to pioneering new ways to work with horses and becoming internationally well known. He and his wife Pat also went on to foster 47 children, bringing them up very differently to the parenting he experienced. This is an example of how early experiences do not set in stone how we will behave – those experiences can be used to develop and hold a very different frame of reference than the one we were brought up with. However, it is recognised having a trusted adult in our lives as we are growing up will usually be the key to how well we thrive. It doesn’t have to be someone obviously significant or with whom we spent a great deal of time – see the example below.
Increasingly, research on the impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences, or ACEs, demonstrates the increased risk of developing problematic behaviours throughout life (Bellis et al. 2014), including violence towards both humans and animals. ACEs, can have a profound neurological impact as brain development in childhood can be impaired by high or chronic stress. This may have consequences on an individual’s ability to regulate their emotions, on their cognition or thinking, their memory and learning and upon how they to relate to other people. I suggest that this may, for some people, lead to particularly strong attachments to animals and for others, difficulty in the managing, organising, and planning that is required for good or appropriate animal care. For others, it may cause difficulties with impulse control leading to the acquisition of more animals than can be cared for, managed, or afforded. ACEs can create difficulty in managing emotions that may result for some in violent and cruel behaviour, including to animals.
Box 1.8 Example – ACEs
An example of adverse childhood events (ACEs) was that of a health professional I was teaching who told their story of having a sibling close to them in age. They ended up with very different lives: one a professional, happy and stable; their sibling the opposite. They both experienced ACEs at home as children. There was one simple but hugely impactful difference the settled professional experienced, which her sibling did not. She had a best friend at school whose family accepted her, welcoming her whenever she went around, who gave her somewhere safe to go, and to experience being a part of ordinary family life.
Age: Our age will change our frame of reference. Children see the world in certain ways, not always accurately, which changes as they learn to be more independent of parents or primary carers and move into adolescence. We know that teenagers’ brains undergo massive redevelopment in adolescence. Whilst this is happening they are more likely to take risks, be impulsive and less able to assess the harms and benefits of certain actions. During adolescence young people often become self‐absorbed and can have difficulty in understanding or recognising the needs and feelings of others, and this may include animals at this point. Adolescents are also likely to imitate others’ behaviours. As they move into adulthood, all this usually settles down and they regain and develop abilities to be empathic, manage impulsivity and assess risk.
Older people may have a different view of the world and how they and others fit within it. They can be more aware of their own mortality. For example, interestingly, research shows that older owners of companion animals may have less difficult grief reactions when an animal dies than adolescents (McCutcheon and Fleming 2002).
Aspirations: Human aspirations may be simple. Perhaps, to have a better life for oneself and one’s family. Obtaining money may be the main way to making that better life possible for many. Therefore, an individual’s aspirations will inform their frame of reference. If animals feature in these aspirations it can affect the ways in which they are treated. Aspirations may be linked to achievements as outlined earlier; people may use their animals in an attempt to make their aspirations bear fruit in the form of achievements. Some of my work has looked at equine welfare cases which involved multiple animals. In some cases those breeding, operating studs, and others, were often ‘chasing the one’ (Williams et al. 2020) and for many, their aspirations were not realistic. Countless animals could be harmed in the process of their attempt to attain something that was just not achievable.
