Good evening, everybody, and welcome to tonight's webinar. My name is Bruce Stevenson and I have the honour and privilege of chairing tonight's webinar. Before I start, running through any housekeeping and our esteemed guests, I just want to say a huge big thank you to our sponsors, Verback.
It is their generous sponsorship that has allowed us to bring you this, webinar free tonight. And, so, yeah, as I always say, let's support those that support us. So, Thank you to Verback.
For those of you that haven't been on a webinar with us before, we are doing it slightly differently tonight, in that the main presentation has been pre-recorded. Long story, I'm not gonna go into that now, but you may notice in the beginning that there's a slight asynchronicity between, lip movements and, and voices, but it does settle out after a very short period, so bear with us for that. If you do have any questions, we have both of our presenters on live tonight.
Hi, Daniel. Hi, Oliver. Hi, yeah.
And they are, with us tonight to answer questions at the end. So despite us having a recording of the presentation, they are with us. And if you have questions for them, just run your mouse over the screen, you'll see that a control bar pops up.
It's normally at the bottom, a black bar. Hit the Q&A box, and then type in your questions there, and we will keep those over to the end, and we'll get through as many of those as what we possibly can. So our speakers tonight, our first speaker is Professor Daniel Mills, and he's an internationally recognised pioneer and authority in the fields of companion animal behaviour, cognition, and welfare.
With more than 3 decades of research experience, he serves as the professor of veterinary behavioural Medicine at the University of Lincoln, where he has also led the Animal behaviour, Cognition and Welfare Research Group. Professor Mills holds the historic distinction of being the UK's first specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine to be formally recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. His profound impact on the scientific community is underscored by his inclusion in the top 1% of sighted scientists globally, according to Stanford University's research database.
Can't wait to hear from Daniel. Our second presenter is Oliver Painter, and Oliver graduated from the University of Nottingham in 2019 and achieved both a Certificate in Advanced Veterinary practise, Cert AVP as we know it more commonly, as well as a Master of Veterinary Science. He now bridges the gap between frontline clinical practise and the commercial advantages and advancements shaping the future of animal health.
In his role as field veterinary adviser for Verback, Oliver brings this vision to life by translating complex scientific findings into actionable insights for practising veterinarians, ensuring they have the evidence-based support necessary to optimise patient. Outcomes. So welcome to both of you guys, and we will chat to you at the end, but if we can have the recording, please.
Hello. As veterinary surgeons we have to deal with stress in animals every day, but it's one of those areas we're not taught much about at vet school and even less so probably about behaviour and how to use pheromones. My name's Daniel Mills and I'm professor of veterinary behavioural medicine at the University of Lincoln, where I've been working over 30 years in studying animal behaviour and especially their reactions to pheromones and understanding animal emotion.
And in this presentation, I want to take you through some core principles on how we can more effectively manage stress in the animals that we encounter on a day to day basis and help to improve their quality of life and also the quality of the clinical care we provide. So in this presentation, I'm going to introduce you to a quiet revolution that's happening in the field of veterinary behavioural medicine. What's known as the psychobiological approach.
This is an approach we've been developing over the last 30 years or so. Traditionally in the field of behaviour, it's been fairly confused and inconsistent. We can say broadly speaking, there have been two approaches that have been followed.
There's the medical model, which is more like a human psychiatry, where people tend to label any behaviour problem as a disorder and they focus on the use of medication to treat that disorder. The other approach known as the behavioural model is perhaps more favoured by trainers where the emphasis is much more on animal training. In the psychobiological approach, we take the best of both of these approaches, but put it within a broader biological framework.
And what we've created is a very systematic framework that demystifies a lot of the problems that you can encounter when dealing with behaviour. So stay with me during this presentation and hopefully I'll introduce you to a much clearer way of being able to manage not just behaviour in general, but the stress on a day to day basis in the animals that you deal with. So in the psychobiological approach, there are 3 elements to the diagnostic process context, motivation and emotion.
And I'm gonna go through each of these in turn. Each of these are important, and in the psychobiological approach, there is a clear mapping from the diagnostic element into treatment. So it's important to understand what we mean by each of these.
So let's start first of all with the idea of what we mean by context. Context is when and where behaviour occurs. And this is important when it comes to thinking about interventions because the context limits the scope of what we, where we need to intervene.
It might assess things like the risk assessment if we understand the context in full detail. Often when a client presents with a behaviour problem, they may describe a very broad context. For example, they may say that their pet reacts whenever they encounter anything unusual.
But with a little bit of further history, we can often narrow this down and get a more specific context and then identify perhaps where we need to intervene in more detail. So it's important that we understand, let's say what the context is and we can define it. Not only do we need to know when and where the behaviour occurs, we also need to understand where it doesn't occur.
Cos that's just as important for defining the limits of the context. Next we need to consider motivation. Motivation refers to why an animal does a specific behaviour.
So what's the immediate goal that the animal gains from the behaviour? So for example, if an animal runs away, that behaviour is reinforced by a sense of safety afterwards. So the motivation is to flee in order to achieve safety.
That again, maps through into what we consider about interventions, we may want to change the motivation for a particular behaviour. But perhaps more importantly, and what historically has not been given as much emphasis is the importance of emotion. And emotion is not the same as motivation.
Emotion is a much more global brain state. When we have emotional changes, then not only does our behaviour change, but a range of other things change as well. So emotion could be thought of as a more broad brain state.
It has an organisational function and helps us to prepare for broad action. It doesn't drive behaviour in itself, but rather it creates certain behaviour tendencies. It gets us ready for the right sorts of behaviours associated with that emotional state.
And I'm going to go through this in more detail. In some situations, we may want to change the motivation for a specific behaviour, but more often than not, we want to change the general emotional state of the individual. And when we start to talk about stress in animals, then it's important that we think about emotional states.
Because stress is a very broad term. It doesn't really say exactly what's going on in the animal, other than perhaps it's difficult to cope with the situation. But the way we cope with fear is very different to the way we cope with frustration.
So understanding that emotional difference is important if we want to target our treatment. And this becomes particularly relevant when we start to think about the science of pheromones. Because there's a lot of misinformation about pheromones perhaps based on ideas that are over 50 years old, and we've moved on a lot in the behaviour sciences since then.
Not just in terms of pheromones, but also in our understanding of how behaviour occurs. So in summary, emotion and motivation have a hierarchical relationship in the brain. We wander around the world taking in information, and that creates emotional changes in us.
That gets the brain and the rest of the body ready for different types of change. What we actually do, well, that's the subject of motivation. So just to illustrate the point about how our knowledge has changed.
Historically, pheromones were studied in relation to insects, and they were thought of as chemicals that released certain behaviours. One of the early pheromones that were studied was sex detractant in moths. Believe it or not, the sex attractant in this moth is exactly the same as the sex attractant pheromone in Asian elephants.
Now there's no way that a an Asian elephant is going to confuse a moth with a female. Clearly that doesn't make sense. So pheromones aren't just releasing behaviour.
If you've got a cloud of moths, you're not gonna suddenly find that a male elephant gets sexually excited. So, so what is going on? Well, we really need to understand how behaviour is regulated in mammals, and it's quite different to insects.
And even the simple idea of a stimulus response in insects is perhaps an oversimplification, as we've come to realise that they're capable of quite sophisticated behaviour. So we really need to understand behaviour in all its complexity. At least a little bit if we really want to learn how to use pheromones effectively or deal with any behaviour problem.
Mammalian brains are really complicated. Indeed, it's been estimated that the human brain takes in about a billion bits of information every second. That's a massive amount of information.
However, when we use that information, we work at a much slower rate. Indeed, our actions tend to use about 10 bits of information per second. And things like recognition, so recognising me in this picture or recognising that the animals with me are a cat and a tortoise, we can probably operate at about 50 bits per second.
So there's a massive reduction from a billion bits of information a second down to about 50 bits per second. How does the brain cope with all of that? Well, this is where emotions are really important.
What they do is they take all of that information and very quickly sift it for anything that they think is relevant and then start to get the body ready for appropriate levels of response. And that's what emotions do, they have an organising effect on us. And as part of that, they do prepare us for certain types of action, but behaviour is just one part of what emotions do.
So let's go through what's known as the five components of emotion. So within the emotion literature, we talk about five components of emotion. Cognitive, neurophysiological, motivational.
Motor and experiential, we're gonna go through each of these in turn. The cognitive part of emotion. Is how our brain changes in terms of the information that we access and how we see things in certain emotional states.
So for example, if we're scared, we tend to focus on things like safety. Things like food become less important. This is why the, the dog that's very scared in the veterinary clinic may well refuse a food treat.
However, if a dog is uncertain about a situation, it may well accept the food and say, ah, this person is a good person to be with. So the cognitive element is about accessing memories and also how we evaluate this situation. The second component we talk about is the neurophysiological component.
This relates to the arousal that happens as a result of emotions. And basically what happens with an emotion is that we can have a very quick change in our physiology because a lot of the initial arousal occurs through changes in the nervous system. But that also switches on various hormones, things like cortisol but also oxytocin and various other hormones as well.
And this is why emotional states persist even after the trigger has gone. So for example, if something really annoys you, you may get quite frustrated at the situation. But if that thing then disappears, you don't suddenly feel OK.
It takes a while to calm down. Likewise, if an animal is stressed by going to the vets, then they're not going to immediately calm down the minute they're out of the door. Because the hormones are still in in the body's system, so it takes time.
In an emotional response, the arousal often scales with the intensity of the stimulus, so we see higher levels of arousal with bigger stressors. The 3rd component is the motivational element of emotional arousal. These are the behavioural tendencies that we tend to show in certain emotional states, and they vary from one emotion to another.
So for example, if an animal is scared, we tend to talk about fight, flight or freeze. These are 3 different behavioural tendencies. The emotion doesn't determine which one the animal does, that's the role of motivation.
But emotion sets those predispositions and says that we're more likely to do one of those three rather than do something like eat. So it changes the bias in what we want to do at a given time. The 4th component of emotion relates to motor expression.
This is how we communicate how we're feeling in a given state. So for example, the dog that is scared will show a number of recognisable signals. The tail will be tucked, the dog may be cowering.
Factors like this help others understand how the animal is feeling and how to respond appropriately to them. And finally, there's the experiential element. Unlike the other four, we can't measure this directly.
We can only infer it. But actually how the animal is feeling is really important if we're interested in the animal's well-being. Indeed, if we think the animal is stressed, we're we're interested in that because we're concerned about how the animal is feeling about the situation.
The other 4 elements though, can all be assessed, or at least inferred by careful evaluation of the situation. So, for example, we can hypothesise how the animal might be reading the environment around it and how it might be seeing the world around it. That would relate to the appraisal element.
We can look for signs of arousal, things like dilated pupils, panting, factors like that. We can look at the behavioural tendencies, we can see what the animal is trying to do in various ways. It might try one thing and then another.
Together they create a behavioural tendency. And finally, we can look at the animal's body language in order to understand how it might be feeling at any given time. From an evolutionary point of view, there are 3 broad functions that we need to consider survival, acquiring resources, and reproduction.
And so we emphasise different emotions associated with those broad biological functions. Now I'm not saying they are the only emotional systems that exist in an animal, but they're the ones that we consider most important from a clinical behavioural point of view. So they're the ones that we tend to refer to a lot.
So in the case of survival, probably think of things like pain and fear. Fear helps us escape situations that might be threatening. Whereas pain gives us time to actually recover when our body has been damaged.
And then there's a third emotional system relating to attachment. This is that sense of safety and security. And this is particularly important when we start to think about some of the pheromone products that we'll talk about in a little while.
Next we consider the emotions that are associated with resource acquisition, and there are 4 emotions there. There's the obvious one of how we seek information or key resources, and the emotion associated with that we often refer to as seeking or desire. However, sometimes there are barriers to getting those resources and we have to do something about removing those barriers.
That's what we call frustration. Thirdly, sometimes in order to be successful in getting resources, we're better off working with others, and so we form bonds with others. This relates to the emotions of affiliation.
But sometimes we might be in a relationship and realise that that relationship is costing us more than it's benefiting us. So there is another emotional system associated with the breaking up of a social group, and that's what we refer to as repulsion. And finally, there are two emotions associated with reproduction.
There's what we call lust, which is obviously associated with things like courting and reproduction itself, and then there is the care system. So we have these 9 emotional systems which are 9 different ways of operating. But how we feel at any given time is a blend of all of these.
Not only can we distinguish between emotions in terms of whether they're associated with resource acquisition, reproduction, or survival, but we can also distinguish between emotions on the basis of whether or not they're social or non-social. And this is important because actually in social situations, things are much more complex. Indeed, one of the big drivers of brain evolution is the complexity of social situations.
So imagine a dog that is protecting a bone. In that situation, the dog is protecting a simple resource, the bone. And we would say, from an emotional point of view, that the dog is frustrated if somebody tries to take the bone away.
But in place of the bone, imagine the dog is with puppies. And somebody goes to approach the puppies. Now, we might want to say that the dog is frustrated in the same way.
But actually, because the puppies are there, the dog is operating under the care system. And the rules of frustration and engagement vary as a result. So a bitch that is protecting her puppies will take many more risks than a bitch protecting a bone.
She may also escalate the confrontation much more. So it is important to distinguish between which of the nine emotional systems that the animal is operating in, and whether it's social or non-social. Likewise, if you have two males competing for access to a female, then the rules they follow are different.
So frustration isn't just about protecting a resource. When we talk about simple frustration, we often mean in relation to a non-social resource. When there's a social resource involved, then actually different rules govern the behaviour.
And this can explain why a bitch who may be very relaxed most of the time when she comes into season and then has a false pregnancy may become quite aggressive as she protects the slippers as part of a false pregnancy. So let's go through each of these emotions in a little bit more detail. First emotional system that we'll talk about is desire or seeking.
This happens when there are signals of reward. That can be information or it could be a physical resource that the animal is after. So for example, a dog that is looking for a treat, we would say is in a state of desire or seeking in that situation.
However, if expectations are not met, then the animal may become frustrated. Or if the animal is trying to control some sort of resource. So things like territorial behaviour are actually linked to frustration.
One of the things that is commonly misunderstood is that when an animal is denied access to a resource, people think, well, isn't it just that the desire system works harder? But actually the body changes quite a lot when it's denied access. It doesn't just seek more desire, it actually tries to remove the barriers, and that's the important distinction here.
So whereas desire is associated with exploring the environment and sampling the environment, frustration is associated with a much more narrowed focus of attention and in removing barriers to that situation. Frustration can arise in any situation where the animal's control is reduced or the animal's expectations are not met. So that could be something as simple as as touching the animal, cos that could predict restraint.
Of course touch might also be associated with fear and it could also be associated with pain. So the context alone is not gonna tell us which emotion the animal is feeling. Other key spatial barriers that trigger frustration is invasion of the animal's personal space.
So in the case of a dog, we think that approximately 2 metres around the dog is their normal personal space. And if you walk up to an unfamiliar dog, you'll often notice that when you get within about 2 metres of them, you see some small change in their behaviour. They might turn their head away, they might yawn, they might start blinking.
And that's because you're moving into their personal space. The third spatial boundary around the animal that can trigger frustration is the territory. As humans we often think of territory in terms of the physical features, the sort of boundaries, the fence around our home.
But actually for cats and dogs, boundaries may, not only be physical, but they can also be, mobile as well. So a dog that is, territorial may be territorial of the car when you take the car out. It's not just the property.
All of these responses are associated with the emotions of frustration. Likewise, if the animal is unsure what to do and in a state of motivational conflict, then we tend to think of it as in a state of frustration. For example, approach avoidance conflict, where an animal perhaps wants to approach their owner, the owner is holding a grooming comb that the dog doesn't like, then they may step forward and then step backwards.
That's indicative of conflict and would indicate that the animal is actually frustrated. Then there are frustrations associated with unmet expectations. So for example, if a dog sits and normally gets a reward, and then doesn't get a reward, then it may get frustrated.
Likewise, if you ask a dog to sit and you make it wait longer than it would normally expect, then it will get frustrated. It will go from that excited anticipation into the more negative state of frustration. And finally, in some situations it can be that if the dog expects a particularly tasty treat and you give it just an ordinary piece of kibble, then it will get frustrated in that situation.
So you can see there's a variety of different contexts in which frustration can occur, but they all relate to the animal either not being able to execute motivated behaviour or, Having limited control over the situation. Next, let's take a look at fear. Fear arises when an animal feels a threat to their survival.
It's different to pain. Pain is very much associated with avoidance of unpleasant sensations, and I'll come to that in a little while. In the case of fear, then the animal perceives that there is a, a present threat or there might be a threat.
What's important to appreciate here, it doesn't matter if there is a real threat, cos we all live in our own worlds, in the case of fear, it's how the animal is viewing things. So an owner might think that there's nothing for the animal to be worried about, but if they show signs of fear, then they are in a state of fear. And we have to appreciate that they have their own lived experiences, and that will shape how they view the world.
In the case of pain, it's not so much about survival as about recovery. Pain is there to stop us doing things that can actually slow the healing process. If our tissues are damaged, we need to immobilise them in order to speed healing, and that is one of the functions of pain.
Now obviously we can use painkillers and it's important to use painkillers when an animal is uncomfortable, but we need to make sure that we support their speedy recovery at the same time. We often talk about an animal having a fear of pain, but this is more a sort of colloquial use of the word fear, and we shouldn't confuse that with the emotional state of fear as I've described here. If you think about it, whenever you go to use the word fear, could you insert the word anticipation of?
Because often we use the word fear in English to mean we think something bad is going to happen. And that's different to using the word fear in the context of describing the emotional system, which is very much focused on survival. So when we think about fear of pain, we're actually thinking about the animal anticipating pain.
So our focus should be on pain rather than fear. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't treat the anticipation element of it. But it means that the strategies we use are focused on pain and the anticipation of pain rather than on survival.
Finally, in the list of non-social emotions we have attachment. And attachment will also feature in the social emotions. Attachment is associated with the sense of safety and security, and we can get that from the physical environment as well as the social environment, where we feel safe and secure.
And again, this is where the pheromones can be really important. We'll talk more about that later on. Attachment can also be considered a social emotion.
We often think about infants being attached to their mother, because the mother provides safety and security. We also commonly use the word attachment to describe any close bond, but actually from an emotional point of view, we make that distinction between those bonds that provide safety and security versus those bonds that provide other important outcomes. So for example, affiliation, which is about working together, or lust, which is about reproductive.
So again, we've got to be careful with how we use the language in a technical sense versus how we might use it in a more everyday sense. So in the case of social attachment, it's about the support provided by others, Social support in effect. In the case of an infant, we tend to think about the support provided by the mother who protects the infant.
She not only provides them obviously with key resources, but more importantly, she keeps them safe and secure. That's a role that's taken on by the average pet owner when they take on a pet. So it's important for owners to act as attachment figures, i.e., providers of safety and security.
And this is why it's important for owners to only use reward-based methods in training rather than use aversives. Because if you sometimes punish your pets physically, how do they know that they can feel safe and secure with you? I already mentioned there is another type of emotional bond, that associated with affiliation.
One of the most obvious ways in which this is expressed is through play. If you take two unfamiliar dogs, 9 times out of 10 or even more, within a few seconds they'll be playing with each other. Dogs are incredibly social, and they have very sophisticated social skills.
In the case of cats, it's a little bit different. Cats vary enormous in their sociability. And so for cats, they can get stressed by another cat's presence or they may wish to engage in play with them.
And if we see them playing together, then in those situations, there's a good chance that they're forming some form of social bond. From an evolutionary point of view, we recognise the fact that these attachments form because social groups bring certain advantages. We can use affiliation to improve welfare in a variety of ways, and this is why we often encourage owners to play social games with their pets.
That sort of reciprocal interaction, where one takes the lead and then the other, can be good for strengthening the bond. Just as emotions underpin the social bonds that animals form, then emotions are involved when those bonds breakdown, and that's when we refer to the emotions of repulsion. Finally, let's consider the two social emotions associated with reproduction.
The care and the lust system. The lust system underpins all the behavioural tendencies associated with the opportunity to reproduce. The care system likewise governs a whole range of behaviours associated with caring for young, making sure that they succeed and survive into adulthood.
So if we now revisit the issue of stress, hopefully you can understand how different emotions create different forms of stress. Just labelling something as stress is perhaps rather vague, and it means that our interventions will also be non-specific. Whereas if we can define the stress in relation to specific emotions, we can be more targeted in meeting the animal's needs in order to help it cope with that particular stress.
And this is important at several levels. First of all, by defining stress in terms of the emotions, we can see how the animal is appraising the environment and start to formulate ideas about what the animal actually needs in order to cope. And that's an important part when it comes to managing stress, thinking about coping.
So stress isn't just about how you feel in relation to particular emotions, but how well you feel you can actually cope. So it might be that a particular stimulus is very intense, but if you feel you can cope with that, then actually it's less stressful for you. So this is again why it's really important that the bond between the owner and their pet is a strong bond and a helpful, healthy bond.
Owners are really important in providing social support, and so acting as a buffer against stress. Indeed, one of the things that is important as a sensitive carer is that an owner acknowledges the stress, but doesn't make a big fuss over the animal at the time. So they need to stop what they're doing and perhaps indicate that something scary has happened, but not make a big fuss out of it, not make it a bigger issue than it is, and then show through their own behaviour that actually things are not as bad as their pet might actually fear.
So when it comes to managing stress, there are general measures that we can do, things that can generally support the individual, but if we analyse the actual nature of the stress in terms of the emotions, we can also offer more targeted support. And this is where learning to use pheromones in a more targeted way can be very helpful. Rather than just thinking of them as things to use when the animal is stressed, we need to ask ourselves what is the type of stress that is involved.
And pheromones can be really important in this regard. I'll explain more about that later on. But first I want to revisit the issue of behavioural control.
Remember the, I mentioned earlier about the same chemical being involved as a sex attractant in Asian elephants and a certain species of moth. So we need to understand a little bit more about the control of behaviour if we're going to learn to use pheromones more effectively. Traditionally, people tend to talk about behaviour in terms of stimulus and response.
Well, that's the sort of control system that is involved in a reflex. But even in a species like a moth, behaviour is more than just a reflex, there is some central control of behaviour. That's one of the functions of the brain.
In its simplest form, we can think about motivational systems so that certain types of stimuli perhaps affect which behaviour an animal chooses to do. However, when we start to think about the more complicated species and more advanced species like mammals, then actually we have to start thinking about those emotional systems. And emotions act as that philtre.
Creating certain biases in behaviour and then motivation determines what the animal actually does. And this is important when it comes to understanding how pheromones actually work, cos pheromones represent a piece of information that is of particular importance from an emotional standpoint. So pheromones provide animals with emotionally important information.
Commercially, a number of pheromones are used in order to help manage stressful situations. And if we think back to what I've been saying about the emotions, it should become clearer which product may be useful in a particular situation. Broadly speaking, In cats and dogs, the commercially available products can be divided into what are known as the peasines, which are based on chemicals produced by the mother shortly after giving birth, that provide a sense of safety and security to their young.
So involved in the emotion of attachment. And then there are the facial pheromones from the cat. These seem to be involved in protecting resources, and so are actually linked to frustration.
So we have a group of pheromones associated with attachment and so provide a sense of safety and security and thus can be really useful in managing fear and related anxiety. And we have a group of pheromones associated with protection of resources. Now that protection of resources can itself be associated with anxiety.
If an animal feels insecure, so for example, other individuals are invading its territory, then those facial pheromones can help provide reassurance in the face of those sorts of threats. So whilst we think of the pheromones as primarily involved in terms of attachment and frustration, they have an important role in anxiety in several different forms. And by mapping back to the individual emotions, it should become clearer which product would be more useful in a particular situation.
So by using a psychobiological approach, we can gain a deeper understanding of issues like stress by breaking it down into different emotional elements. What I want to do now is bring this together and show how this impacts on how we can actually manage stress more effectively. And there are 6 steps that we often use in managing stress.
And just like the psychobiological approach provides a framework for understanding emotions, these 6 steps provide a framework for understanding how we can manage stress more effectively. And you can select which measures you like according to the type of stress that you think the animal is facing. So let's start with the first of them, creating predictability.
So the first of the strategy involves creating predictability. It may be that the animal has a particular issue with being able to predict a particularly stressful event. Or perhaps the general lack of predictability is what is stressful.
But in either of these cases, or if there's another form of stress, increasing routines can actually help the animal cope. It does this by reducing uncertainty. So things like regular feeding, walks and rest times all help to reduce uncertainty about the environment.
Likewise, having predictability in your relationships can reduce social stress. So knowing who you can depend on and who you need to avoid can all be very helpful. You might think of having to avoid an individual as being stressful, but if you know that you have to avoid them and you have a way of avoiding them, then actually a lot of that stress is taken away.
Likewise, offering choice and control can help reduce stress. It may address a specific issue. So for example, an animal may not know whether or not it has control over a situation, or it can be of general importance to the animal to increase its general sense of agency in the environment.
One of the things that is particularly important to pets is knowing that they are safe and secure and in control of that. And this is why the provision of a safe haven is particularly important. Thee zones can be really important in this regard because they're pheromones that signal safety and security.
So give the animal that sense of control over their own safe environment. If we now turn our attention to enrichment, we need to think more than just about providing enrichment in general terms. We need to think about the particular challenges that it actually addresses.
Too often you hear people say, well, provide the animal with enrichment. But the question needs to be asked, what needs are you actually addressing and how are you addressing it? If we focus that on particular emotions, we can think about whether or not certain enrichments are important.
So for example, Does the animal need more social interaction, in which case social enrichment will be important, but if they don't, it's irrelevant. Some forms of enrichment address particular needs, so for example, providing high resting places are a form of enrichment to help cats when they might feel insecure. However, in other situations, enrichment is perhaps more general, and particularly in the case of pets, one of the challenges they may have is how do they occupy their time.
Providing enrichment for pets at home is particularly important. Because actually a lot of their needs are met, and so they want to spend time exploring and learning about their environment. So it's not just about providing a complex environment, it's about providing a stimulating environment that changes.
So this is why we rotate the toys for a dog on a regular basis or perhaps play with a cat in different ways on different occasions. So we have to have a balance between. The predictability, but also a degree of uncertainty, so there are good things to learn about.
What's important is that the enrichment is is within the capacity of the individual, that we don't overtax them. But we give them something that is stimulating and interesting, not something that is too stimulating and stressful. I've mentioned several times the importance of social relationships to animals.
But it's important that we appreciate the individual. We don't make generalities about dogs being very sociable and cats not being so sociable. Some cats are highly social, some like to be individuals, and the same is true of dogs.
It's perhaps less variable in dogs, but we should give special attention to the social needs of the individual if we wish to manage their stress. In this regard, carers have a particularly important role. They need to ensure that they are seen as a reliable source of information and a reliable source of social support.
Next we need to consider the importance of building positive associations. Building positive associations is really important for building resilience. It can also be a lot of fun.
Animals need to learn through reward-based methods how to acquire certain resources and the rules of living successfully with other individuals, both humans and other animals. We perhaps underestimate how valuable it can be to use our voice rather than treats, cos our voices vary an awful lot. It makes things less boring and predictable for the animal when they've done well.
We can also build positive associations by just simply giving animals time to process the information. It doesn't have to all be based on treats or verbal praise. In a novel situation, just simply giving the animal time to process it and feel comfortable in the situation can be really important.
And again, this is where the pheromones can be really useful. In novel situations, they're lacking information about whether this is something safe or whether this is something that is threatening. By using a pheromone, we help to create a bias in the animal's mind towards accepting novelty.
And that can reduce a lot of stress in many different ways. Finally, we need to think about the physical health of the individual. This is important at many different levels.
One level we need to think about the fact that if the animal is diverting resources because of illness, then it's got less resources to cope with the psychological stresses it may be under. We also need to recognise the link between physical and mental health in terms of stress-related illnesses. So if you're presented with an animal with recurring problems, especially issues like recurring cystitis in cats, atopy in dogs, occasional diarrhoea in dogs, then we need to ask ourselves, well why is the animal having this recurring problem?
The chances are that there are important stressors that are not being addressed. So pain and illness are important stressors and so it's important that animals receive regular veterinary checks for health. And we need to think not just about the overt illnesses but also even minor ailments that can add to the overall stress load.
So in this presentation, I've tried to introduce you to the psychobiological approach. How it structures the diagnosis of behaviour problems and provides a deeper understanding of stress and stress related issues. There are a number of ways in which a psychobiological approach can help us.
First of all, instructuring our assessment in terms of context, motivation and emotion. Secondly, by looking at that emotion in terms of different systems and what their function are. And then by applying that to the idea of stress and anxiety in order to pinpoint what it is that the animal actually needs.
By doing this, we can also understand how pheromones can work. We understand that behaviour is not simply a a response to a given stimulus, but the outcome of an animal's assessment of the situation and the information it's got available to us. Pheromons are not just ordinary information, they're information of particularly importance from an emotional standpoint.
I've used that framework to describe 6 strategies for managing stress more effectively. And I hope that this framework you can take back into clinical practise to improve what you do on a day to day basis. Thank you for your attention and I'm very happy to take any questions.
Hello everyone. Thank you so much for tuning in as we focus in on a fantastic way to support our pets and their behaviours. My name is Ollie.
I'm one of the veterinary advisors here at Verback. As part of a veterinary team, I know we share a deep clinical appreciation for the complexities of companion animal behaviour. Our nurses in particular are so often the frontline champions of fear free handling in the clinic and educators on how to navigate these struggles at home.
Yet whichever member of the team you are, every interaction a pet has with us shapes their experience, and every piece of guidance we give can fundamentally alter that animal's quality of life at home. So in this short session, we're going to explore the practical evolution of pheromone therapy. We'll look at thoughtful design and patient focused delivery and how that can help bypass traditional compliance roadblocks, allowing us to achieve a true Zen effect.
To understand where this evolution begins, we first have to address the clinical iceberg that is behaviour. When caregivers talk to us about pets stress, they're usually only looking at the tip of that iceberg. They tend to recognise behaviour as a problem only in its visibly disruptive nature, such as manifestations of inappropriate elimination or vocalisation.
But we know there is a lot more to the clinical picture than meets the eye. These silent indicators of stress are often incredibly easy to miss, quietly persisting in the background long before any visible escalations. Think of our hypervigilant dog in the waiting room, the subtle sleep disruptions they can have, or a cat that is socially withdrawn from its environment.
By proactively managing these subtle below the surface stresses, we get a major clinical advantage. By intervening early, we aren't just safeguarding a patient's daily wellbeing, we are actively helping them build long-term emotional resilience. Keeping their underlying baseline calm and non-reactive ultimately makes every veterinary visit and home interaction a far more positive experience for everyone involved.
Each one of our pets has their own personality, of course. What is astonishing is that when we look at the population as a whole, up to 85% of dogs are known to be affected by behavioural problems. Even more eye-opening is that a staggering 98% of cat owners report being aware of behavioural problems with their own cats.
This is a truly hidden epidemic, illustrating exactly why finding a seamless way to support our pet population is so important. So When we look for ways to support these pets, one of the most elegant, non-invasive tools we have at our disposal is pheromone therapy. We all know pheromones, but let's step back and appreciate just how beautifully targeted this system is.
Unlike oral options that require systemic absorption and metabolic processing, pheromones bypass all of that. They are detected by the homeronasal organ found in the roof of the mouth, sending a direct signal straight to the amygdala, the emotional centre of the brain. It is a completely natural subconscious pathway for species-specific communication.
Whether it be dog appeasing pheromone to mimic maternal comfort, or the F3 facial pheromone that cats use to mark a secure territory. We are essentially tapping into pre-existing biological language of reassurance. So, why choose Zenny?
While pheromone science itself is incredibly well established, we know that the real key to clinical success is compliance and continuity. It ultimately comes down to how effortlessly it fits into the daily rhythm of a busy household or indeed busy clinic. Introducing the Zenni diffusers.
Both Zeni Dog and Zenifell embrace true passive simplicity. They use an innovative patented gel matrix that relies entirely on natural evaporation to spread the pheromones. Think about how much easier this makes things, both in your own clinic and for your caregivers at home.
No plugs, no heat, and no electricity is required. You have total freedom of placement. You can put it exactly where the pet actually spends their time, next to a cat tree in the waiting room or right beside a dog's bed at home.
As the air naturally moves through the room, the gel steadily releases the pheromones, providing consistent coverage over a massive 70 square metre area. And best of all, it lasts for 60 days, which is twice as long as standard 30-day plug-in diffusers. That means a full 2 months of uninterrupted support from a single silent device.
And just a quick practical tip for you, because this relies on passive evaporation, the gel will naturally shrink over time, but it will not completely disappear after those 60 days are up. Well whenever a new delivery mechanism lands on the veterinary market, I think we all catch ourselves wondering the exact same thing. This sounds great in theory, but does that translate to real world results?
And it's a completely fair hesitation, we always want to ensure that what we recommend actually works. Now if you look at these head to head comparison curves tracking stress scores over a full 60 days, the data is incredibly reassuring. The lines for our gel diffusers and the market leading electric plug-in are practically overlapping, demonstrating that this passive format delivers the exact same high standard of trusted clinical performance.
In fact, the onset of action is very prompt. By day 7, we already see a remarkable drop from baseline stress levels. Yielding an 89% reduction in signs of stress for Zeny dog and an 80% reduction for Zenny fell.
That gives us complete confidence that within the first week, owners can expect to see a noticeable improvement in classic stress-related markers. Now, let's look a little closer at ZeniL specifically. Verback has created a truly brilliant, innovative synergy whereby alongside the synthetic F3 facial pheromone, Xenifel contains catnip extract.
Thinking about catnip in practise, our minds usually jump straight to that classic image of a cat rolling around and engaging in intense play. So it naturally makes you wonder how an ingredient like that fits into a framework designed to promote a calm, relaxed state. As an olfactory stimulus, napetalactone causes a natural biphasic response.
While there is a brief initial phase of active interest, it is reliably followed by a very profound, relaxed resting phase associated with pleasure and comfort. If you think about managing feline behaviour at home. One of our most rewarding achievements is gently encouraging a timid, hypervigilant cat to interact with their environment rather than hide away.
Also, peer reviewed studies have shown that pairing F3 pheromone with catnip acts as a wonderful positive attractant. It actively entices more cats to explore the space containing the analogue, ensuring they quickly receive that reassuring pheromone message. By bringing the F3 facial pheromone and neattalactone together, we achieve a beautiful synergy that amplifies the overall efficacy and helps cats feel truly secure in their surroundings.
Moving over to our canine patients. We know that supportive care often needs to be completely mobile. Think of a puppy navigating those first socialisation interactions or a dog travelling on family holidays.
A home device is a fantastic foundation, but a dog's life isn't just spent indoors. We want to maintain that same steady reassurance the moment they step out the front door. That's exactly where Zeny dog collar fits into the toolkit.
From a practical perspective, the standout feature here is its exceptional longevity. Utising a slow release technology, a single collar provides a full 3 months of continuous support. Because a lot can change over 90 days, especially if we're supporting a growing puppy in their development.
This design has completely accounted for that. The collar comes in two distinct sizes, and both feature a highly practical, adjustable buckle with a built-in keeper loop. So as that puppy grows, the same collar can easily be re-lengthened and secured to maintain a perfect comfortable fit.
OK. We have covered a lot of ground today, so let's finish off by taking a moment to recap the range as a whole and how they represent a practical evolution that can make a tangible difference. Starting with Zenidog.
Here we have a dual approach in delivering the dog appeasing pheromone analogue. The passive electricity-free gel diffuser for continuous environmental support in the home. Paired with the 90 day collar for completely mobile on the go reassurance.
So whether a dog is dealing with localised home stresses or external challenges like visiting us at the vets, Zeno covers them both, wherever they may be. For our feline patients, the Xeniel range is built around the F3 feline facial pheromone to mark a secure territory. And let's not forget the innovative catnip synergy.
Just as with Zeno, we mirror the structural versatility for cats. We have the continuous 60-day gel diffuser, which complements the rapid acting spray for immediate, highly targeted situations. And to make these products even more practical for your consulting rooms, this quick reference guide simplifies exactly which product to use and when.
For chronic ongoing or multi-pet home stresses, such as introducing a new baby, moving house or multi-cat friction, the Zeni diffusers are your absolute foundation. They establish that baseline environment of peace. For localised or predictable stress events, we look to the portable options.
The Zeni dog collar is ideal for dogs struggling with crate training, socialisation classes, outdoor noise issues. Meanwhile, Xenifal spray is the ultimate solution for carrier stress, car journeys, or even preparing to visit us at the vets. Ultimately, our goal in behaviour management is always to make supportive care as accessible, affordable and sustainable as possible for the modern household.
By removing physical barriers, extending the lifespan of the products to support real world compliance, and delivering proven pheromone therapy, the Zeni range allows us to achieve that true Zen effect. It's a win for the carer, a win for the veterinary team, and most importantly, a win for our patients. Thank you all so much for your time today and for everything you do to champion low stress care in your practises.
Please ask away if you have any questions, equally if you want to start elevating your pheromone gain, please do get in touch with ourselves or your local Verback territory manager. Thank you. Guys, that was absolutely fantastic.
It's, it's just, Daniel, the work that you have done on this is, is incredible, and personally for me, I have had a, a bit of an epiphany tonight about how detailed these things are, despite how simply you made it and explained it to us. So, thank you so much for that. I really do appreciate that.
Thank you. It's quite a lot to pack in in 40 minutes, but that it is recorded so people can, obviously listen back, to the content. Absolutely, and I think that is really, really important, folks, to remember that we have recorded this, and it will be up on the webinart website, in the next 24 or 36 hours, and then you can go back and you can rewind it and, and rewatch it, and you can pause on those wonderful graphs and the, the, the multiple steps, that Daniel was passing out.
Yeah. Before we take any questions, I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Verback, for their generous sponsorship, and Oliver, to thank you for, touching through the products and, and explaining them to us and how easy it is to not have to plug something in. So that's absolutely fantastic.
Daniel, I'm not sure this is specifically for you or whether, Oliver wants to jump in, but there've been a couple of questions about, catnip and the use of catnip, as being almost overstimulating and that. Is it safe to be using in these cases? I think, Oliver, you did touch on that to a large degree, but, either one want to jump in here?
Yeah, I'm happy to jump in. So yes, obviously when people think about the catnip response, they think of the cat rolling around and being very active. What we know about the neurochemistry of catnip is actually it seems to release a lot of the chemicals in the brain associated with reward.
And I think just to pick up on Oliver's point in the presentation, so what that potentially does is that helps, you know, synergize that positive effect. So not only are you providing the safety and security, but you're also getting the reward system kicking in. And you know, we live in a world where we can be optimistic or pessimistic, and you'd predict that the inclusion of the catnip will actually add a sense of optimism and so make the animal more resilient in dealing with potential stressors from that point of view.
There's no data that I'm aware of to indicate that cats actually become more frustrated in relation to the catnip, in the way that it's used in these NFL products, . I've not heard of any reports or seen anything in the scientific literature if people. You know, feel otherwise, then I'd, I'd be very interested to look into those cases in more detail, but I've, I've not seen any or heard any reports.
I, I don't think that's too different to us, you know, if we have a, something go wrong during our day, if we're in a positive mindset when it does go wrong, we tend to cope better with it than, if it goes wrong and we're in the doldrums on the day. It seems like it's a greater catastrophe. Yeah, and I think one of the, the important points here also is that a lot of these animals are hyper aroused.
And what are you gonna do about that high level of arousal? And if you channel it into more positive, active, you know, you, you can, if you feel your heart is racing, you can think, oh, I'm having a great time, or you can think, oh, you know, I'm really anxious. And, you know, things like the Calib are more likely to create that bias towards interpreting that, those signs of hypervigilance in a more positive way as well.
So you, you're actually creating some resilience in that, in that sense as well. Yeah, fantastic. Oliver, I think this one is for you.
You mentioned, in your presentation there that most of these cases start working within 7 days and you're getting those 80, 85% responses. There's a question coming in from Rachel. When a client says, oh, I've been using it for X amount of time and it hasn't worked, how do we kinda handle that and how long should we give it before we decide that in this particular case, it's maybe not having a beneficial effect, that we can see.
Yeah, I, I, I think it's a great question and I think it's that, we don't look at pheromones as the, the, the panacea, the, the cure-all to, to everything when it comes to behaviour, there are so many aspects to, to look at and what Daniel has, has touched upon today just gives us that a, a, a great insight into the detail we should be looking for in terms of why are these pets stressed, and we just say stress is an overall umbrella term, but. Where are they stressed, where are they not stressed, diving into those details can really help work out why or why not we may think a product is working or not working and actually going into that we can then better evaluate what is the next best step going forwards. I think that's, that's my summary anyway, Daniel, whether you agree with that summary, no, I, I, I, I think it's a good point and I'd just like to come in as well.
Because, I think the first, the first thing I would say is lots of owners think they're using pheromone products. I, I think this touches on a question that is there already. And unfortunately, when you look at the ingredients, they're not actually anything to do with pheromones.
They are just purely plant-based products, they're not based on the, the, the secretions. So, and they might even have the word pheromone on the package. So you want to go make sure that you know what product they're actually using before they just dismiss and say, well, they've tried pheromones, it's not worked.
What is the product, you know, and in XenFL you have a reliable, a reputable company behind it. So you can, you need to check on that. The key thing to appreciate is sort of, sort of take-home messages.
First of all, so when it comes to the, appeasing pheromones, then we're asking about is providing the animal with greater sense of safety useful in this situation. Now, the reality is, if there is something that is really clearly terrifying. A chemical message that says, well, you might be safe is not really gonna overdo it.
What are you gonna believe? You're gonna believe your eyes or your nose? So, you know, so.
They've got to be used and, you know, in a sensible way. They're part of the information that they pre that the animal processes and they have an enormous effect, especially when there is uncertainty, you know, that's novelty in particular prevention, I think we grossly, underuse pheromones in those contexts to help develop resilient individuals in the first place. So it may well be that the animal needs some additional support.
In the case of the, feline facial pheromone, we're basically saying sort of, well, is the animal feeling a threat to its resources? And again, that's quite different to whether or not the animal feels that there is a personal threat to themselves being attacked and bullied by another cat, for example, you know, again, how much is the chemical message, so. Using them, you know, I've, I've been working on these for 30 years and using them appropriately, you can see really big effects.
And that's why you just have to go beyond just saying, is the cat stressed or is the dog stressed. You need to think what type of stressor is it? What support does the animal need, and, you know, again, just refer people back to those six stages, where it can be useful and actually you can then potentially achieve, you know, quite a lot.
Absolutely. So I think the, the answer there is go back and watch this webinar again and again and again, before you start blaming that the, the pheromones are not working. We are running very short of time.
I do have two questions that I'd like to pop in. One is for you, Oliver, and that is from Fiona asking where the products are available, and specifically, she's asking, are they available down under in Australia? Good question.
As part of the BA I only cover the UK, so I can only give assurances that it is available in the UK. That is something I can, I can look up and get back to Fiona if that's the best way to give you the answer on that, cos I do not know that off the top of my head in my brain. I think the the best thing there is, is to let them, contact their local Verbak supplier and find out.
And, if they don't have a local Verback supplier, then email in to you guys, and I'm sure one of your very helpful staff will be happy to support them in in finding that out. Exactly. Daniel, this last one that we have time for tonight, and I'm sorry we're not getting to all the others, there are a lot of questions there.
But Daniel, you, we're talking about using these for the benefit of patients and in clinics and everything else. If we have a consult room that is not dedicated to one species, which one do you choose or do you put both in? Will that work or will it do harm?
Yeah, absolutely. I use both. They don't interact, they don't cancel each other out.
So use both. Fantastic. That's, that's great to hear.
Folks, I really am sorry that we are not getting to all the questions. I'm gonna be a little bit cheeky here and suggest that maybe these questions can be emailed over to both Oliver and Daniel and ask them if they wouldn't mind responding so that nobody loses out because it has been a fascinating topic with loads and loads of learning, and I do encourage all of you to go back and watch this recording again. I know I will be because I'm sure there are lots of things that I missed while I was sitting thinking, wow, I didn't know that, and Daniel kept talking.
So let's all go back and watch it again and then, as I say, my cheeky side will ask one of our wonderful webinar vet team to get these questions through to both of our presenters tonight for some insight there. No problem. Excellent.
Thank you for that. Sorry for putting you on the spot. It is my pleasure to once again thank Verback for their generous sponsorship tonight, for, making it possible to bring us this webinar.
Oliver, to you for attending to explain, as you did the use and everything else, and then Daniel, what can I say? That was absolutely brilliant, and, I would love to hear you back on the webinar, Bette, again, sharing your insight into this fascinating topic. So thank you both.
Thank you. To all of you that attended tonight, a huge thank you from myself. If it wasn't for you, the webinar vet wouldn't exist.
To my controllers in the background, both Beck and Amelia, thank you so much for making everything work, and from myself, Bruce Stevenson, it's good night.
