Courses Taught:

Applied animal behaviour - ANSC*4090
Co-taught with Dr Lee Neil
This is a fourth year undergraduate course which deals with why animals behave as they do with reference to causation, function, ontogeny and phylogeny.  Basic principles are illustrated by examples taken from agricultural, lab., companion and zoo species.  Ways in which animal keeping systems may be improved by applying behavioural knowledge are discussed, and strategies for designing animal facilities and management procedures to suit the behaviour of the animals are also considered.  Students' projects for this course involve designing an educational poster on an applied behavioural issue, and writing individual papers on the science behind this topic (in groups of four, each student tackling one of Tinbergen's 'four whys').

2008 Winners: Why dogs bark (PDF), What's the dam problem? (PDF), and Shark Attack! (PDF)

2007 Winner: Saving your bacon (PPT)

2006 Winner: I think my parrot has a crush... (PDF), Runner up: Mine! Possessive aggression in dogs (PDF)

Selected topics in animal welfare  - UNIV*6030
Taught 2005-2007
This graduate course is an interdisciplinary forum for the discussion of research topics in animal welfare. Selected topics will be analyzed in depth, via currently on-going research seminars open to the whole university community. The seminars are given by diverse speakers, including international visitors, from animal science, zoology and psychology; and registered students have additional time with these speakers in an informal class setting.  Students are also encouraged to attend psychology/zoology seminars in other departments and neighbouring universities. The aim of the course is to encourage lateral thinking about animal welfare research topics and methodologies, and deeper thinking about experimental design, hypothesis-testing and the other processes involved in research. Here are the top 3 papers written by the class of 2006: Caretaker ratings, Episodic memory, Free Stalls in Dairy Cattle.

Special Projects: the scientific assessment of animal welfare - ANSC*6100
In this graduate course, students explore the biology and validity of the various behavioural and physiological techniques used in welfare assessment: in particular,. sympathetic activation, HPA functioning, stereotypic behaviour, and preference responses. For each topic, there will be a lecture by the instuctor, followed the next week by a discussion of 3-4 key papers, and rounded off in a third week by student presentaions of examples where the measure in question seemed to yield a valid index of welfare, and examples where it did not.