Genetics and Behavior During Handling, Restraint, and Herding - Genetics and the Behavior of Domestic Animals - page 142

manner had smaller flight zones and entered a milking parlor more quickly
than cows handled in an aversive manner. It is extremely important that an
animal's initial experience with a new handling facility be as positive as pos-
sible. If the animal's initial experience is aversive, it may become difficult to
induce the animal to re-enter the facility ( Grandin, 1993 ). The second author
had an experience with a horse that hit its head the first time it backed out of
a horse trailer. This one incident caused pain and fright and the horse
remembered it. Following the incident, the horse learned to enter the trailer
quietly, but during unloading he continued to rush out of the trailer quickly.
It was almost impossible to train the horse not to back out of the trailer
suddenly.
Training Highly Reactive Animals by Introducing
Novelty Gradually
Highly reactive animals can be conditioned to cooperate during veterinary
procedures such as injections ( Grandin et al., 1995b ). To summarize the
results of this study (discussed in detail in Chapter 1), adult antelope at the
Denver Zoo were trained to accept routine blood tests and their cortisol
remained at baseline levels. This showed the antelope were not fearful
( Grandin et al, 1996 ). The training was done in small, incremental steps over
a period of weeks, and great care was taken to avoid triggering a massive
flight reaction. For instance, when the antelope oriented and froze during
any small change in the procedure, the procedure was stopped. Each day
new procedures were gradually introduced until the antelope habituated and
no longer oriented. However, it is very important not to confuse taming
effects on adult animals with changes that take place in the nervous system
of young animals after handling. When the trained nyala were suddenly con-
fronted with something not encountered during training, their true nervous
system reactivity was displayed and they reacted with explosive fear reac-
tion. Bongo antelope trained at the Denver Zoo had low (almost baseline)
levels of cortisol when voluntarily standing in a box to have blood drawn
( Grandin, et al., 1996 ). Training experiments with pronghorn antelope show
high specificity of their perception. Pronghorns trained to stand and receive
an IV injection in the neck would remain calm and quiet because they had
been carefully habituated to this procedure. When a student attempted to
give an injection in the shoulder, they went berserk. An injection in the
shoulder was novel and scary and an injection in the neck was familiar and
safe ( Grandin and Johnson, 2010 ).
In contrast to the highly reactive nyala or other reactive herd species,
training placid animals such as Hereford cattle or Suffolk sheep to accept
novel procedures can be done quickly and habituation to non-painful proce-
dures can occur even when the animals are pushed beyond the orienting
response. However, if a highly reactive animal is trained too quickly and has