This badge signifies completion of the course Animal Training that Transforms and Measures Emotional Welfare by Barbara Heidenreich presented at the 2023 European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) annual conference.

Animal emotions, being private events, are a topic that has been difficult to directly evaluate in the world of animal training, welfare, and behavior. However, Goldiamond (1979a) identified that emotions are private outcomes of different contingencies. This means that when contingencies are altered, emotions can be changed (Layng, 2017).  This can guide animal training interventions to focus on addressing contingencies to transform overt emotional behavior and the associated covert private emotions. This presentation will provide examples of how this powerful strategy can be used to measure behavioral responses in animal training programs which can provide a more objective evaluation of emotions resulting in improved welfare.

This section of the EAZA welfare plenary takes about 30 minutes to complete.