{"id":631,"date":"2016-03-22T10:17:08","date_gmt":"2016-03-22T09:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/illis.se\/en\/?p=631"},"modified":"2025-02-20T14:13:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-20T13:13:21","slug":"five-ps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/illis.se\/en\/five-ps\/","title":{"rendered":"The five Ps: the advantages of considering emotions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

revised February 2025.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

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Crouching… or fearful?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Is the dog depicted above crouching, or fearful? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, I know, it’s nigh impossible to guess which emotional state an animal is in from a still picture. We need motion, and context, to be able to do that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess what I’m really asking is: do you look at animals and see predominantly their behaviour<\/em>, or do you take a stab at considering their emotional\/mood<\/em> state? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog post, I hope to convince you to develop the second perspective, if you haven’t already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, I would encourage you to start using emotion labels<\/em> – one of the three types of useful labels<\/a> when it comes to animals and their behaviour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world of animal trainers is divided, and I find that some trainers avoid the subject of animal emotions altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There\u2019s no need to factor in and understand emotions, just deal with the observable behaviour”,<\/em> is the gist of what some trainers and animal professionals say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Although many of them don\u2019t question that animals have emotions<\/a>, many tend to address the observable behaviour rather than the emotion that’s underpinning it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s say, for instance, that crouching is an Undesired Behaviour. Many animal trainers would then resolve the issue of unwanted crouching by making changes to the environment to encourage some other, more desirable behaviour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it works, too. I\u2019m not disputing that. At least in some cases – and I’ll get back to when I think that approach completely misses the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m just compulsive about looking at everything from different angles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It works \u2013 but is there a better way?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we improve wellbeing and reduce suffering of the animals in our care by factoring in their emotions – on top of being good observers of behaviour?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think so.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Addressing the animal’s emotional state rather than their behaviour has five advantages.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Taking emotions into account when interacting with the animals in our care has some distinct advantages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The five P’s<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

The five advantages incidentally all start with the letter P, hence, without further ado I give you the five Ps: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n