The Influence of Predictability and Controllability on Stress Responses to the Aversive Component of a Virtual Fence.

ABSTRACT: To ensure animal welfare is not compromised, virtual fencing must be predictable and controllable, and this is achieved through associative learning. To assess the influence of predictability and controllability on physiological and behavioral responses to the aversive component of a virtual fence, two methods of training animals were compared. In the first method, positive punishment training involved sheep learning that after an audio stimulus, an electrical stimulus would follow only when they did not respond by stopping or turning at the virtual fence (predictable controllability). In the second method, classical conditioning was used to associate an audio stimulus with an electrical stimulus on all occasions (predictable uncontrollability). Eighty Merino ewes received one of the follo

SUBMITTER: Kearton T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7733987 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature