1. Principles of ethology. Domestication: the process and its effects on behaviour. Ethology of domestic companion animals, maintenance and social behaviours and communication (including perceptual abilities). Behavioural ontogeny; to include sensitive periods, socialisation and attachment theory. The interaction between biological and evolutionary influences and the domestic environment, and its role in behavioural disorders. Interactions between animals and man, to include the role of animals in human society and artificial selection.
   
   
2. Animal welfare science: ethological, psychological and physiological concepts, including stress, suffering, coping strategies; physiological and behavioural indicators of welfare in vertebrate animals, including stereotypies; methods of assessing welfare, motivation and demand; welfare considerations in management, welfare issues in training and in clinical practice.
   
   
3. Theory of animal learning: habituation; sensitization, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, insight and social learning. Animal cognition and concept of consciousness. Theory underlying learned problem behaviour and training techniques and use of a range of behavioural modification techniques and training aids, to include systematic desensitization, counter-conditioning and the use of clickers.
   
   
4. Functional anatomy and physiology of the vertebrate nervous and endocrine systems and their role in mediating behaviour; specific receptor mediated control mechanisms, the role of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis and nociception in animals. Neural plasticity and the development of the nervous system. Psychopharmacology: theory; mode of action of major classes of drugs used in clinical animal behaviour and critical evaluation of their role in the treatment of behavioural disorders; to also include the role of nutrition, pheromones.
   
   
5. Human and family psychology, including attitude theory, processes of inter-personal relationships, grief and bereavement. Counselling skills; facilitation and maintenance of behavioural change; to include interpretation of client behaviour and attitude, methods of effective communication and collection of information, assessment of understanding. Ethical issues, professionalism in relationships with clients and others. Human attitude towards animals, to include animal abuse, abandonment, animal-hoarding.
   
   
6. Clinical procedures: taking case-histories and effective communication and liaison with clients and professionals; to include methods for resolving deficiencies in information gathered or client understanding and critical appraisal of information gathered and owner/pet relationship and provision of appropriate feedback. Applying principles of ethology and learning techniques for diagnosis and treatment of common problems; to include phobias, aggression, stereotypies, anxiety related behaviours, and identification and critical evaluation of contributing factors, role of environmental factors, differential diagnosis. Devising and delivery of structured treatment regimes, assessing effectiveness of treatments; approaches to extended treatment and follow-up.
   
   
7. Animal law and ethics: Ethics of animal use: theories. History of animal-related legislation in the UK and elsewhere, including the role of case-law. National and international legislative frameworks, their operation, roles and remit. Legal obligations and safety concerns of those working or owning animals: owners, veterinary surgeons, paraprofessionals and others providing animal related services, to include working alone, in clinics and in clients’ homes, in a teaching environment; legal implications of providing behavioural advice, professional liability. Ethical guidelines relating to the use of animals. Legislation in relation to animal welfare. The legal process in the UK, including the role of the expert witness.
   
   
8. Interaction between health and behaviour in vertebrate animals. Signs of ill-health and common conditions influencing behaviour and associated veterinary terminology. Understanding of the behavioural consequences of medical disorders. Medical differentials in behavioural disorders. The role of nutrition in health and behaviour. The role of the veterinary surgeon and paraprofessionals in the treatment of behavioural disorders.
   
   
9. Research methods, experimental design, qualitative and quantitative analysis and critical evaluation of data. To include:
   
   

   • a) Research issues
     Problem definition and hypothesis formation. Independent and dependent variables: their identification and selection. Experimental manipulation, control and internal validity: the roles of random allocation, matching, and counterbalancing in independent groups, related samples and repeated measures designs. The experimental manipulation of more than one independent variable in factorial designs: the contribution of interaction effects.
     The role of random sampling in behavioural research: external validity.
     Quasi-experimental studies of pre-existing groups: the question of causality. The particular strengths and weaknesses of ‘single-subject’ designs and case studies. Observational approaches. Survey research: sampling and the problem of non-response; descriptive versus explanatory surveys; questionnaire design including closed and open-ended questions; attitude scale construction; different questioning methods e.g. postal, telephone, email, web based, face-to-face. Methods of controlling for participants' expectations and experimenter effects. Inter-rater reliability. Critical evaluation of the methods employed to collect data in psychological research. The theory of psychological measurement: standardisation, reliability and the standard error of measurement; validity.
     The collection of qualitative data: observation, participant observation, techniques for the collection of verbal protocols.
     The analysis of qualitative data: content analysis, discourse analysis, grounded theory and protocol analysis.
     The ethics of research with humans and animals research.
   
   
   • b) Quantitative methods
     Descriptive and summary statistics: measures of central tendency and dispersion; skew and kurtosis; frequency distributions; graphical methods including frequency histograms and cumulative frequency plots; explanatory data analysis including stem and leaf and box and whisker displays.
     Probability theory: rules for assigning and combining probabilities; the OR rule with mutually exclusive and non-mutually exclusive events; the AND rule with independent and non-independent events; the binomial distribution (and its normal approximation). The normal distribution: z scores and areas under the curve; the sampling distribution of the sample mean. Statistical inference: significance testing (including the null and alternative hypothesis, type I and type II errors, significance level, power and sample size); effect size and confidence intervals.
     z-test and t-test of means for single sample, independent samples and related sample designs. Confidence intervals: for the population mean; for the difference between two population means. Mean and error bar graphs. Non-parametric alternatives to t-tests: the sign test; Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed ranks test; Mann-Whitney test. Tests of proportions: chi-squared tests for goodness of fit and for contingency tables. Cramer’s Phi as a measure of association in contingency tables. McNernars’ test of change.
     Bivariate correlation and linear regression: scatterplots; Pearson’s correlation coefficient; partial correlation; the significance of a correlation coefficient; the linear regression equation and its use in prediction; the accuracy of prediction; Spearman’s and Kendall’s rank order correlation coefficients.
     The analysis of variance: one factor independent and repeated measures designs; two factor independent, repeated measures and mixed designs; main effects and interaction effects (including graphical presentation); planned (including trend) comparisons; the Bonferroni correction; post hoc comparisons (including choice between methods); the analysis of simple effects.
     Non-parametric alternatives to one factor analyses of variance: Kruskal-Wallis, Friedman and Cochran’s Q tests.
     The choice of an appropriate statistical analysis: the issue of level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio scales); test assumptions (e.g. normality, homogeneity of variance, linearity); transformations of the dependent variable in an attempt to meet assumptions; robustness; power efficiency.

   
   
10. Research project or dissertation on a relevant topic, which incorporates all of the following elements: research methods, experimental design, qualitative and quantitative analysis and critical evaluation of data. This is to have been supervised, completed and assessed to the satisfaction of the Board of Examiners of the Qualifying Examination. The level of work must be at least acceptable as part of the finals examination assessment at honours degree standard.

All subject areas to be covered at a minimum of Honours degree level. Individual species should be studied in depth before acquiring supervised clinical experience of, and subsequently taking cases of, that species. Teaching and research to be conducted in a relevant research-active environment.