Grandin, Temple — What Are Our Animals Saying To Us?
What is your cat or dog thinking? Understanding animal behaviour and what makes them respond in different situations can ensure good relationships with animals around us, whether they are farm stock, pets or wild animals. In this edition of Radio Curious we visit with Temple Grandin, a person with autism and a Ph.D. in animal science. Autism made school and social life difficult for Dr. Grandin, but it made working with and understanding animals easy. In her book “Animals Make Us Human” Grandin lays out the emotional needs that all animals share and how we as human beings can respond to their needs . In this interview she explains how a cat can be trained to go through a dog agility course; successful ways for humans to avoid conflict with wild animals and provides insight on how animals brains and thought processes differ to our own.
We visited with Temple Grandin by phone from her home in Colorado on August 4, 2009 and began by asking about her experience in observing animal behaviour and using her observations in animal training.
The book Dr. Temple Grandin recommends is “Perfect Rigour,” by Masha Gessen.