Kemble's Blog: November 12, 2015

Today when I arrived at Durant Animal Hospital, my objective was to obtain my interviews. I was told previously by staff that Tuesdays and Thursdays were their slower days therefore, I scheduled my day for interviews on a Thursday.

It was still busy at the hospital and I had to make sure that I kept my interviews to a minimum. Not everyone wished to participate in the interviews and I respect their decision. Those that did were happy to answer my questions and share their experiences and knowledge with me. It seems that they all enjoy their work at the hospital and enjoy talking about it but like I said, not everyone wished to be "quoted" or have it put down on paper in black and white.

One thing that I did observe and felt kind of odd about was the fact that during a regular day at the hospital, communication flows freely and automatically but when faced with an interview, I had to steer my participants in certain directions in order to get the results or answers that I wanted. For some of my interview participants, speech was difficult or short winded and I had to dig deep for complete answers. In some cases, my observations of the daily happenings at the hospital answered my questions better than the interview itself did.

I am at this point forming a theory about people who work with animals (keep in mind that it is only a theory based on my personal opinion) and that theory is: people who work with animals tend to understand and bond with animals better than they do with people. They tend to be more understanding of the animal(s) and communicate with them not only through spoken language but mostly through their actions and body language. It appears that they are more comfortable forming these bonds between animal and human than they are between human and human. The communication from human to animal is very comfortable and flows freely but the communication between human and human is something that they need to work at and comes with some form or degree of difficulty.

I have found through my observation that there is a true literacy between humans and animals. Animals have a fight or flight reaction. If an animal feels scared, in most cases, they will take flight but when an animal feels threatened, the fight instinct takes over and they go into fight mode. When dealing with animals, humans tend to be more patient and use their tone of voice to aide in their interactions with them. Animals do not understand speech but they do understand the tone used when spoken to. You could say the stupidest or meanest thing to an animal but if spoken sweetly, that animal is going to respond to you with positive results. Funny I know. Body language is another form of literacy that takes place and is very important when dealing with animals. If you go towards an animal in a threatening manner, that animal is going to perceive you as a threat and potentially react with their fight mode. If approached in a non-threatening manner, the animal is probably going to be curious and possibly a little apprehensive but they will be approachable. When dealing with animals, size can also mean a lot. Think about it, if you were approached by an elephant in their own habitat, you would probably be a little scared, as just the elephant's size alone is intimidating; well the same is true for animals. When dealing with an animal that is smaller than you and one that is scared or intimidated, the staff at the hospital tends to decrease their size (possibly getting down on hands and knees for instance) and approach that animal with care and loving concern. This sort of approach lessens the animals fear and they become more curious, interested, and accepting about what is going to happen. When the staff is dealing with an animal larger than them, they still approach the animal with concern but in an authoritative manner. Every animal is used to a herd hierarchy and in that hierarchy, there is a dominant animal followed by the submissive animals. When approaching an animal that is larger than them, the staff must take that dominant factor and use it (no fear as the animals can sence it) showing the animal that they are the dominant in the herd hierarchy. You don't want to approach a 1200 pound horse on your hands and knees in a submissive way, the horse will walk all over you. You must approach them in a caring yet authoritative manner (saying to yourself and the horse in your body language that, "Yes, you are going to stand there and let me give you your shots and you are going to do it properly."

During my interviews and observations, I have a better understanding of the literacy that is used and takes place at an animal hospital. This literacy can make a huge difference in how the client or patient responds to the staff and could possibly be the difference in how smoothly a procedure takes place with positive results.

Below, you can observe my questions and the staff's answers to the questions asked during an interview. I have also included a picture of the staff member that was interviewed. Following the interviews, you will see copies of my field notes for the day.