Endocrinology

Understanding the structure of the brain will take you so far but understand the chemistry of both the brain and the body will give you a whole new insight into dog behaviour. Neuroscientism has infected the dog work world with ridiculous statements like “increasing the testosterone will increase how optimistic a dog is” as well as “pulling the lead up will calm down the brain”. Dopamine has been made a villain and cortisol made out as something to avoid. All of these mistruths will be put right in this course which delves into the world of canine chemistry. We explore how the brain and the body produces and used hormones and neurotransmitters and explain some key logistics problems when it comes to using the measurement of a specific chemical such as cortisol to measure a state like stress. We pick out the most important chemicals to understand and explain the part each one might play in the body along with the important cocktails.

Our application interview is with non other than Simon Gadbois, world renown ethologist. Together we unpack concepts like Drive, ideas about developing endocrinological profiles and take a long look into why stress can be great and why arousal isn’t something to avoid like the plague.

The outline of the course covers:

• Neurons, neurotransmitters, hormones, action potential and how neurones share information
• Proteins and Amino Acids
• The anatomy of thoughts and feelings
• Glutamate 101
• GABA 101
• Acetylcholine 101
• Dopamine 101
• Cortisol 101
• Serotonin 101
• Vasopressin 101
• Oxytocin 101
• Estrogens and progesterone
• Testosterone
• An interview with Simon Gadbois (Ethologist and Neuroscientist at Dalhousie University)