Animal Wisdom: Dr. Michael Archinal
With statistics showing that more than 60 percent of Australian households have pets, it’s clear that we’re an animal loving nation. However, most of us would probably agree that we still have plenty to learn about animals, the bond we can have with them and the best ways to interact with them. One man working hard to make a difference in this arena is experienced vet Dr. Michael Archinal, who has been in the field for more than three decades. Dr. Archinal has seen firsthand that humans can learn a lot from their animal friends and argues passionately around the country and world for responsible pet ownership, and a better understanding of humananimal relationships. We chatted with Dr. Archinal about his popular book, Animal Wisdom: Stories from an Australian vet on what animals can teach us about love, health and happiness, and some of the insights he has picked up over his long career.
Dr. Archinal, can you tell us what inspired your book, Animal Wisdom? After 30 years in practice I kept seeing recurring patterns of things happening, and the increasing importance of the role of pets in our lives. I started to research the science behind the human-animal bond and found there were like-minded people and scientific organisations who were starting to publish robust science in this area.
At the time, I had a role on national television and was doing a lot of speaking internationally. I had a desire and passion to bring this information to everyone in an easily accessible form. Animal Wisdom developed from there.
What is one of the most common misconceptions people have about animals? Without question one of the most common misconception is the idea of dominance behaviour in dogs (that is, that dogs acting aggressively are being dominant). This has been perpetuated by many socalled TV celebrities, most notably Caesar Milan, to the detriment of the very animals we are entrusted to care for. The perpetuation of this misconception often leads to catastrophic consequences. l o v e y o u r p e t s m a g a z i n e . c o m . a u
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