This Social Science course teaches students the basic behavior of domestic animals. By teaching students how and why a particular animal behaves, students can understand and predict the behaviors of these animals when interacting with them. Animals covered are horses, dogs, cats, pigs, cattle, sheep and goats. Topics include communication, aggression, social structure, biological rhythm, sleep patterns, sexual behavior, maternal behavior, developmental behavior, learning, ingestive behavior, miscellaneous behavior, disorders, and behavior genetics.

All animals are motivated to acquire food, avoid predators and parasites, find and secure mates, select habitat, communicate with other animals, and move through their environment. This course is centered on the concepts that underlie such behaviors in nature, with a strong emphasis on both the ecological context and the evolutionary history that has produced them. The primary focus of the lab is on the development and completion of an original, semester-long research project. Three hours of lecture and three hours of lab per week.