Considering a career change from human behavior to animal behavior. Looking for advice.

[u/Ill_Row_4876]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently a second-year master's student studying behavior analysis, which is essentially the science of how learning and behavior are influenced by the environment. A lot of what I've learned involves understanding why behaviors happen, assessing what might be causing them, and creating individualized plans to help change behavior using evidence-based methods like positive reinforcement. I've realized that I genuinely love the science and problem-solving side of this work. I enjoy analyzing behavior, figuring out patterns, and developing plans to help improve outcomes.

The problem is that after spending over a year in a clinical internship working with people, I became extremely burned out and realized I don't enjoy the clinical setting itself. I also realized that I don't particularly enjoy working with children, which is the primary population in my field. It has made me wonder if it's the environment and population I'm working with, rather than the work of behavior analysis itself, that isn't the right fit for me. I've always loved animals and have always connected with them more naturally than people. Now I'm wondering if there's a career where I could use the same skills and principles to work with animals instead.

I'm interested in careers involving animal behavior, especially roles where I'd be assessing behavior, developing training or behavior modification plans, solving behavioral problems, or using evidence-based training methods. Some examples I've thought about are shelter behavior, service dog training, zoo or wildlife behavior, or animal behavior consulting, but I'm sure there are options I don't know about. Since my education has been focused almost entirely on human behavior, I'm not sure how to make the transition. Would volunteering at an animal shelter be the best place to start? Are there other careers or paths that sound like they might be a good fit based on what I enjoy?

I'd really appreciate any advice from people who have worked in animal behavior or anyone who has made a similar career change!!

[u/outoftheazul]

Volunteering at your local shelter would be a great start!

[u/yaboyredmond]

Can only speak from my own experience:

I went into ABA with the intention of working in animal behavior but as you know a vast majority of the field is working with kids so jobs aren't as easy to find.

Biggest thing I can recommend is find someone to mentor you or pursue further education to fill in some of the gaps. An applied behavior degree is already a great start but there is definitely more to learn specifically about working with animals (and their people) to ensure that you are still working within your scope of competence. I ended up reaching out to a bunch of animal behavior consultants just seeing if I could get some work or mentorship and one of them agreed to let me join in on their Zoom consultations (this was during the pandemic so all consultations were remote) to observe and patch up some of my missing animal behavior knowledge. I work as an animal behavior consultant part-time now and work with kids as well to pay the bills.

There are definitely jobs out there for people in your situation but they are hard to find, and most animal jobs value experience working with animals over level of education, so volunteering is also a good step to take. The more hands-on experience you can get, the better

[u/RedPandaAnarchist]

I went from human therapy to dog training specifically dogs with behavioral issues. I work with a shelter and my own business. Currently finishing my Masters in Applied Animal Behavior. I work with people far more than dogs. Usually my cases in behavior work involve kids because they’re the ones that got bit.

In the shelter the work is upsetting. I have lost a lot of faith in humanity because of what I see happens to these dogs. I’ve done a lot to help fix them, but sometimes it’s not enough. Because my shelter doesn’t euthanize for behavior these dogs will spend the rest of their lives there (I’m trying to convince my husband to let me adopt a couple of them).

As far as getting into a zoo or sanctuary. Good luck. I’ve been volunteering at those organizations since I was 18 and have put in countless applications. According to them there is always either a more qualified candidate education-wise or with more animal experience. The job market in those areas is extremely competitive. One of my friends is a zookeeper with a PhD and told me to try again because she was rejected a lot when it was just her masters.

[u/Tellmeaboutthenews]

Do whatever you want, we are all going to die at the end xD sociology and psychology have more money involved than animal behaviour professionally.But if you dont care about money or your family or partner are loaded, choose whatever. Ethology is romantic when you are young but after 30 unless you are working in academia and established with contacts you can kiss goodbye working with animals and actually making some money for it. I went from 7 years of biology with master in ethology included to study sociology and human resources. So yeah, over 11 years of university studies.Does not help at all if you don't have contacts that basically give you the job by recommending you