RE: dissertation topic ideas

V E S — Sun, 27 Aug 2017 21:52:23 GMT

Hi Lauren,

Can be difficult to find a topic can't it! I know I struggled with mine initially. Just make sure you pick one that really interests you! Otherwise you'll find it difficult to motivate yourself when you try and write 5000+ words on something you couldn't care less about!

Also, you may not find many studies on what you specifically want to do. When I did mine there was literally next to nothing on my topic, just vets postulating and no concrete evidence. In someways, this makes your idea even better because it's not something that may have been looked into before!

I would have a think into what type of study you want to do. A questionnaire for vets/nurses or maybe even clients? Or something more hands on looking at real cases?

I think pet anxiety and stress at the vets would be good, maybe looking at scoring it? Seeing what methods of helping reduce anxiety/stress works e.g. pheromone diffusers, covering kennel with towel, providing a comfort from home like a toy? Though may be difficult to have a control?

If you wanted to do pain scoring you could look into whether vets/nurses actually use objective methods like the Glasgow Pain Scale? Do they think they work well? What about specific pain scoring for cats, or rabbits even? Considering different species (and individuals!) show pain in different ways.

Just some tips, your supervisor should help refine your original question once you've picked a subject :) Feel free to PM me for anymore advice.

RE: dissertation topic ideas

Katie Anakin — Sun, 27 Aug 2017 08:18:04 GMT

If you are interested in canine anxiety why not look at comparisons of medical (prozac) vs homeopathic (DAP) treatments of anxiety. There are alot of studies on this from when I started working as a behaviourist.

Or look at methods for reducing anxiety in dogs in a kennel environment (vets, shelters and boarding kennels). Again lots of them. You can talk about signs of welfare problems (stereotypies etc) and then discus the pros and cons of different treatments in different environments. And then link them to particular types of stress.

If this is defo what you want to right about I have quite a few links for studies on anxiety as my entire degree was in behaviour and I did my dissertation on anxiety in animal shelters. :)