Behavior Counseling

Our behavior service includes

Preventative counseling:

• providing information on the characteristics of various breeds and how these affect lifestyle,
• how to plan for the demands of owing a pet,
• what to expect from a pup or kitten,
• how to approach training and socialization,
• providing a suitable environment for a dog or cat.

Assessment of behavior problems

• determining if a behavioral problem has a basis in a physical problem such as poor nutrition, hormonal imbalance, pain, sensory loss such a impaired vision or hearing;
• Determining the most appropriate treatment method. Behaviors may result from a new stressor in the animal’s environment or poor adaptation to an old stressor. Trying to identify the basis for the behavior is very important as treatment must exclude anything that exacerbates the behavior.

Treatment of behavior problems:

• determining if pharmacological treatment is necessary. If medication is required, the type of medication, the dosage and the response to the medication must be monitored.
• Correcting or treating any physical contributors to the behavior
• Developing an environmental or training plan to facilitate behavioral change.
• Medications used to alter an animal’s behavior are not used without using training and behavior modification techniques as well. The purpose of medication is to facilitate the use of these techniques.

Behavior is the output from an animal’s central nervous system as they adapt and respond to their environment. Sound complicated? It is.

In keeping animals as pets, living closely with us in our homes, we are co-habiting with another species. Theses species have different sensory and reasoning capabilities, different language and physical abilities and capabilities.

Over thousands of years of interaction with the ancestors of our current day pets, humans have influenced the domestic dog’s evolution by selecting them for characteristics that “work” for that co-habitation and that we find useful or attractive.

The behaviors of dogs and cats have been studied extensively over centuries. Although the brains of our domestic pets have similar functions & processes to our own, the behaviors of our pets cannot be interpreted in the same terms as human behaviors. Behaviors such as breathing, walking, seeking food, avoiding pain are automatic to a healthy individual. However, learning housetraining, to ask a human to open a door to allow access to outdoors, to learn how to cope with being left on their own, to recognize and respond to other humans or animals appropriately, under a wide variety of circumstances, is strongly influenced by the ‘shaping’ of an animal’s nervous system during interactions with their environment and their learned responses.

The development of the animal brain is not complete at birth. Neurons are forming during all of the post- natal period and early months of life. As these neurons complete development, the individual becomes increasingly capable of a wider variety of physical and psychological processes. The nervous system is “plastic”: it can and is molded by the input coming from the environment; the parts of the brain that are used most, develop optimally; what is not used or stimulated tends to be retarded. This is the learning process.

The success of our interaction with our pets is very dependent on optimizing this learning process, especially as it occurs in early life.

A recent study by the American Veterinary Association showed that up to 70% of animal euthanasia is directly linked to behavioral problems such as environmental destruction, house soiling, restlessness, eating or chewing inappropriate objects, eating stool, fear, excessive barking, fear or aggression.