Small Animal Referral Hospital Behaviour

There can be major differences in the background, training and expertise of those providing behavioural advice. The veterinary behaviourist must first be a graduate of an accredited veterinary school. This insures a comprehensive background in anatomy, neurology, physiology, medicine, and pharmacology, as well as the type of medical problems that might have an effect on the behaviour of the pet. The veterinary behaviourist must also receive training in normal species typical behaviour, comparative animal behaviour, the principles of learning and behaviour modification, abnormal behaviour, psychopharmacology and the effects of disease on behaviour, and must work for at least two years seeing cases under the mentorship of a board certified behaviourist. In short, the veterinary behaviourist has a unique combination of education and training, clinical expertise and medical knowledge to be able to diagnose and design a treatment programme for your pet’s behaviour problem.  

• Canine behaviour problems: For most canine behaviour problems including fear and anxiety, noise phobias, repetitive and compulsive disorders and aggression, a consultation will generally last two hours or longer but some problems such as house-soiling or unruly may require 90  to 120 minutes.   
• Feline behaviour problems: For most common behaviour problems of cats including house-soiling, urine marking, fearful behaviour (avoidance), eating disorders (such as excessive sucking or chewing) and repetitive or compulsive behaviours, the consultation will generally require approximately 90 to 120 minutes, with some aggression cases requiring longer time. 
• New Introductions: Bringing home a new baby, introducing pets to other pets, moving, bringing a new pet into your home with existing pets or integrating households, a consultation of approximately 30 to 60 minutes will help you with the transition and help you to prevent or prepare for potential problems. We offer a reduced cost for these consultations. 
• New pet consultations: If you are obtaining a puppy or kitten or are a first time pet owner, we offer a ‘new pet’ consultation of approximately 30 to 60 minutes to provide you with behavioural guidance on problem prevention, setting up to succeed, reward based training and how to deal with emerging problems such as house-soiling, destruction, stealing and play biting. We offer a reduced fee for these consultations. 
• Canine selection consultations: If are considering obtaining a new dog, we offer a 30-60 minute selection consultation to help you choose a pet that is appropriate for your needs (breed, age, sex, source) as well as advice on preventing and dealing with common behaviour problems. We ask that you narrow your choice to up to five breeds before the visit. We offer a reduced fee for these consultations. 
• Unruly behaviours and emerging problems: If you have a recently adopted pet that is difficult to control, hard to train or has some recently developed problems such as house-soiling, chewing, digging, scratching, stool eating, barking or garbage raiding, these consultations will generally require about 60 minutes and have reduced fee. 
• Clinical trials: We often serve as a site for clinical trials for a variety of drugs or products that might be useful aids in treating behaviour problems. During your visit you may be offered the opportunity to participate in a drug or product study, which would be supplied at no additional charge. 
• Legal consult/expert opinion 

There are four components to a behaviour consultation: 

1. Diagnosis: In order to explain why your pet might be exhibiting problem(s), we must first determine the cause as well as any factors that might be reinforcing or aggravating the situation. Our diagnosis will be based on the information you provide in your questionnaire, the information you provide at the visit, and observation of your pet’s behaviour at our clinic. We also advise that whenever possible, you collect a video or recording of the problem so that we can best assess the pet's actions as well as your interactions. If there is the possibility of an underlying medical problem, additional diagnostic tests may be recommended.   
2. Assessment: The next step is to determine what might be achieved and how this can be accomplished to best suit your needs. Although we hope we can come up with a treatment programme that will resolve your pet’s problem, it is not always practical once we determine the diagnosis, the cause of the problem, as well as your needs and expectations.   
3. Management: Next, we will help you to implement a treatment programme that is suited to your pet and your household. Often by achieving a better understanding of canine and feline behaviour, and how pets learn, you will be able to better understand how to manage the problem. A treatment programme generally involves behaviour modification techniques based primarily on positive reinforcement and shaping (i.e. what to do and what not to do) and environmental management (i.e. adjustments to your environment to better manage the situation). We might also suggest the use of products such as a head halter, body harness or clicker to help modify your pet’s behaviour, or in some cases medications, pheromones, or other natural products. Demonstration of products or techniques, videos or handouts may also be used in our consultation. At the end of the visit we will provide you and your veterinarian with a summary of our suggestions and appropriate handouts or other support material.   
4. Follow up: The final aspect of the consultation is the follow up on the case, so that we help to guide you through the programme and monitor the pet’s response. For most canine and feline cases, a follow up visit will be scheduled within two to four weeks. Follow up visits are 50 minutes long. Telephone support for minor adjustments or modification to the initial program will also be available.