Behaviour Consultations
Our team of professionals work together to diagnose and treat behavioural problems caused by a range of conditions. These may include simple training problems, normal but misunderstood and annoying behaviours, or complex conditions caused by medical conditions and mental illnesses. We do this by putting together a personalised behaviour management program for your family.
We help you manage any concerning behaviours that your pet dog or cat (or any other species!) may be exhibiting. We help you understand the reason why your pet is exhibiting such a behaviour and whether or not it is appropriate in that context. We then work through strategies that will help reduce the animal’s desire to perform the behaviour and therefore make it less likely to happen in the future. These strategies involve the use of science-based behavioural and environmental modification techniques, supplements and pheromones, and sometimes behaviour-modifying medication.
If a medical condition (such as an anxiety disorder, dementia, pain, itchiness, or discomfort) is suspected to be contributing to the behaviour problem, our vets will discuss how this may affect your pet’s behaviour and provide you with a personalised medical treatment plan. In some cases we may refer you back to your usual GP vet for further investigation, or offer an external referral to a specialist if needed.
Much of our caseload is referred from veterinarians, dog trainers or behaviourists. However, referrals are not essential as we are happy to be approached directly by owners.
The most common problems we deal with include (but are not limited to):
- Separation anxiety
- Leash reactivity- whether it be caused by lack of training, fear, anxiety, frustration or poor social skills
- Pathological Fear- including fear of people, dogs, cats, vet clinics, car rides, grooming
- Storm, fireworks and noise phobias
- Repetitive behaviours- over-grooming, pacing, eating non-food items, shadow/light chasing, circling, fly-biting
- Cognitive dysfunction (dementia/’alzheimers’)- yes, it’s treatable!
- Urine marking, spraying and toileting problems in cats, including stress-induced cystitis (FIC/FLUTD)
- Pain-induced behavioural problems, caused by conditions such as chronic joint pain, skin problems and gut pain.
- Aggression cases- including those caused by fear, frustration, control complex, territorial behaviour and resource guarding. Science has now taught us that aggression is very RARELY due to ‘dominance’.
- Excessive barking cases- most causes of extreme excessive barking are actually medical conditions such as pain, separation anxiety, territorial aggression, fear, and generalised anxiety. They are very rarely able to be treated with simple obedience training alone, or with anti-barking devices (which often make the problem worse).
- Feline over-grooming and hyperaesthesia syndrome
- Self-mutilation, phobias, excessive screaming and inappropriate sexual behaviours in birds
- Aggression, fear and other problems in rabbits, guinea pigs, rodents and other exotic pets.
- and many others
Our services:
Click on the links below to learn more about the services we offer