Behavior Counseling: Getting Started

Why does my pet have behavior problems?

Many behaviors are normal and come naturally to dogs and cats. Jumping up, pulling, lunging, digging, garbage raiding, stealing, chewing, barking, house soiling, and even some forms of aggression (e.g., possessiveness and territorial guarding) can all be normal for a dog or cat. Of course, even normal behaviors may not be appropriate when exhibited by pets that share our homes. Fortunately, most of these behaviors respond well to treatment.

Sometimes, undesirable behaviors are not normal. Abnormal behaviors might include anxiety disorders, compulsive disorders, extreme frustration intolerance, extreme fears or phobias, and certain forms of aggression. These behaviors may stem from physical and/or behavioral illness. It is important to have your veterinarian or veterinary behaviorist examine your pet to identify and treat medical conditions that affect behavior.

Many factors could predispose a pet to developing a behavioral illness. It is no one’s fault, and it is important to recognize that your pet does not exhibit these behaviors on purpose. Do not scold or punish your pet — this will be counterproductive. Treatment will focus on helping your pet relax so that new learning can occur.

Can all problems be treated?

Behavior problems often do not resolve completely but can be safely and successfully managed. The outcome is less favorable when behaviors have a strong genetic component or have been strongly reinforced through early experience. The degree of improvement will depend on many factors, including the personality, genetics, and prior experiences of your pet.

There are also household factors to consider. Resolving behavior problems requires commitment and consistency. Finally, the outcome will be affected by the nature and intensity of the behavioral problem. If the level of fear, anxiety, or arousal is very intense, learning new behavior can be difficult.

The first step is to carefully explain the behavior to your veterinarian or behavior consultant. The details will help to determine the basis for the behavior as well as the prognosis, including the limitations on what you can realistically expect from treatment. Aggressive behaviors can theaten the safety of both people and other pets. Regardless of whether a behavior is normal or abnormal, the first consideration is whether safety can be maintained.

How do I get started?

For behavior problems that require more than simple training and management, it’s best to get some initial guidance from a veterinary behaviorist. When your pet is anxious, fearful, highly aroused, easily frustrated, or phobic, you need guidance from someone with a thorough understanding of environmental management, learning principles, and behavior modification techniques. Aggressive behavior has many potential causes, some of which may have a medical basis, so you should have an initial consultation with a veterinary behaviorist.

What are the steps in treating anxious, fearful, emotionally aroused, and aggressive pets?

Every situation is different, but there are a few treatment steps that are common to all pets.

1. Prevent exposure to triggers. Identify each situation in which the problematic behavior may arise and prevent exposure until a full treatment plan can be started and some behavioral improvement is evident. Each exposure to a trigger stimulus can increase the intensity of the behavior, making it ultimately harder to treat. Prevention generally involves environmental management — you need to physically keep the pet away from locations where they may encounter triggers. People in your household should avoid engaging in behaviors that are known to trigger an aggressive or fear-based response.

2. Provide sufficient enrichment to meet your pet’s daily mental and physical requirements. By providing outlets and opportunities for social interaction, play, exploration, elimination, feeding, and sleeping, you help to ensure that your pet’s needs are adequately satisfied. Enrichment programs are customized to you and your pet; always consider your pet’s health, age, personality, and individual preferences.

3. Provide consistent, predictable communication during interactions. Create a list of behaviors you would like to see and begin to reward them. Respond consistently and predictably to your pet’s behavior to eliminate confusion. Clarity can reduce the anxiety and emotional conflict that interferes with learning. When you consistently reward desirable behaviors, your pet will engage in those behaviors more.

4. Avoid punishment. Punishment is designed to stop behaviors but does not address the pet’s motivation for the behavior in the first place. With punishment, the behavior may stop, but your pet will not have an alternative, acceptable behavior to replace the one that was thwarted. The result is an increase in frustration and anxiety. Another concern with punishment is that when it is used inconsistently and unpredictably, it causes fear. This fear may ultimately be directed toward a specific person or group of people. Some cats and sensitive dogs do not fully recover from a punishment.

5. Use reward-based training to teach desirable behaviors that will eventually replace undesirable ones. First, choose which behaviors to teach, such as sit, lie down, or go to bed. To begin, reward your pet for offering the desirable behavior. Remember, behaviors that are rewarded will be repeated! Once your pet perfects the behavior you are teaching, you can give the behavior a name. This name will become the “cue”, and you can use the cue when you want your pet to show that behavior. Finally, you can request the behavior before your pet has a chance to engage in an undesirable response.

Many behavior problems can be resolved simply by replacing the pet’s current, undesirable response with a desirable behavior. Pets that exhibit abnormal behavior will need both relaxation exercises and training time in the absence of any triggers before they are ready to respond to any trained cues in the presence of a trigger. Professional trainers are well-versed in reward-based training and can help you. They may introduce helpful training tools such as clickers and targets.

Once your pet successfully displays the desired behavior on cue, in the face of benign distractions, you can gradually proceed to training in the problem situation. To begin, the stimulus should be so mild that your pet can follow the cue and receive the reward.

What are the goals of behavioral therapy?

It is important to have realistic expectations. During initial discussion with your veterinarian, veterinary behaviorist, or consultant, the intensity or severity of the behavior will be determined, including the level of fear, anxiety, frustration, or aggression. You may discuss whether further improvement is practical.

In some cases, the behavior may be improved but may not be resolved, or it may be improved enough to make the family comfortable with the outcome. If drugs, management tools, and training techniques are not sufficient to ensure safety, or if the long-term well-being of the pet is likely to be compromised, then you will need to decide whether the pet can safely be kept in the home.