Melissa Bain, DVM, DACVB, DACAW, MS

An exercise for veterinary clients dealing with their pet's separation anxiety that wont let them leave the room, let alone the house.

If you can identify early signs of stress in your veterinary patients, your job just got easier.

Puppies are the future of your practice.

Separation anxiety is a normal reaction to being abandoned starting as puppies.

Behavior is a manifestation of normal and abnormal, typical and atypical, and often related to owner's point of view.

Behavioral problems often elicit high emotions among owners and veterinary staff.

Perhaps more in behavior than in all other areas of veterinary medicine combined, there is a flurry of incorrect myths that are either at best unhelpful, or at worst HARMFUL, to our patients.

Aggression comprises approximately 70 percent of canine cases presented to behavior clinics.

Backyard livestock are becoming more popular with 'urban farmers' and those who want a 'different' pet.

Animals are exposed to stressful situations throughout their entire lives.

We all understand the frustration that veterinarians and owners feel when an animal doesn't follow post op instructions of "don't move" and "stay crated."

Dr. Melissa Bain examines whether clients are contributing to pets' bad behavior.

Attention-seeking behavior: What an animal does to get attention from a person or other animal.

Perhaps more in behavior than in all other areas of veterinary medicine combined, there is a flurry of incorrect myths that are either at best unhelpful, or at worst harmful, to our patients. It is important that veterinary staff know the scientific background of behavior, and to not resort to the common thought, which is sometimes incorrect.

Animals are exposed to stressful situations throughout their entire lives. Not only animals in confinement encounter stress, such as in kennel or shelter situations, but those in households do as well. Behavioral enrichment helps decrease some of the stresses that the animals encounter, as well as playing a direct role in preventing and treating problem behaviors.

There are an estimated 1100 off-leash areas in North America. There are both positive and negative aspects of behavior of dogs at dog parks.

New research is changing our view of the cat towards a more social, group living model more typical of the way cats are currently living in human households. The way we categorize aggressive behavior in cats may change in the future.

Learning theory is not just theory...it is the scientific knowledge developed from the learning principles of habituation, classical conditioning and operant conditioning. This includes systematic desensitization and counter conditioning as well as types of punishment.

In social animals, aggression towards conspecifics is normal within the group and when dominance hierarchies change. Otherwise, a social structure keeps fighting to a minimum.

Unfortunately, anyone can call himself or herself an animal behaviorist.

Behavior is an important piece of the fabric of veterinary medicine. We need to be knowledgeable about the effects of behavior on a patient's welfare, stress levels, and medical problems and on the human-animal bond.