Behavior

This column is the first in a series addressing the most-common questions that veterinarians ask me about behavioral medicine.

Rabbits naturally prefer to have a specific site for elimination, so you can easily train your rabbit to eliminate in a litter box.

Dr. Wayne Hunthausen offers his recommendations for making the first puppy visit a smooth one.

To help aggressive cats and the families that own them, veterinarians must rule out medical problems, take a complete history, make a sound diagnosis, and provide sensible advice.

Contrary to popular belief, cats are not asocial creatures.

You want your clients' relationships between their children and their pets to start off on the right foot and develop in a healthy direction. Here are some tips to help make sure the whole household gets along.

Veterinarians should encourage pet owners to turn to them for expert advice and assistance. Let clients know that you, not the pet store employee or the self-proclaimed master dog trainer, are the best source for reliable behavior recommendations.

The final column in this series on feline communication focuses on integrating all the signals we have discussed and in reviewing their roles given the context of the specific behavioral environment.

I always try to have dry kibble immediately available when examining a pet to reward its good behavior and, perhaps, to teach the animal a new behavior while the owner and I are talking.

The third column in this continuing series on feline communication will focus on overall body posturing and the behavioral information it provides. Because no signaling system can be removed from the context of the entire animal, using what we have learned from observation of behavioral cues from felines' faces and tails can be extremely useful when we look at the cat in its relevant social context.

The second column in this series on feline communication will focus on the information provided by cat tails. While no signaling system can be removed from the context of the entire animal and correctly interpreted, it can be very useful to look at what information can be communicated by each body part involved in signaling. Then, we can take these observations and look for congruence or lack of it between other signaling systems (e.g., the eyes, voice, body, etc.) The only system closed to our understanding, for now, is the olfactory.

Like food and shelter, animals need play. When taking histories from clients during routine examinations or visits regarding their pets’ behavior problems, remember to ask clients whether they play with their pets.

Cat owners can have a lot of questions: "Should I get a second cat as a playmate?" "How can I stop my cat from scratching the furniture?" "Why doesn't he use the litter box?" So in the spirit of David Letterman, I compiled this top 10 list of cat behavior tips.

We must remember that interactions are a dance with roles for both partners, who each give and request information.

Although the prevalence of self-directed behaviors is not well-documented in dogs or cats, it is likely underappreciated because animals are not typically presented for evaluation of such behaviors unless the clients think their pets are manifesting a behavior problem or some degree of injury as a consequence of the behavior.

In the clinical research on human patient populations, the data suggest that the fastest way to induce and reinforce pathological panic is to remove any opportunity for self-control.

Body posture in dogs is an easy factor to assess in the signaling repertoire, but we too often ignore it. This quick tour through some common postures involving stance will help you understand what dogs are communicating and what their next movement might be.

So, for all the pets who suffer, here's the take home message: Storm and noise phobias are emergencies.

If a cat is housesoiling and the owner is finding large pools of urine in a discreet area or small amounts on vertical surfaces, the animal is not incontinent.

No signaling or communication system in social animals is simple. The main reason this is so involves context.

We've discovered a way to calm fractious cats while muzzling them.

As practitioners learn how important canine and feline social interactions and cognition are, they ask questions about how they can better understand the interactions and their outcomes. The key to understanding interaction is through signaling.

Last month, we discussed the history and treatment for Hoova, an 18-month-old female Shepherd mix, who was euthanized for her aggressive behaviors.

This is the story of two very different canine patients who met the same end: their people had them euthanized because of their behaviors.

Within a few months, Solo's separation anxiety had decreased and he could be left alone for an hour or so. As often happens with rescued dogs, he had also begun to show some other, less savory behaviors.

This column outlines the course of treatment for a dog who has been a patient for 2.5 years. It demonstrates the complexity of behavioral cases and as well as this client's understanding, tenacity and compassion. It also demonstrates the capacity of these distressed dogs to become more than we could ever have guessed.

This column illustrates the importance of addressing anxiety disorders as soon as they appear. Many people choose to "manage", rather than truly treat these conditions in the early stages because it is easier for the clients to live with some aspect of the problem under the new management regime.

Dr. Karen Overall helps pinpoint the cognitive changes dogs and cats experience as they grow older and offer insight in the challenges of diagnosing and managing such cases.

Last month (p. 20S) this column introduced the case of a 5-year-old rescued German Shepherd that became fearful.

This column deals with a fairly typical client concern, a rescued dog that becomes fearful. In the first of this two-part series, I will focus on the history and diagnosis. The second part will concentrate on treatment.