7 steps to a profitable behavior program

How many patients do you lose each year to animal shelters or euthanasia? How many of your clients give up on their barking, digging, nipping, scratching, inappropriately eliminating pets out of sheer frustration? It's a sad reality. Bad behavior can kill a beautiful love affair between a pet and its family.

But you can help. With a comprehensive behavior program, you can offer the tools and resources your clients need to resolve the problems that ravage their relationships with their pets. Plus, there are ways to do it profitably so your practice benefits, too.

To build a solid behavior program, you need to start with a plan. I recommend seven steps to help you create your new profit center. Armed with the answers to these questions, you'll be prepared to create an effective behavior program to save pets' lives and generate revenue for your practice.

1 WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?

All good programs start with goals. And the first decision you'll make is whether you're going to create a profit center or a goodwill center. Let's take a quick look at each.

In a profit center, you sell products and consulting services to produce income. For a goodwill center, you'll provide reading materials, handouts, a lending library, and more casual advice during routine visits to help families and strengthen your bond with them. But you won't offer retail behavior products or formal consultations in a goodwill center.

In my opinion, every practice should, at the very minimum, offer behavior handouts. (See "Road to better behavior" at right for a list of books and handouts to help you educate pet owners.) Ideally, you'll also offer puppy classes, create a formal program for educating new puppy and kitten owners, and train at least one team member to work up and treat a significant behavior problem.

2 WHAT SERVICES WILL YOU OFFER TO START?

Once you've set your goals, you can decide on the services you'll offer. If you just want to set up a goodwill center, your services will be limited to providing information, and you'll have minimal contact with your clients for behavior-related issues. With additional services—preventive counseling, training sessions, behavior consultations, and any associated product sales—your level of client interaction increases. And the more opportunities you have to communicate with clients about their pets' behavior, the more influence you'll have on their bond. Simply put, clients who are strongly bonded to their pets are better clients, and they're the key to a successful profit center.

If you decide to offer some type of counseling, here are your options:

Preselection consulting. This consists of meeting with interested family members to help them pick the ideal pet for their home. In these appointments, you'll discuss:

> Differences in breed behavior, size, grooming requirements, genetic issues, family needs and limitations, and the pet's environment

> Pet source options, including how to evaluate a breeder and choose a puppy or kitten from a litter

> Basics on bringing a new pet into a home, including environmental management

> Training and the availability of basic obedience classes for puppies at 8 to 10 weeks of age and adult classes for dogs 9 to 12 months old

> Medical concerns, including breed-specific congenital problems, exam scheduling, and vaccinations.

As you discuss these issues, make sure to provide specific handouts to help clients remember what you've discussed. With the right education and reinforcement, the family is more likely to adopt a pet that fits its lifestyle, and the pet is less likely to end up in another home or the shelter. This service can also help your practice attract new clients.

Adolescent consulting. This is a formal consultation with the family to help solve problems common in adolescent pets. You'll start by filling out a behavior history form. (See the related links below for a sample behavior history form.) During the appointment, you'll offer instruction on training, managing the environment, and modifying the pet's behavior, then schedule follow-up appointments as needed. Common problems at this age include elimination issues, destructive behaviors, play biting, unruly behavior, jumping up, pulling on the lead, and barking.

Adult consultations. This is a formal consultation with the family to help solve more serious problems. Like the adolescent consultation, you start by filling out a behavior history form. During the appointment, you'll offer instruction on training, managing the environment, and modifying the pet's behavior. Your goals are to fix the problem, keep the pet in the family, and, if the pet is aggressive, prevent injuries.

3 WHO WILL BE INVOLVED IN THE PROGRAM?

Your behavior program needs to be a total team effort. First of all, your kennel staff will be safer and more efficient if they understand the behavior of companion animals. Also, receptionists and technicians can give some advice on puppy and kitten training as well as identify families who call and need help with more serious problems. And finally, technicians can assist in behavior therapy.

The doctor's job is to consult and work up behavior problems, perform medical examinations, and prescribe behavior medications. He or she also advises families during puppy and kitten visits.

But don't stop there. Remember, an interested, engaged team is critical to your program's success. And involving team members in behavior counseling is a great way for them to grow in their jobs and careers and contribute to the practice. Your team plays a huge role in educating pet owners. Here are some of the ways they can be involved:

Educate pet owners about normal pet behavior. Team members need to discuss with clients the pet's stages of development—and any associated behavior issues—at every visit. They'll talk about:

> providing for pet's needs—socialization, exercise, mental stimulation, and environment enrichment

> learning and shaping behavior

> handling and restraint

> other common problems.

Team members can also provide this type of information at puppy and kitten visits and at puppy parties.

With puppies, it's also wise to have team members discuss house training, destructive behavior, play biting, confinement training, obedience, leadership and control, and appropriate punishment. With kittens, team members can highlight litter box training, destructive behavior, nocturnal behavior, play problems, and appropriate punishment.

Recommend and sell the behavior products your practice prefers. You may want to consider offering head halters, toys, treats, odor-cleaning products, pheromones, and behavior devices such as motion-activated alarms, food puzzle toys to entertain dogs with separation anxiety, training clickers, citronella anti-bark collars, and whistles and horns used to interrupt behavior.

Teach puppy classes and basic obedience. This is a great opportunity for your team to reach out to clients and help them bond with the practice. Plus, many team members love to be challenged to grow professionally in the area of pet behavior.

4 WHAT RESOURCES AND CE WILL YOU NEED?

This depends on what you want to accomplish. You can learn enough through reading to offer basic behavior advice. But if you want to offer more involved consultations for more difficult problems, you'll need to take on some training with a mentor, behavior-focused CE, or a residency. Organizations such as the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, the Companion Animal Behaviour Therapy Study Group, and the Veterinary Information Network also offer information to help you develop your behavior skills.

5 WHAT EXTRA CE WILL YOU OFFER THE TEAM?

Again, this will depend on your employees' interest level and what they want to accomplish. Their options include reading books and journals on their own and attending CE; they can also pursue obedience classes or seek board certification.

At the minimum, all of your team members should have a basic understanding of companion animal behavior, how animals learn, and how to help owners with common puppy and kitten problems. If you plan to offer training classes, your services may include puppy classes, obedience classes, and AKA Canine Good Citizenship classes. Always look for certified professional dog trainers to teach these classes, such as those accredited by the Association of Professional Dog Trainers.

6 HOW WILL YOU IMPLEMENT THE NEW PROGRAM?

You want to make people aware of your products and services through internal and external marketing. For example, you might describe your behavior services in a yellow pages ad, on your website, on bulletin boards in the practice or out in the community, in a brochure, through personal contact during wellness visits, in lectures to breed clubs and shelters, and so on. It's also a good idea to use behavior questionnaires to discover problems your clients may not mention during a normal visit.

I also recommend that you develop a database of contacts within your local media and others in the local pet profession. Periodically send out behavior-related press releases to the people in your database and showcase your behavior expertise. For example, if the local TV station or newspaper runs a story about a dog bite in your area, send out a release with tips on how to prevent dog bites. This will boost recognition of your name and services, as well as help keep people—and pets—safe.

Finally, free puppy parties are a great way to offer a fun service and teach eager new owners about their pets' behavior. I recommend an informal setting with coffee, doughnuts, and dog treats. Your reception area or a nearby open space is usually a good choice for a venue. Your goal for the party is to give pet owners and their pets a chance to socialize and learn about behavior. It also provides an excellent opportunity for pet owners to meet your team and learn more about your practice.

7 HOW WILL YOU PRICE YOUR SERVICES?

Financially, a successful behavior program means you keep more clients and generate more revenue. After all, a pet that stays with a family is going to be a patient for many years at your practice. And depending on the products and services you provide, an effective behavior program can offer a significant contribution to your bottom line. At my practice, behavior-related services contribute about 10 percent to gross revenue annually. We derive income from:

> consultations

> behavioral medications for conditions such as separation anxiety

> diagnostics (to establish a pet's baseline health and monitor safety of long-term drugs)

> sales of behavior products

> training sessions.

Finally, let's look at how you should charge for consultations. Since the time required can vary significantly from case to case, especially for problems that involve aggression, I recommend charging by the hour. Your hourly rate should be based on a physical examination fee. For instance, if your 20-minute exam runs $48, an hour of behavior consultation of training would cost about $145. (If you decide you'll make house calls as part of your behavior services, you'll need to add an upcharge to cover your time out of the practice and travel-related expenses.) For more predictable problems, such as canine and feline house soiling, you may decide to charge per visit.

Remember, a behavior program offers one very special benefit beyond the financial: If you can help pet owners salvage a strained relationship with their pets, you become an important part of their human-animal bond. And the trust and love you've helped create will offer a lifetime of rewards for the pet, the family, and your practice.

Dr. Wayne Hunthausen owns Animal Behavior Consultations in Westwood, Kan. Please send questions or comments to ve@advanstar.com.