Fear during clinic visits often leads to patient distress, discomfort, and behavior problems. If their fear and anxiety are not addressed effectively, it can worsen over time, become harder to manage safely, and can have negative impacts on their welfare. Fear and emotional distress create challenges that can prevent pets from receiving necessary care. Fear can put people at risk. You may be hesitant to take your pet in just to avoid the experience; some people are embarrassed by their pet’s behavior. Remember they are behaving this way because they are afraid, not because they are

Storm phobia, or fear of storms, is a common behavior in dogs. A magic pill to treat a noise or storm phobia does not exist. Treatment involves a combination of environmental management, behavior modification, and medication.

The following photos and text are demonstrating towel wrapping. Remember to practice your technique on a stuffed animal. Loose wrapping can allow space for struggling which can result in injury.

Many advantages and negligible risk to feeding treats in the veterinary clinic. Veterinarians and vet technicians are often impressed when they see the effects of successful counterconditioning on fearful animals: growling dogs stop snapping, and scared animals become more manageable. But as a consultant, the skeptical comment I keep hearing is: “… unfortunately we can’t feed treats because if we need to sedate animals at any time during the examination, feeding might increase the risk of Aspiration Pneumonia…” This is a valid concern, of course. Aspiration Pneumonia (AP) is a very serious disease. But how does the risk of AP

When I started training my first dog in 1985 I did everything my trainers told me but made slow progress. It wasn’t until years later, when I learned the scientific principles that guide learning in animals that I learned to train efficiently and to easily solve new training problems. Probably 90% of behavioral issues we have with our pets can be solved by understanding and applying the basic learning principles. (For more information see our new DVD: Pet Dogs, Problem Dogs, High Performance Dogs: How Science Can Take Your Training to a New Level). Here are some examples described by

Virtually everyone who trains animals knows the name B.F. Skinner. Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1980) is one of the best-known psychologists in history. His claim to fame is the Skinner Box—a more-refined version of Thorndike’s puzzle box. The box had a lever, a slot for food rewards, and water. The rat could explore and if it happened to press the bar a food pellet would drop into the tray. The cage was wired to automatically record behavior showing the cumulative number of presses per minute. Similar boxes were made for pigeons. Due to this efficient way for testing rats and pigeons