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Dog behaviour therapy: when a scared dog falls asleep on your lap!
What an honour! This young man (English cocker cross) finds visitors VERY stressful. He sees them as dangerous, and he then goes directly into protection mode (protecting his owner). This has reached the stage that receiving guests is really stressful for the family. I carried out a protocol we designed for guest-shy dogs. I was […]
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Dog behaviour therapy of a streetdog: a mystery to be solved
Behaviour therapy cases are often a mystery to be solved. We get a very detailed history from the owners, we have a long conversation with them and ask tons of questions, we test and observe the dog. And then a picture can form. Take this one whom I saw recently. This adorable young man was […]
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When is it OK to pick up my dog?
Author: Laure-Anne Viselé Written on: 17 Feb 2020 Is it OK to pick up your dog? Actually, that depends. My dog is scared, and I want to help him In the following situations, it is absolutely a good idea to pick up your dog, as long as… Your dog does feel safe in […]
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The sheltie that barked too much
Meet Mr. X, a lovely, lovely, lovely Sheltie I have seen in behaviour therapy lately. The problem? Barking of course. Make a behaviourist appointment Together with his handler, we analysed the various reasons behind that problem. I then put together a training plan that tackles these. A training plan that: 1. Teaches the dog […]
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Separation anxiety? Different diagnoses
Summary of the findings of: Santos de Assis et al, 2019: “Developing diagnostic frameworks in veterinary behavioural medicine: disambiguating separation related problems in dogs“ The ‘separation anxiety’ diagnosis gets thrown around quite a lot, but is that justified – or even helpful? There seem to be different forms of separation problems, and […]
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Pexion: a drug to help your pet through Dutch New Year’s Eve
A study recently came out (September 2019) testing the effect of Pexion on fireworks phobia in dogs. The results are extremely promising. http://bit.ly/3207Cr1 Pexion is a drug that is normally used to treat a form of epilepsy in dogs. In recent years, though, its anxiety- and fear-reducing effects have been tested on dogs with a […]
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Definition, victims and facilitating factors of severe dog on dog aggression (research article summary)
Schilder, van der Borg, Vinke – 2019 – Intraspecific killing in dogs: Predation behavior or aggression? A study of aggressors, victims, possible causes, and motivations (link to partial view here) – Jnl Vet Beh Vol. 34 Nov-Dec 2019, pp. 52-59 The University of Utrecht’s team of dog behaviour specialists has had another noteworthy article published. […]
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Dogs and kids: do you make the right choices?
OhMyDog focuses a lot on the dog-child dynamic. Dogs and kids can be a wonderful combinations, or it can be a disaster waiting to happen. It turns out that interactions between child and dog are surrounded by myth and hear-say, and it can result in unsafe practices. Well-meaning parents often miss red flags that […]
