Severe Dog Behavior Problems – Medical Integrative Therapy
More and more, people come to me with incredibly difficult canine behavior problems. One of the first things I express to my clients is to get a thorough physical exam for their dog with their veterinarian.
With many cases, the behavior problem cannot be addressed until the physical problem is addressed. This is one reason why I include looking at health in general with every dog I work with. I examine food. Things like junky dog food contribute to behavior issues just like junk food contributes to behavior issues with kids. I look at age and development in terms of what to expect with behavior because of a dog’s maturity process. And many times, I look at and encourage medical intervention with dogs that have extreme fear or anxiety issues.
In dogs during the first year, they go through many development periods, some which we call “fear periods” where puppies can learn to fear events that happen to them during that period. There are what we call “single event traumas” that can trigger fear of something for the rest of the dog’s life. The problem is that we don’t always know when that fear period might happen. It is not always the same in all dogs.
The point is that along WITH behavior intervention, we may need to consider a medical intervention as well. Sometimes a behavior can be trigged by an illness or pain. Many puppies, especially little females can get urinary tract infections that cause them to have accidents in the house more frequently making house training VERY difficult. If the infection is not treated, not only will the house training never be successful, but your puppy can become very sick.
In some cases, medical intervention is necessary for emotional events as well. Just like with people, sometimes there is an event so traumatic that ordinary counseling (or dog training/behavior intervention) cannot resolve the issues. In COMBINATION with medication, behavior training can become extremely effective.
Because a dog has an emotional issue from a trauma or fear event means that medication should be explored. This may not be needed in cases where progress can be made with behavior intervention alone. But, in severe cases, a veterinary professional should be consulted. Or in cases where the situation the dog is traumatized from cannot be removed or changed, medication might need to be considered.
I many cases, too, emotional fear is genetic. More and more studies are showing that a generalized fearful attitude is genetic and then we must accept that any intervention may be only minimally successful. A trained, experienced Certified Dog Behavior Consultant or a Veterinary Behaviorist (who is a DVM AS WELL), may be needed to make the determination if the behavior is genetic or not.
The “take away” from this article is that when you have a severe behavior problem with a dog, both a veterinarian and a dog behavior professional working in unison should be considered for you to see behavior improvements.
