Grumpy Dogs: Overcoming Your Dog's Fear and Aggression
Dog Aggression and Your Veterinarian, Their Role in Treatment
Oct 01, 2023
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA
Ever wonder what role your vet might play in your dog's behavioral health? Join us as we navigate this often under-explored terrain with certified dog behavior consultant, Scott Sheaffer. This episode is a valuable resource for every dog owner, as Scott enlightens us about the role your vet could play in managing and treating your dog's behavioral issues. It's not all about medication either - Scott emphasizes the power of teamwork and the implementation of behavior modification exercises.
We dive into the importance of clear communication with your vet, and how physical issues can sometimes manifest as behavioral changes in dogs. Prepare to have your perspective broadened as we explore the possibility of seeking second opinions and how it can aid in your dog's treatment plan.
Walk away with practical advice on tackling a visit to the vet with a fearful or aggressive dog, and how to discuss these issues effectively with your vet. This episode is packed with actionable insights and tips that will help you manage and understand your dog's behavioral issues better.
About Scott Sheaffer Scott Sheaffer, CCBC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog behavior consultant who has worked with thousands of dog owners and their aggressive dogs. Scott specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression, and phobias in dogs six months and older.
Disclaimer If you have a dog who is aggressive and dangerous to humans, it is important that you immediately consult directly with an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Take proper measures to ensure that your dog is never in a position to injure anyone. The information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is neither intended nor implied to replace the need for the direct involvement of an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Scott Sheaffer, the Grumpy Dogs podcast and USA Dog Behavior, LLC, are not liable for any incidents or outcomes resulting from following the advice given in this podcast.
Ever wonder what role your vet might play in your dog's behavioral health? Join us as we navigate this often under-explored terrain with certified dog behavior consultant, Scott Sheaffer. This episode is a valuable resource for every dog owner, as Scott enlightens us about the role your vet could play in managing and treating your dog's behavioral issues. It's not all about medication either - Scott emphasizes the power of teamwork and the implementation of behavior modification exercises.
We dive into the importance of clear communication with your vet, and how physical issues can sometimes manifest as behavioral changes in dogs. Prepare to have your perspective broadened as we explore the possibility of seeking second opinions and how it can aid in your dog's treatment plan.
Walk away with practical advice on tackling a visit to the vet with a fearful or aggressive dog, and how to discuss these issues effectively with your vet. This episode is packed with actionable insights and tips that will help you manage and understand your dog's behavioral issues better.
About Scott Sheaffer Scott Sheaffer, CCBC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA, is a certified dog behavior consultant who has worked with thousands of dog owners and their aggressive dogs. Scott specializes in the assessment and treatment of fear, anxiety, aggression, and phobias in dogs six months and older.
Disclaimer If you have a dog who is aggressive and dangerous to humans, it is important that you immediately consult directly with an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Take proper measures to ensure that your dog is never in a position to injure anyone. The information presented in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is neither intended nor implied to replace the need for the direct involvement of an experienced and certified canine behavior consultant who specializes in dog aggression to humans. Scott Sheaffer, the Grumpy Dogs podcast and USA Dog Behavior, LLC, are not liable for any incidents or outcomes resulting from following the advice given in this podcast.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
A frequent question I get from my clients is can medication play a role in my dog's treatment plan? If, in fact, behavioral medication is ultimately used as part of a treatment plan, then the veterinarian your veterinarian necessarily becomes a member of the treatment team. And the treatment team I'm speaking of is you, the client, the veterinarian and a behavior consultant. It's a three-legged stool. It's a critically important team, especially for dogs with significant behavior issues, but veterinarians can do more than just provide medication if needed. In today's episode, I'm going to answer the question what part can my veterinarian play in my dog's overall treatment plan for aggression? I'm also going to answer a second question how can I best work with my veterinarian when it comes to a behavior issue? Welcome to the Dog Aggression Answers Podcast. I'm Scott Schaffer, your host and a certified expert in dog behavior. With the background of helping thousands of aggressive dogs and their owners, I'm here to share humane, science-based solutions for your dog's aggression. Stay tuned For my clients who have dogs that have significant aggression or other behavioral issues and whose dog will require some type of anti-anxiety medication as part of the treatment plan. I tell them that the dog's treatment will necessitate a unified team of three, as I mentioned at the top of the episode, that team being the dog owner, you behavior consultant and their veterinarian. But vets can do more than just prescribe behavioral medication, as you'll see and I want to make an important point about medication before we go any further Behavior medications from your vet are only one part of the overall treatment plan.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
These medications support the behavior modification and management exercises a behavior consultant provides the client. But that's the point. They support it. It's not the total treatment, and medications for behavioral issues should be used carefully and sparingly. The majority of behavior cases I see require no medication as part of the treatment. Medication alone is not enough, but it can be a good tool to support proper behavior modification. As nice as it would be, medication alone is not a fix for more severe behavior issues in dogs. It's what we call an adjunct. It just is additive to the behavior treatment.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
Let's spend a minute talking about the best way to work with your dog's veterinarian, the important part of the team, one of the three members. We have to first put our veterinarians in a position to be most effective. Dogs with significant behavior issues can be challenging for your veterinarian. How can you help? How can you make them be more effective. Let's talk about a couple of ways to do that.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
First, if your dog is being treated for aggression, especially human aggression, your dog is likely going to be fearful and or aggressive when at the veterinarian's office, even potentially dangerous to the vet's staff, other clients and even other dogs at the vet's office. If your dog is dog aggressive as well, it's your job to manage your dog from a safety perspective and to minimize the stress to your dog. Also, these things can be very stressful for your dog. A lot of dog guardians don't realize that their dog doesn't understand why they're at the vet. They don't understand that the vet is there to help them. They just know it's a scary place. We have to see it from the dog's perspective. This is just a very stressful experience for many dogs.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
The things that you can do to help manage your dog would be things like muscling your dog before you arrive or giving anti-anxiety medications, as prescribed by your vet, to your dog prior to the appointment. This is called pretreating. This is just a couple of the many things you can do to help your dog and your vet manage your dog while at the vet. For more information on how to manage your dog at the vet's office. I've included a link in the episode notes to a short article I've written on how to manage a fearful and or aggressive dog at the vet's office Very helpful. I've had a lot of clients and others who say this has been a very helpful article. So if you get a chance, take a look. The second thing you can do to help your vet is to let your veterinarian know all about your dog's aggression issues and what you are doing about it and provide status updates. Veterinarians really like to hear that you've identified and are working with a certified dog behavior consultant to help you with your dog's issue. This is especially true if you're asking about behavior medication for your dog. They want to know that you're doing your part before they do the medication.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
While your vet can be an important part of the treatment plan, remember that your veterinarian is one part of the team. You and your behavior consultant have to do, in reality, the majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to treating dogs with behavioral issues. They are there, meaning your veterinarian, to help with the treatment. Your veterinarian's focus is on your dog's physical health. Of course, that's 99% of the focus of their training. That's their wheelhouse.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
I found that some dog owners somewhat unrealistically expect their veterinarian's expertise to extend into animal behavior as well, and that really is just not fair to your vet, your dog or even you. What makes this more challenging is that the veterinarian only sees your dog for 15 minutes on rare occasions in a normal checkup and in a very unusual environment for your dog that is the veterinarian's office. It's really hardly sufficient time or an environment for a proper behavioral assessment, even if they had substantial training in canine behavior. From a different perspective, I'm asked all the time about my clients, dogs, physical issues and what I think they should do about them. I'm neither set up or trained to properly address these kinds of veterinary issues. My advice is always, if you have questions about this, see your vet. In other words, really appreciate where your vet is coming from and really use their expertise in their area. That's true, of course, for every professional you work with when it comes to your dog. Okay, let's talk about ways your veterinarian can help you in many important ways with your dog's behavior issues, and now I'm going to talk about six of those ways.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
Number one vets can be a great source of referrals for you when it comes to your dog's behavioral issues. Most of our referrals come from veterinarians. You can ask your vet for a certified behavior consultant referral. Many have behavior consultants they regularly work with and know. However, while your vet can refer you to a behavior consultant, be sure to do your research on the referral before engaging them. Sometimes a veterinarian who is trying to help you and your dog may unknowingly and innocently refer you to someone who is not properly qualified and or uses aversive methods, that is, punishment-based methods, and we know and if you've been listening to this podcast, you know those are really contraindicated when you have a dog with behavioral issues. This kind of research that you should do is especially important if your dog has a significant behavior issue, such as human-directed aggression.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
Okay, the next way your vet can work with you and your dog on the behavioral issues is to communicate well with everyone on the team. In other words, vets usually make it easy to give and get information from their office. This information could include things like physical test results, medication information such as what to watch out for, inside effects, dosage changes, etc. They also keep records about behavioral assessment updates provided by the behavior consultant. I know I regularly send those to veterinarians. They're really just a clearing house of information relevant to the behavior issues being treated. I know that I am frequently in contact with veterinarians, getting and giving information and just really help solidify the team.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
And the next way your vet can help you with your dog's behavior issues is one that is really, really important and that's staying in touch with the dog's owner to adjust behavior medication dosages, either up or down, and assisting the owner in tapering off the drugs when appropriate. I find sometimes that dogs with significant behavioral issues are on medication for years that appears not to be helping. It can mean that the dosage needs to either be adjusted or possibly another medication needs to be tried, but something needs to be changed. Obviously we'd want to leave a dog on a medication for years where it seems to be having no effect. This, however, is not at all just the vet's responsibility. I want to add I really stress with my clients whose dogs are on medication behavioral medication to stay in touch, in close contact with their vet about changing dosages, stopping the medication when appropriate or changing medications also when appropriate. Ultimately, this is primarily the owner's responsibility to track, in my opinion, but your vet can be a great helper on this and give you good advice.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
The fourth way your vet can help you with your dog's behavioral issue that I want to talk about is that they can inform their clients you About the possible side effects of the behavioral medications your dog is taking. Medications like this can be complex, to say the least. Only your veterinarian really understands all the possible side effects and interactions of these drugs. Another thing to keep in mind is that your vet can help you understand how these drugs will impact your specific dog, meaning the breed type, the dog's age, the dog's general health. These medications will act differently Depending on what those variables are.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
I encourage my clients to ask a lot of questions about the drugs that are being prescribed and what they need to be on the lookout for. For example, sometimes dogs can react in a way that is exactly opposite of what we are looking for in a specific behavior medication. This is called a paradoxical reaction and needs to be communicated to your vet immediately. It's rare and it's just an example, but it's one of the things that we need to be on the lookout for. There are a myriad of things to be on the alert for in many behavioral medications, and your vet can certainly give you a heads up on those and what to do if you see them.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
Alright, the next thing, number five, that I want to talk about is they can help administer and oh my gosh, this is so important any physical rule out test deem necessary by the vet or requested by the client or requested by the behavior consultant, and that would be a physical examination, thyroid profile, blood chemistry panel, pain assessment, etc. Those are just some examples and, by the way, when I say rule out, what I mean is let's rule out other causes, specifically physical causes, that might be causing these behavioral issues, before we jump into an in-depth or comprehensive behavioral treatment plan. In Cases where behavioral symptoms show up suddenly, we always suspect a physical reason for the behavioral change. When a dog that is seven years old Suddenly becomes aggressive, like overnight and I see lots of these we always wonder well, what? What would cause that, especially when we rule out any environmental changes. In my clients, where this is the case, I asked them to check with their vet to rule out any physical reasons that might be causing the issue. If the examination comes up negative, in other words, the vet doesn't find anything, then we can proceed more confidently with our behavior modification, so important.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
If the test show a physical problem, maybe a physical reason for the behavioral change, then that needs to be addressed first and see if that resolves the issue or Substantially resolves the issue. I definitely have cases where it's a physical issue and frequently the behavior problem was simply a Symptom of the problem the health problem, the physical problem. Once a physical issue is resolved, the behavior issues Frequently resolved. I don't know about you, but when I feel bad or I'm in pain, I can be a little grumpy too. At least that's what my wife Barbara says. All right, and so the last thing I want to say is is kind of a catch-all.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
There are other ways that your veterinarian can help too, of course. If your dog has serious behavioral issues, they can and will be a valuable member of your treatment plan. I've worked with dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens of veterinarians and have great experience. We trust our veterinarians with our dog's physical health and seek their help when a behavioral issue surfaces. Unfortunately, I've experienced a very small number of cases where a veterinarian will have nothing to do with behavioral medication, regardless of the severity of the problem. They just don't want anything to do with it. They don't believe in these medications and that's fine for them to think that. I've also seen other situations where a veterinarian will say something like I don't see anything wrong with your dog today, so there is no need for me to do anything here.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
Some vets are even resistant to doing any kind of physical testing rule-outs, that's testing to ensure there aren't any physical problems causing the behavior issue. As I mentioned earlier, most veterinarians are primarily trained in the physical health of animals. That's their wheelhouse, that's their lane. And if you consider that vets spend 15 minutes with your vet in an examination room at a veterinary office, as we mentioned earlier, you have to surmise that it's probably not the best scenario to reach any reliable conclusions about a serious behavior issue. And I have certainly found that 99.999% of vets understand the limitations of assessing behavior and making those kinds of decisions in an examination environment.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
If it's been suggested to you by a behavior consultant that you asked your vet about behavior medication or testing to rule out physical issues and your vet is hesitant about that or doesn't want to discuss this with you because they don't like drugs or they don't see any problems or don't want to do any physical testing to rule out other problems. You may want to consider consulting with another veterinarian. You want to be free to explore all tools available to you if there is a potential need with a serious behavioral issue. With all that being said, my experience with 99.999% of all vets has been very positive. They are extremely cooperative and helpful with clients and with me. In almost every case they can be an important part as we've been talking about of your team when dealing with a dog with serious behavior issues. Your vet can definitely help in some behavior cases. However, make sure you help them. Help you. As we talked about, communication is probably the most important overriding thing here. Don't be shy about asking your vet about behavior problems and soliciting their help in medication, if indicated, and testing for any physical issues that might be causing or contributing to your dog's issues.
Scott Sheaffer, CBCC-KA, CDBC, CPDT-KA:
We'll continue in future episodes to discuss all aspects of dog aggression and other serious behavior issues. Behavior problems in dogs, such as aggression, are frequently not simple or easy to address. The goal of this podcast is to provide you information so you can take an informed and comprehensive approach to addressing your dog's behavior issues. Thanks for tuning in today. If you enjoyed the episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and leave a review if this information is helpful. I always appreciate your insights, so visit dogaggressionanswerscom if you'd like to leave me a message Before we wrap up. This podcast offers educational insights, but for serious dog aggression issues, always consult directly with a certified dog behavior consultant. See you next time and stay tuned.