1 Behavior Medicine and the General Practitioner Amy Learn
2 Development, social and communicative behavior Ashley Elzerman
3 Pet Selection and the genetics of behavior Lowell Ackerman
4 Pets and the Family Dynamic Emily Levine
5 Prevention: the best medicine Andrea Tu
6 All body systems affect behavior Alison Gerken
7 Physiologic Stress and its Effect on Health & Welfare Melissa Bain
8 The effects of aging on behavior in senior pets Shana Gilbert Gregory
9 Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment Lisa Radosta
10 Treatment - Behavior modification techniques Lore Haug
11 Treatment-Pharmacologic intervention Leticia Dantas
12 Treatment-Complementary and alternative therapy Megan Petroff
13 Feeding and diet-related problems Meaghan Ropski
14 Anxiety, fear and phobia Carlo Siracusa
15 Noise Aversion Kelly Ballantyne
16 Reducing Fear, Anxiety and Stress in Veterinary Visits Amy Learn
17 Separation Related Disorders Ariel Fagen
18 Sterotypic and compulsive disorders Colleen Koch
19 Unruly and destructive behaviors - Canine Wailani Sung
20 Unruly and destructive behaviors - Feline Krista Sirois
21 Housesoiling - Canine Valarie Tynes
22 Housesoiling - Feline Alison Gerken
23 Aggression - Canine Lisa Radosta
24 Aggression - Feline Krista Sirois
25 Problem behaviour an evidence based approach based on neuropsychobiology Daniel Mills
Appendix A - List of Handouts and Forms Team
Appendix B - Behavior Resources Team
Appendix C - Printed versions of Handouts and Forms Team
Appendix D - Drug Dosages Team
List of Illustrations
Figure 1.1 Five freedoms of animal welfare.
Figure 2.1 Play mouthing by puppies begins to develop and by 4 weeks of age.
Figure 2.2 By 8-9 weeks of age, puppies are attracted by the odors of urine and feces to specific areas for elimination and begin to avoid soiling their den.
Figure 2.3 Socialization should include most things they are likely to encounter later in life including interactions with children.
Figure 2.4 During the socialization period, social play and exploration become increasingly important.
Figure 2.5 Compound messages are made up of more than one body language signal originating from several body parts including the ears, musculature, eyes, tail, and mouth. Play postures are a common example of compound messages.
Figure 2.6 This dog is showing several signs of conflict. He willingly approached the person petting him; however, when petted, he displayed distance increasing signals including lip lick, ears back, tail down, and lowered body posture.
Figure 2.7 Tense musculature is a sign of SNS arousal.
Figure 2.8 Piloerection indicates SNS activation and can be associated with many emotional states and could result in friendly or unfriendly interactions.
Figure 2.9 In gonadectomized dogs, mounting is most often a displacement or conflict behavior indicating a level of excitement and uncertainty, not a desire to dominate the mountee.
Figure 2.10 This dog is lifting one paw in anticipation of the technician's approach for a physical examination. Lifting of one of the front paws may indicate almost any emotional state associated with anticipation.
Figure 2.11 A play bow is a play solicitation posture.
Figure 2.12 Holding the tail below the normal body posture indicates, fear, anxiety, stress, or conflict.
Figure 2.13 The dog stress ladder. Often body language signals are exhibited prior to biting, but go unnoticed by pet parents.
Figure 2.14 Gape or flehmen response.
Figure 2.15 Fearful cat: arched back, dilated pupils, and piloerection.
Figure 2.16 Ears forward indicates an alert cat. This cat has a small pupil size and a relaxed body posture, indicating that he is alert and not stressed.
Figure 2.17 Ears midway back indicates fear, anxiety, stress, or agitation. This cat is also lying in a defensive body position and averting his gaze from the camera indicating that he is stressed by this interaction.
Figure 2.18 These cats are showing moderate to severe fear (ears flat and back, hissing, dilated pupils).
Figure 2.19 Dilated pupils in a bright room indicate severe fear, anxiety, and stress. This cat also has his ears held midway back indicating fear, anxiety, stress, and/or agitation.
Figure 2.20 Question mark tail indicates affiliative interaction.
Figure 2.21 This cat's tail is curled around his body and his pupils are dilated, indicating a state of FASCP.
Figure 4.1 Proactive supervision may not be fully understood by parents.
Figure 4.2 Handouts like this one make parent education more effective.
Figure 4.3 The dog stress ladder. Often body language signals are exhibited prior to biting, but go unnoticed by pet parents.
Figure 5.1 Food toys can keep dogs occupied during stressful situations in the home.
Figure 5.2 Puppy classes can aid in successful socialization.
Figure 5.3 Puppies learn basic skills in puppy class, when they are most amenable to acquiring behaviors.
Figure 5.4 Kitten kindergarten gives kittens exposure to stimuli that they will encounter later in life.
Figure 5.5 Five freedoms of animal welfare.
Figure 5.6 Food toys (dog). A snuffle mat is an easy toy to make at home to keep dogs busy.
Figure 5.7 A food toy can be made out of almost any item.
Figure 5.8 Food toys are widely available for cats.
Figure 5.9 A sanctuary space can be made almost anywhere.
Figure 5.10 Closets make excellent sanctuary spaces.
Figure 5.11 Strollers can be a helpful way to expose cats to the outdoors safely.
Figure 5.12 Catios can offer the enrichment of outside with the safety of inside.
Figure 7.1 The stress system.
Figure 7.2 Environmental enrichment publications on PubMed. A total of 2298 papers on the topic were published from 1967 through 2020.
Figure 8.1 Toronto general test apparatus. In discrimination learning, the dog or cat learns to find food under one of the objects (e.g., the large object), the position of which is randomly presented. When discrimination learning reaches criterion (over 70% success), the dog or cat can then be tested on reversal learning, where the food is presented under the opposite (small) object, until the pet reaches criterion. This task is significantly more difficult for senior dogs and cats to learn compared to young adults.
Figure 8.2 Object discrimination learning is not sensitive to age in dogs (correlation between age and error scores on object discrimination is r = 0.05). In contrast, size discrimination error scores increase significantly with age (correlation between age and error scores on size discrimination is r = 0.728).
Figure 8.3 Feline testing. Cat being tested on two-choice memory task (delayed nonmatching to position DNMP).
Figure 8.4 Spatial memory is unimpaired, impaired, or severely impaired in three different subsets of aged dogs.
Figure 8.5 The amount of time spent playing or contacting the various toys in the room is plotted against cognitive group. Young dogs play with the toys more than age-impaired (P < 0.027) dogs, which rarely touched the toys. Aged, unimpaired dogs explored the toys a little.
Figure 8.6 The plot of percentage lateral ventricle volume (normalized by the total cerebral volume) with age. The relationship with age was not linear; rather, it was stable before age 10 and progressed very rapidly thereafter. A 6-year-old dog was obviously falling out of the age dependence trend and was marked as an outlier. Excluding the outlier, the age correlation was significant. The solid curve is for visual guidance.
Figure 8.7 Selected magnetic resonance images from a 2-year-old (above) and a 15-year-old (below) dog. The old dog showed marked ventricular enlargement and cortical atrophy (deep gyri and widened sulci).
Figure 8.8 Diffuse Aß deposition in the parietal cortex of (A) an aged cat with symptoms of cognitive dysfunction syndrome (tissue provided by Dr. Kelly Moffat) versus (B) in the aged canine brain. Note that Aß in the cat is present as a large diffuse cloud whereas, in the dog, more discrete deposits form. Higher magnification of Aß in (C) cats and (D) dogs. Note the Aß deposition associated with blood vessels (arrowheads) in the cat and that, in both animals, intact neurons (arrows) are present within diffuse clouds of Aß. Bars in (A) and (B): 500 µm; (C) and (D): 50 µm.
Figure 8.9 Canine enrichment food manipulation toy - Kong Hide and Treat.
Figure 8.10 Feline enrichment food manipulation toy.
Figure 9.1 Flowchart for a behavior consultation. DVM, Doctor of veterinary medicine; AAHA, American Animal Hospital Association.
Figure 9.2 Questions to consider and possible outcomes when prescribing. (Note: Predictable behaviors may still need a medication if the pet parent's schedule or home environment does not allow for control of triggers.)
Figure 9.3 How to make medication choices?
Figure 9.4 The 50% rule.
Figure 10.1 Four quadrants of operant conditioning.
Figure 10.2 Types of classical conditioning.
Figure 10.3 Box clickers, a popular type of marker signal in animal training.
Figure 10.4 The i-click emits a softer click and may be more appropriate for sound-sensitive dogs or cats.
Figure 10.5 (A and B) Injuries due to a shock collar use.
Figure 10.6 Hierarchy of behavior change protocols (HoBCP).
Figure 10.7 Opaque decorative window film can significantly reduce barking at outside stimuli.
Figure 10.8 The Black Dog head collar. Head collars can be particularly useful for pet parents with certain physical limitations and also for dogs that tend to redirect aggression toward their handler in the presence of triggering stimuli.
Figure...