Texas Veterinary Behavior Services

11/01/2024

Cat Breed Fun Fact: Did you know that Savannah cats are a cross breed between the wild African serval and the domestic cat? This cross accounts for their long legs, allowing them to conquer great heights to capture prey. While they can make amicable companions, they are not a lap cat nor are they a low maintenance pet. Their large size and closer relation to their wild ancestors makes them prone to destructive and aggressive tendencies if their hunting and enrichment needs are unmet.

10/29/2024

Amazing Animals:
Not only are Hummingbirds the smallest birds with the tiniest nests and eggs, they are also the only birds that can sustain backwards flight. This is due to their unique structure. They do not flap up and down like other birds they make figure 8’s with their wings to attain lift and to hover.

10/28/2024

Cat Breed Fun Fact:
The Siamese cat originated in Thailand (historically referred to as Siam), likely sometime before the 14th to 18th centuries. Although the breed's exact origin is unknown, illustrations of cats resembling the modern-day Siamese feature in the historical Thai "Treatise on Cats" (see illustration), a compilation of existing cat breeds and their characteristics published sometime in the 19th century. Breed specimens reached England and the United States in the late 1800s, where their popularity was bolstered by claims of exclusive breeding by Thai royalty. Siamese cats are known for their affection to human owners and vocal nature. In veterinary behavioral medicine, they are also known for an increased susceptibility for 'wool-sucking', a stereotypic oral compulsive behavior presenting as chewing, sucking, or ingestion of non-food items like wool, fabric, and plastics. This breed predisposition and typical early onset of the behavior suggest that it is influenced by genetics.

10/24/2024

Differential reinforcement (DR) is a process where a desirable behavior is reinforced and an undesirable behavior is extinguished by withholding reinforcement. Using the principles of operant conditioning, the desirable behavior will therefore be more likely to occur in the future while the undesirable behavior will be less likely to occur in the future. Slowly, the undesirable behavior will become extinct as the reinforcement has been removed. There are 5 types of DR. I will briefly cover two types: differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO) and differential reinforcement of alternative behaviors (DRA). When doing DRO, the animal is reinforced for doing any behavior other than the undesirable or target behavior. For example, the target behavior is a dog showing interest in a guinea pig cage. If we were to do DRO for this behavior, we would reinforce the dog for doing anything other than paying attention to the guinea pig cage. This could include laying down, chewing on a bone, playing with their toy, etc. For DRA, the animal is only reinforced when doing an appropriate alternative behavior. In this case, the alternative behavior must have the same function as the target behavior. If the target behavior is a dog chewing on shoes. We will only reinforce the dog when they are chewing on their bones, an appropriate alternative behavior.

10/24/2024

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/pets/2024/10/24/do-can-dogs-smile/75605133007/

Seeing a smile from your dog will likely turn your own frown upside down. But what are dogs trying to tell you when they smile? We've got the answer.

10/21/2024

Counterconditioning is a term that is frequently bandied about in the animal training world.  Unfortunately, it is often used incorrectly.  As a respondent, or Pavlovian, conditioning process, counterconditioning is the process of pairing a conditioned stimulus (CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (US) in order to change the conditioned response (CR) to one of the opposite emotional valence. True counterconditioning is based on non-contingent reinforcement – the CS-US pairing happens no matter how the animal or person behaves. Techniques such as Engage-Disengage, commonly used for leash reactivity, are technically not counterconditioning as the reinforcement is contingent on the dog looking at, or away, from another dog or other trigger.  (So this is technically differential reinforcement, which is an operant conditioning paradigm.) Additionally, just because an animal receives reinforcement, does not mean that true counterconditioning is actually occurring as the CR may not be changing.  There is however, a complex interaction between operant and respondent conditioning and we will delve into this more in future posts.

10/18/2024

Dog Breed Fun Fact: did you know that English Springer Spaniels are bird flushing dogs? English Springer Spaniels were named for their unique style of “springing” at game to drive them into the open for capture and “flushing” gamebirds for shooting. They are also excellent retrievers. Their heritage accounts for their hunting prowess, athleticism, and need for significant exercise. While most are great family pets, there is a heritable predisposition to resource guarding in individuals of the breed.

10/15/2024

We are celebrating Charley's memory on the one year anniversary of her travel to the Rainbow Bridge. We miss you so much Charley.

10/15/2024

Terminology Tuesday: BORBORYGMUS
This was Dr. Haug's most favorite word all through vet school! This refers to the grumbling intestinal sounds. Excessive (e.g. dogs) or reduced (e.g. horses) borborygmus can indicate gastrointestinal dysfunction and suggest the need for veterinary evaluation.

10/07/2024

Word of the Week: Cue

The terms “cue” and “command” are frequently used interchangeably in dog training. In psychology, both terms refer to a “discriminative stimulus” which is a signal that serves to communicate to the animal the availability of a particular consequence or reinforcer.

Modern animal trainers consistently prefer using the term “cue” rather than “command” because we are requesting an animal perform a behavior rather than insisting they do it. Insisting the pet do the behavior implies that you will do something aversive to the pet of the pet does not comply. Good animal training is about empowering animals and creating an environment of cooperation rather than intimidation.

09/30/2024

Dog Breed Fun Fact: Did you know that Dalmatians are guard dogs? Dalmatians were bred to run under, or along side, carriages to guard the horses and occupants from thieves and highwaymen. This accounts for this breed's assertiveness, endurance, and desire to run.

09/24/2024

New human baby on the way? Taking steps to prepare your dog (or cat) in the proper way can make the newcomer's transition into your home smooth sailing. Just ask Ozzy and his family!

09/24/2024

Sending out kudos to Team Ollie! Ollie is learning to feels safe and cooperate with Dr. Kosich for his veterinary exams. We salute Dr. Kosich and the professionals at Washington Heights Veterinary Clinic for always helping us look out for the welfare of our patients!

09/20/2024

09/20/2024

Puppy Training Tips: Here are some suggestions for training your dog to be calmer and relaxed for application of a collar or harness.

09/12/2024

Yesterday evening

09/11/2024

The session we are working on paw handling and some work with the nail grinder. This is her second session with the Dremel.

09/11/2024

Be careful what you buy.

​"Sometimes you're not paying for the 'name brand' you're paying for the quality."

08/30/2024

Sealy School Puppy Training: Today we are working on cooperative care training!

The foundation of this training is to teach Sealy to stand or sit quietly and to remain focused on the visual target (i.e. the treat) while I touch different parts of her body.

This training is useful for many aspects of veterinary care! For example, for vaccinations, we can have Sealy focus on the visual target, tell her “back” and touch her back, then “tent” as we tent the skin and then “poke” for the actual shot. This way Sealy knows what to expect and is a willing participant in her care!

08/18/2024

Sealy School

So we started this session working on toenail trimming which we did accomplish a little. But then I let it morph into the start of her offering me her feet or teaching shake.







08/07/2024

Puppy Training: Sealy School

Three days ago, Dr. Gibson and I attempted to trim Seely‘s back toenails using extremely high food or toy distraction. This was quickly unsuccessful and we aborted the attempt. Since then I have done a total of about 30 minutes of paw handling and toenail prep training. Today we were successful in trimming all of her back toenails in one sitting with no stress to her or me.

Positive reinforcement training, including cooperative care, does not have to take very long, especially if it is done properly, and the learners threshold is adequately managed.



08/05/2024

Its been a while due to Beryl, but another installment of . We are working on foot handling for nail trimming. Here is an excerpt from a our second training session. Foot handling of course is part of COOPERATIVE care, which means we want the dog or puppy (or cat) to have voluntary buy in.

07/26/2024

Some of our patients just know that Dr. Haug is here to help them :)

07/13/2024

Sealy School

So our second session of the toy release behavior went extremely well. Having the right value reinforcement is crucial for setting the puppy or dog up for success.