Behavior Appointments
APPOINTMENT
How behavior appointments work at Latah Creek Animal Hospital:
Step One: Medication consultation with the doctor at Latah Creek Animal Hospital:
This is the “immediate” first step before a full consultation can be booked, to potentially start medications and discuss which of the below options may be best for you moving forward. You will be asked to fill out a brief survey prior to your appointment. One of the following options will then be discussed with you, and a personalized plan will be made for your pet.
Step Two: Personalized Consultation Plan
1. Full consultation with the doctor at Latah Creek Animal Hospital: Dr. Megan Bauer has a special interest in behavioral medicine. We offer behavior consultations to clients whose pets have mild to moderate behavioral issues. Severe or refractory behavioral issues may need to be referred to a board-certified veterinary behaviorist. This visit comprises a 1-hour initial behavioral visit to discuss behavioral concerns and review protocols for training and tools and medications needed to implement training. You will be asked to complete a comprehensive survey on your pet’s behavior before the appointment. You may also be asked to take pictures or videos of the behavior and environment.
2. Consultation with Veterinary Behaviorists: The closest board-certified veterinary behaviorist is Dr. Chris Pachel at Animal Behavior Clinic in Portland, Oregon. Please contact them to find out if teleconsultation is an option for your pet.
3. Working with local trainers: We do have some great local dog trainers here in Spokane, such as Diamonds in the Ruff and Love Hope Dogs. We also have a positive reinforcement trainer on-staff who can set up a behavioral modification plan for certain issues. We believe in positive re-enforcement training, and counter-conditioning as the vast majority of behavioral issues have an underlying anxiety component. This anxiety can often get worse when punishment or dominance is used. The benefit of doing the behavior consult in addition to training is that training is often more effective with anti-anxiety medications.