What is a dog behaviorist?
A dog behaviorist is professionally trained in dog behaviors and how to help make them better. They are similar to dog trainers but more specialized. I was a little unclear, so I googled it. Read this post from AKC.org for more.
Why did we consider finding a dog behaviorist?
We decided to find out more about how a dog behaviorist could help us since we’re having issues with Lincoln that we’d like to make better. After asking around, it seemed that it might be helpful to consider the help of a professional. Read my post here if you aren’t familiar with the situation.
Lincoln, as much as I love him, is a difficult dog. He has some health issues, which we are mostly able to manage. He also has some pain issues, which we sometimes manage better than others. All of these things could use the knowledge of a vet.
The problem is, we can’t take him to the vet as things stand. He’s been to four different veterinarians, and they don’t want to see him again. He gets defensive and terrifying when he feels like he’s going to be forced into something. Plus, we don’t want them to get hurt either. One of them mentioned a dog behaviorist, but we weren’t ready to search for one yet.
What we’ve tried on our own
We are not dog trainers, at least not professionals. Having dogs in our lives, we’ve come to realize the benefit of getting more skilled in teaching our dogs what we want from them and how to do that. Lincoln has definitely required us to up our game.
We’ve talked to a couple of dog trainers. Some of them have some good advice. They teach general stuff that would probably work great for most puppies or milder adult dogs. We’ve been working on the things they teach, like “place” or walking on a loose lead. I remember reading in passing about a dog behaviorist but I didn’t act on it. We don’t have any close to us.
However, Lincoln has a past. It’s much harder to undo the harm from a bad experience than it is to work with the blank slate of a dog that is starting fresh. When we try to work on the basics, the other issues make it more complicated. We have him to the point where he’s not bad at home, but going someplace stressful doesn’t work.
Sometimes we have to go to the vet
When it’s necessary to take him in to get treatment, things get difficult. If we try to visit like our other dogs, things fall apart quickly. The behavior of this dog appears very aggressive and scary.
We’ve tried mild sedation, which works until he’s AT the vet’s office. Another approach we’ve tried is to train him with a muzzle. He’s surprisingly quick at removing that thing. Things that work at home don’t work in the stress of the vet’s office.
We’ve had to resort to having the vet heavily sedate him to get anything done in the past. I’d prefer not to have to do that, but in some cases, Lincoln needs the medical treatment badly enough that we put him through it.
Each time we have to do that, his reaction gets worse, however. He’s had too many bad experiences, and it just escalates each time we try. We’ve reached the point that whatever is going on will have to be life-threatening, or it’s not worth it. I am finally at the point of considering a dog behaviorist.
Would a dog behaviorist work for us?
I reached out to a well-known dog blogger, Dr. Marty Becker, for ideas since we’re at our wit’s end. He referred me to several experts, one of which was a behaviorist. The other experts made the same recommendation, so I decided it was time to try to figure it out.
First, I haven’t found a dog behaviorist within 100 miles of us. Plus, even those within a few hours' drive don’t want to do in-person visits with the pandemic, so it’s all virtual and on Zoom. One benefit is that we can work with just about anyone if it’s virtual, and the distance doesn’t matter.
We located one that is about three hours drive from us, so should in-person visits become available, we can do that. We’ve started talking to a dog behaviorist over Zoom to see what we can figure out.
How it’s working so far
We have had a couple of Zoom meetings at this point. The first was intended to get familiar with each other and set up a plan for the future. The behaviorist gave us several tasks to work on for training.
Of course, they want us to train him for the muzzle. They also want us to work on his reaction to strangers so that he’s under control. While these sound like great ideas, we’re having problems. Plus, we have five other dogs that confuse things even more. We’ll have to keep working on it.
I have been working on muzzle training. However, the bottom line is that I think a muzzle will give handlers a second or two more but not work completely in this case. Lincoln has shown repeatedly how good he is at removing muzzles.
Then we had a Zoom call with a local vet who has agreed to oversee our process and the dog behaviorist/vet specialist to address any physical issues. We’re all in agreement that some pain issues are contributing to our difficulties.
This is where we’re stuck. To address the pain issues, we need to take Lincoln to the vet. But that’s where his greatest problems show up. If we’re going to diagnose and treat his pain, do we have to traumatize him again? We don’t even have any guarantee that it will make anything better. We don’t want to do that.
What do we do now?
We are more than willing to work on training as well as find a management plan. We need to figure out where to start, I think. Fortunately, Lincoln is fairly stable right now, so we have some time. We’re going to strengthen his training so that, should we decide to do it, that evaluation isn’t so stressful.
Admittedly, we have a more difficult case than many people. A dog behaviorist would probably be a great option for these people and their dogs.
I still think the dog behaviorist can help us if we work on the training at home. It sounds like going to the vet may never be easy, considering our history, but it can be manageable given the right tools.
Have you ever considered or worked with a dog behaviorist? What were your experiences? Were you able to resolve your issues?
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