Services for Veterinarians

Preventative Behavioral Health

We are all committed to companion animals and their owners. Behavioral issues are the number one reason that pets are surrendered for euthanasia. You can help your clients by asking behavioral questions at each regular exam, providing them with quality scientific information and referrals to important community resources. This should continue throughout the lifetime of the animal. You can build a sense of community and help pets become better companions by offering informational meetings for new puppy and kitten owners. If you have always been meaning to add this as a service to your clients, I am able to train you and your staff in how to host puppy parties and kitten kindergarten or facilitate regular offerings of these services at your veterinary practice.

Puppy Parties

This one or two week session is usually held in an evening or a Saturday morning at your veterinary practice for puppies 8-16 weeks of age. It can be customized to your needs and the number of clients attending. Puppy parties encourage all the family member to attend with their new puppy. It is a wonderful way to bond clients to your practice and to get owners to excited about their puppy. The following topics are covered:

• Building a positive relationship
• Shaping motivation
• Housetraining
• Chewing and destruction
• Jumping up and other attention getting behaviors
• Socialization
• Community Resources

Your clients will leave with handouts on each of the above topics, an appreciation of your practice, not to mention that puppy's positive association with your office!

Kitten Kindergarten

Owners of kittens become owners of cats. Cats are traditionally thought of as difficult to train, and see the veterinarian 50% less often than dogs. Why is that? Because having a frightened and unsocialized cat is difficult to handle, so owners only take the cat to see you when it is really serious. Since cats are great at masking illness, often a treatable problem has progressed too long as a result. Kitten kindergarten is an all-too-rarely offered but extremely important service to clients, for both their behavioral and medical health. Typically held as a 90 minute meeting on an evening or a weekend, kitten kindergarten is for kittens 7-14 weeks of age..

• Building a positive relationship
• Motivation and training of cats
• Litterbox training
• Toys, scratching posts and other types of play
• Leashes, harnesses and carriers learning to love travel
• Vocalization and other attention getting behaviors
• Socialization

Your clients will leave with handouts on each of the above topics, in what will hopefully be the first of many happy visits to your office.