Veterinarians, as a whole, are incredible and empathetic humans with often very traumatic jobs. Jobs that are tied to living creatures and deeply tangled with emotions, meaning the aftermath of traumatic days comes home with them rather than being something they can clock out from. The sort of person typically drawn to the veterinary field is compassionate, intelligent, and thoughtful. Often quite introverted, veterinarians are consistently forced out of their comfort zones to do what is best for the animal in front of them and the pet parent.
I believe highlighting these traits in the veterinary industry is essential so the following information isn’t taken out of context or lumped into unrelated grievances with a misunderstanding about the field or a one-off bad experience.
Suppose you’ve been given advice from a veterinary behaviorist, a dog trainer, or a behavior consultant only to get conflicting advice from your dog’s primary care veterinarian. In that case, this article dives into two primary reasons why that might be and how to know if you are getting good advice.
Behavior is a Specialty
Before we address the two primary reasons, it helps to know a bit about treating behavioral disorders and concerns in dogs.
If you woke up one day with chest pains, would you trust the advice of a cardiologist the most or your primary care physician? If you had a seizure, would you trust the advice from a neurologist the most, or would you trust your primary care physician more?
Cardiology and neurology are specialties that require additional schooling, training, and passing examinations that aren’t designed for the average person to pass. Behavior is also a specialty requiring the same in both human and nonhuman studies, yet primary care veterinarians are giving advice as to how to solve behavior problems, often without that rigorous training.
Many veterinarians take a particular interest in behavior and take continuing education regularly to offer modern and humane behavior treatment recommendations. They are in a position to advise clients based on that education and training. However, many veterinarians have other interests, such as cardiology, dentistry, nutrition, or even specializing in senior dog care. Special interests are niche within their primary care expertise, and it takes time to develop those proficiencies. While primary care veterinarians do have behavior knowledge (and more so than the average pet parent), it’s not necessarily their specialty. Cultivating multiple proficiencies, such as dentistry and behavior simultaneously is often tricky. Asking questions and understanding your primary care veterinarian’s level of expertise can help you determine whether you are being guided in the direction of healing or going down a path of outdated and potentially harmful methodology.
Ignorance
First and foremost, ignore the negative connotation often associated with this word. Ignorance is simply a need for more information or education on a subject. Ignorance is most often the reason I hear outdated or harmful advice given. Many thoughtful and caring veterinarians give the advice they learned in school twenty years ago. These vets are not out to cause harm to your pet; they simply aren’t up to date on current behavior research and practices.
Veterinarians go into practice for their love of animals, and good veterinarians do better when they know better.
A sign that ignorance may be at play is when an individual is very wishy-washy about a behavior treatment plan and is unaware of other behavior resources, such as Certified Behavior Consultants and colleagues that are Board Certified in behavior and will conduct vet-to-vet consultations. They may also express not knowing what to do if they’ve tried a behavior medication with your dog that does not have the desired effect.
Unhealthy Ego
In my professional opinion, an unhealthy ego is the most harmful reason; unlike ignorance, there’s no excuse for it. An unhealthy ego means even knowing better, you don’t do better because pride overtakes morality. There’s no room for growth with an unhealthy ego. All practicing physicians in the animal or human world take an oath to do no harm. Denying adequate treatment for serious behavior concerns or giving directly detrimental advice is directly causing harm.
As a behavior professional, I most often see unhealthy egos attached to white males practicing for over fifteen years. The dog training industry also has a common theme with the same demographic. My data could easily be anecdotal as it is solely from my professional experience. I’ve also only had unhealthy ego encounters with fewer veterinarians than I can count on one hand. The number of forward-thinking, collaborative, and progressive veterinarians that fit this demographic significantly outweigh those I’ve encountered with an unhealthy ego.
Individuals with an unhealthy ego are typically dismissive of ideas outside of their own and unwilling to communicate or work with other behavior, training, or veterinary professionals. Unwillingness to collaborate or consider a different perspective is a major red flag.
How to Know if You’re Getting Good Behavior Advice
The following are guidelines to help arm you with information. Keep in mind that being thorough isn’t about undermining your veterinarian or figuring something out through Dr. Google you believe them to be unaware of. Being thorough as your pet’s number one advocate means helping your primary care veterinarian also be the best advocate for your pet and those with similar behavior issues that follow.
Here are some ways to know that you are getting good behavior advice from your veterinarian:
They actively listen to your concerns and the information you provide based on your own research.
They avoid black-and-white decision-making such as “you have to do this” or “this is the only option.”
They don’t place blame on you for your dog’s behavior - they are there to help you find a solution, and while that means sometimes asking you to change your behavior or do things differently than you’ve done before, it’s not about judgment, it’s about what your dog will likely be most responsive to moving forward.
They’ve taken good notes so they know what you are going through, follow up with you, and ask about progress or challenges at successive visits as opposed to not remembering details about behavior concerns or asking you to repeat previously discussed problems at each visit.
They are open to collaboration with other professionals, such as a board-certified veterinary behaviorist or behavior consultant, and will inform you of these options.
They provide you with positive reinforcement-based methods and don’t use terminology in their treatment plans, promoting practices based on outdated theories involving “alpha,” “dominance,” and “showing them who’s boss.”
They aren’t dismissive or agitated when you ask questions about behavior treatments.
They can supply research on a particular method or medication they recommend. If their recommendation is experimental, they are clear about that and their expectations of the method or medication plan. Some of the most intelligent vets figure things out before there are research studies to back it up.
These guidelines are not for generalization across other fields. For example, sometimes black-and-white decision-making can be appropriate in emergency care, such as the decision to perform CPR or euthanize to end suffering. In behavior, it’s rarely black-and-white decision-making; most of the time, there are many different ways to get to the end result. Behavior is a fluid study that requires adaptation based on a dog’s environment, lifestyle, medical history, nutrition, and the dynamics of the ever-changing relationships with humans in a dog’s life. That means that behavior treatments for the same dog with the same issue can change over time to keep up with that individual dog’s needs.
Most of the time, the advice your veterinarian is giving you is the best information that they have at that time for the dog in front of them. Most of the time, they really care and want to see you live the best possible life with your canine companion, behavior issues or not. Most of the time, they are driven to find the answer or find another professional to help if they don’t have the answer.
While most of the time, veterinarians have the best intentions; it’s important to be informed as a pet parent and paramount not to allow unhealthy ego to get in the way of your furry best friend getting the treatment they need for their and your mental wellbeing.