Pets given drugs to help behavior

Catherine Griwkowsky
News Staff
Friday July 18, 2008
Medication use is on the rise for pets with bad behavior.

Dr. Louis Kwantes, veterinarian with the Park Veterinary Centre, said sometimes when a behavioral issue isn’t caused by lack of training or a physical problem, it can be psychological.

“It’s not a preferred initial line of defence, but we certainly do use those in a number of different occasions,” Kwantes said.

“I would tend to prescribe medications where normal behavioral altering therapy isn’t successful or in situations where the animal is, because of a psychological disorder, damaging itself or being a risk to itself,” he said.

He said fear aggression, dominance aggression, separation anxiety and phobias are examples where medication may be used in conjunction with behavioral therapy.

Thunder phobia is common.

Jen Scheidt, dog trainer with Sherwood Barks Agility and Dog Training, said most problems can be solved through training.


“Usually it’s correcting the behavior of the adults in the home,” Scheidt said.

“Most of the time the dogs are ruling the house. People don’t understand the way dogs think is different from the way people think.”

Based on her experience the many problems are caused by the way the owner acts with the dog.

People need to reinforce positive behavior and down play negative behaviors, rather than giving them attention when they misbehave, Scheidt said.

The only time she could see medication being necessary is in aggressive situations.

Last week, she was training a chihuahua that was attacking people it came in contact with. Most behavioral issues were solved, but the aggression remained.

“The dog all of a sudden bit a five year old again,” she said.

“It’s either sedate the dog or put the dog down.”
Kwantes said cats and dogs, like humans, can be senile and there is a drug Selegiline that is being prescribed to animals.

The dosage and formulation may be slightly different, but these drugs are the same used in humans.

Both Kwantes and Scheidt stressed the importance of teaching animals good behavior when they are young, and intervening early when a problem arises.

Scheidt said the ideal time to train a dog is when they are three months old.

Kwantes said the majority of people who come in thinking their pet has a behavioral problem, actually have a medical one and it is necessary to perform diagnosis on them.