Mike Carruthers:
There’s an emerging field in veterinary medicine. It’s animal
mental health. Franklin
McMillan:
Right now, if your dog has a “behavior problem” the main goal
of behaviorists and trainers is to correct the behavior. That’s
not my goal.
Veterinarian
Franklin McMillan, author of the book, Unlocking
the Animal Mind...
My goal
is to find out what emotions are underlying it to make them
behave that way and relieve those unpleasant emotions, whether
they are loneliness, separation anxiety.
So, for example if your dog or cat has separation
anxiety when you leave the house in the morning…
There
are things you can do to kind of phase yourself out of the picture
when you leave in the morning rather than suddenly you’re gone
with this big dramatic exit. And arriving back, also, you shouldn’t
make it a dramatic entrance, and let the things transition.
One
of the most important things to having a happy pet says Dr.
Franklin is to socialize the animal as early as possible with
people and other animals.
The
more socialization they get, especially in what’s called the
socialization period as youngsters, and this, by the way, applies
to all mammals including humans, your brain literally wires
itself for positive relationships for the rest of your life
with whatever you were socialized with. That’s why you’ll occasionally
see these stories about the cat and the rat that live together
in harmony. That’s because as a kitten they were socialized
to rats so now they have a positive relationship.
Tomorrow,
can you spoil your pet with too much affection? I’m Mike
Carruthers, and that’s Something You Should Know. |
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