Good Housekeeping

7 Steps to a Stress-Free Vet Visit

If your dog starts growling as you walk into the veterinarian's office, or if your cat hides under the bed at the sight of his carrier, try these anxiety-reducing steps:

Before You Go
1. Let your vet know you want to be involved in the visit by feeding your pet snacks and petting him to lessen his fear.
2. Play Doctor: Place your pet on a table; look in his ears and mouth and under his tail, and prod his paws and belly.
3. Swing by the vet's office the week before the appointment and bring snacks for the staff to dole out to your pet. By the actual visit, your dog will have formed positive associations. Likewise, break out your cat's carrying case a couple of weks in advance. Lay bedding at the bottom and give him his meals in the case.
4. Feed your dog less food than normal the day before a visit and nothing that morning - he'll be more receptive to the treats you bring along. Choose soft-textured, tasty morsels, which are easier for a dog to swallow under stress.

At the Vet
5. Instead of rushing into the waiting room, walk your dog around the grounds. A stroll will release some energy, and he'll feel more comfortable if he's able to sniff out the surroundings.
6. Similarly, as the vet to let your dog smell the instruments.
7. Relax your pet by massaging him around the neck with a deep, soft kneading motion. If your cat enjoys grooming, have a brush handy to calm him.

Still scared? There may be a good reason: If your vet raises a hand to your pet - or recommends a thump on the nose as punishment - take him elsewhere.

Kevin Behan - August 2000

New leash on life for dogs

Canine expert takes hard cases

By K.C. Baker
Daily News Staff Writer

Celest Guda's husky mix, Chelsea, doesn't much like people, often baring her teeth and charging at strangers.
But when the 7-year-old dog met trainer Kevin Behan, she sidled up to him, wagging her tail as she let him slip a leash around her neck.
"There's just something about this guy," said the Brooklyn resident. "He can get into a dog's mind like I've never seen before. He has a sixth sense."
Behan is known as a "dog whisperer", a trainer who can read dogs and knows what they need.
Like the rugged cowboy who tames a recalcitrant horse in the best-selling novel and film, "The Horse Whisperer," Behan runs a training retreat in rural Newfane, Vermont, where frustrated owners send delinquent pups.
Behan has spent the last two months working with Chelsea on his 60-acre farm, teaching her how to get along with people and other dogs.
"Dogs are telling us what we need to know," said Behan, author of "Natural Dog Training" (William Morrow, 1992, $18.00). "We just have to listen."
Behan eschews traditional dog training, which he says suppresses a dog's natural instincts.
"Everything people think about dogs is wrong," he said. "Most trainers believe dogs must be dominated. There's no need to dominate. The nature of a dog is good, and if we can release his good nature, then we can use it to train the dog to be what we want."
Behan rechannels the dog's natural impulses, helping the pup to learn socially acceptable behaviors while still letting him be a dog.
A central tenet of his theory is that dogs are evolved from wolves and have a strong prey instinct. Behan starts working his magic by getting a dog to trust him. Behan takes problem dogs on long walks in the woods to bring them back to nature and relax them.
Then he teaches the pup how to deal with its instincts. Instead of commanding a dog to stay when it sees a deer in the woods and wants to give chase, Behan pets and praises the dog.
"This shows the dog I understand the pull he has for the deer and that it's in his nature," Behan said.
The whisperer makes positive use of the adrenaline flowing through the dog's body by playing a game simulating a predator chasing quarry.
"I teach him how to play with me in a way that will feel as good to him as hunting deer," Behan said.
While doing this, Behan starts to teach the dog traditional commands. When the pup is ready, he introduces him to angst-provoking situations, allowing the reformed pup to react in an instinctual yet socially acceptable way.
Behan also teaches owners how to redirect their dogs' impulses. He taught one woman whose dog lurched into attack mode everytime it saw a stranger to distract the animal by running. That way, the dog could use up his aggressive energy.
Behan told the owner to let the pup meet the stranger on his own terms. It worked. "She couldn't get over how a simple 10 seconds alleviated the tension," he said.
Clients come in droves, impressed with the results. "This is often the last stop for people," he said. Behan's retreat was the last recourse for Gudas, who will bring her much-behaved dog home in a few weeks.
"We didn't know where to turn," she said. "We had done basic obedience training ... but felt this ... was deeper. He's put her in provocative situations with other dogs and horses ... which would have sent her through the roof."
"It's amazing," said Gudas.

Dog Man Helps Humans Tune Into Wild Side Of Pets

By Anton Ferreira

Newfane, Vt. (Reuters)- In an earlier age, when Indians still roamed Vermont, Kevin Behan's antics might have earned him the name "Dances with Dogs."
His lanky frame covered in torn overalls, Behan frolics on his farm outside Newfane with dogs of all shapes and sizes, making faces and gesturing as he seeks to change their behavior with an innovative training method.
Behan's message is that nothing could make your little Fido happier than to feel the spine of a deer cracking between his jaws. And that is OK. "You have to have faith in the wild nature of the dog so the dog can trust you," he told Reuters.
"The owner can make the dog feel whole, make it feel satisfied. ...The relationship is good if it is based on truth, the heart of the dog," he said in an interview.
Every dog is at heart a hunter and channeling the predatory instinct, rather than trying to crush it, is at the core of Behan's philosophy.

Dog trainer Kevin Behan with his German Shepard "Isak" on his farm in Vermont.

Helping Dogs Get in Touch With Their Anger
Most of Behan's clients have dogs that are agressive toward their fellow dogs or toward humans.

Lynn Burill of Bethesda, Maryland, came to Behan with her bitch Shumba, a Zulu hunting dog indigenous to South Africa. Shumba lunged at other dogs in a snarling frenzy when they went for walks, Burrill said.
Lynn Burill of Bethesda, Maryland, came to Behan with her bitch Shumba, a Zulu hunting dog indigenous to South Africa. Shumba lunged at other dogs in a snarling frenzy when they went for walks, Burrill said.
After a week at the Behan therapy farm, she said: "It's amazing, Shumba is much more focused on me now, rather than on other dogs." She said she previously tried more conventional methods to curb Shumba's agression, including yanking the 45-pound (20 kg) dog on a choke chain, without much success.
Behan said his animated body language during training was aimed at imitating the way dogs relate to their prey. "I try to communicate with the dog on that basis, I try to turn on that deep energy that's in reserve. ...That mimics how dogs play, that mimics how they do the prey-predator thing," he said.

"If there's a real strong bond and the energy can move between dog and owner, then everything the owner does is OK."
Behan started training dogs as a child, learning to train protection dogs at the side of his father, who believed that owners and handlers had to impose a dominance hierarchy on their dogs by force of will.
He said he came to regard his father's method, still in vogue with many trainers today, as flawed. He also finds fault with the other mainstream method of training in which food is used to induce correct behavior, much like the fish rewards given to performing dolphins or killer whales.

Bringing Out The Wolf In Your Pet

"The foundation principle (of my method) is that what is most natural to a dog, its wildest essence, the predatory heritage from its ancestor the wolf, is good," Behan says on his website www.naturaldogtraining.com.
"If this capacity is nurtured, cultivated and amplified, the dog's cooperative and loving nature will be the most pronounced aspect of his character."

"The foundation principle (of my method) is that what is most natural to a dog, its wildest essence, the predatory heritage from its ancestor the wolf, is good," Behan says on his website www.naturaldogtraining.com

Behan is sort of canine counterpart to the "horse whisperer" portrayed in Robert Redford's new film, said some of his key insights into dog behavior, which at first blush seem to defy logic, had come to him in dreams.
"I think dreams are how we are attuned to animals. There's an old Indian expression, 'Pay attention to your dreams, the animals are trying to talk to you,'" he said.
The best advertisement for his method is his own dog Isak. When he takes the German Shepard from his kennel, Isak's face lights up, signaling his delight at being with his master.
Isak orbits Behan as if magnetized, his eyes locked on his face, waiting like a coiled spring for the sign that will send him rocketing across a meadow in pursuit of a ball or stick.
"Isak can hold on to the fact that life is great," Behan said. "He can find pleasure in every situation. He has so much desire."

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