RE: New on-demand vet video consultation service reviewed

Andrew Francis — Wed, 02 Sep 2015 16:41:45 GMT

Arlo, as chief veterinary officer at Pawsquad I would like to thank Anne for taking the time to speak with us about this issue. I would also like to take this opportunity to re-iterate Anne’s point that a detailed specialist behavioural evaluation cannot be carried out via a video consultation. This is not our intention. Instead we are aiming to widen access to veterinary advice, allowing owners to begin a conversation with a vet about their pet’s behaviour problems, rather than search Google or post a question on a forum.

We are strongly committed to robust clinical audit, and it is this process that identified concerns with the advice given in this case. Every consultation is recorded and currently all are reviewed for clinical audit purposes. This puts us in the unique position of being able to play back each and every consultation to optimise clinical standards. In fact, as a direct result of your consult Arlo we are in the process of identifying vets within our team that have further recognised qualifications in animal behaviour so that we can ensure that all our vets have access to the most up to date advice. My colleague Scott has sent you a follow-up contact email, so please let us know if you have any more questions.

Andrew

Andrew Francis BVSc, CertVC, DipECVIM-CA (Cardiology) MRCVS.

RE: New on-demand vet video consultation service reviewed

Arlo Guthrie — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 16:19:10 GMT

Anne, thank you so much for all your time and trouble and thought. I haven't actually spoken with Pawsquad since, but I'd certainly hope (and it seems from what you have written), that this has been a very useful learning exercise for them. As for myself, your advice has persuaded me that I need the services of a behaviourist, so thank you very much for that.

RE: New on-demand vet video consultation service reviewed

Anne Seawright — Sat, 22 Aug 2015 15:51:32 GMT

So sorry for the delayed response Arlo, I have been flat out at work so not had a chance until now to compose something.

I apologise if my post sounded alarmist, but as a referral behaviourist I unfortunately see a lot of animals whose behaviour has got worse following well-meaning but inappropriate and out of date advice. A situation was described where a dog was growling at a child, and this behaviour was described as worsening. The advice that was given, specifically the use of a spray bottle when your dog growled, is very concerning, with the potential to cause the behaviour to escalate. I'm afraid I see the potential for any breed of dog, regardless of its size, to show aggression towards a child as alarming, particularly so if this is the result of inappropriate advice from a trusted professional.

Other people have now commented on the thread outlining concerns very similar to mine. Aggression is a completely normal behavioural response for a dog to have and a way for them to communicate how they are feeling in a given situation. Aggression can range from a grumble, to a growl, to baring of teeth, to a snap, right up to a bite (which again can vary in its severity and duration). Dogs will respond constantly to what is going on around them based on how they feel about it. The options a dog has to respond to a situation can range from taking themselves away from the situation, showing appeasement behaviours (which can often be subtle to the untrained eye, or unfortunately ignored or misinterpreted by people), or showing aggression. Which option a dog will choose to use in any given situation will depend somewhat on traits individual to that dog, but also on what it has previously learnt in that, or similar, situations in the past. Any dog has the ability to show aggression given the correct set of circumstances for them.

When a dog uses aggression (at any level, even just a ‘grumble’), it is invariably because they feel themselves, or something they highly value, is being threatened. Aggression is used as a way to manage or remove that threat. Generally dogs will start showing aggression at a low level, for example a growl. If the growl works to control or remove the threat then the situation will be resolved and the dog will learn that growling ‘works’ for them as a strategy in a situation where they feel threatened. However, if we ignore the growl, or worse, if we punish the growl, the threat is still there, and in the case of using punishment the threat has now increased, and so the dog is likely to also increase the level of aggression shown. This may not happen at the same time as the punishment is applied, but the dog will learn that the next time it is in a similar situation there is no point in them showing a warning sign as it doesn’t work and in fact results in them being punished, and so they resort to aggression at a higher level, for example by going straight to biting. In my experience this has often been the history in cases of dogs who are presented to me as biting without warning.

For the vast majority of dogs using a water spray is aversive (an aversive stimulus is one that causes some form of discomfort, either physical or psychological) and is meant to decrease the chance of the dog showing the same behaviour again in the future, it is therefore positive punishment. The negative reinforcement that was described to you during the consultation will only occur when the punishment is removed or avoided, ie. when you stop spraying the dog when it stops growling, or if you get the spray bottle out and show it to the dog but don’t spray them if they don’t growl. This may sound like a small point, but calling something reinforcement makes you feel very differently about its use than if you call it punishment. Punishment is never appropriate for a growl.

In order to resolve this situation we need to work out what it is about your daughter, or the situations with your daughter, that is causing your dog to feel threatened. We then either need to prevent the dog from being in the same or similar situations again in the future, or change the dog’s perception of that situation so that they no longer feel threatened and so don’t feel the need to use aggression. This is most commonly carried out by a programme of desensitisation and counter-conditioning, of which getting your daughter to feed the dog treats may be a part of it, but by no means all of the programme, and may not be the appropriate first step.

The other concerning thing for me from the consultation was her reassurance that the worst thing the dog would do is nip. Firstly, a nip to a child is still very concerning to me and secondly no one can guarantee that, especially after only a 15 minute skype consultation with no hands on assessment of the dog’s behaviour or bite inhibition. Whilst I am very sure you are a responsible owner and so don’t leave your dog and child unsupervised, I fear that giving that kind of advice, from a professional, to some owners could result in an unfounded complacence putting both dog and child at risk.

I have also been in contact with the directors of PawSquad who informed me that they had their own concerns about the advice you were given before I contacted them and these had already been discussed at their weekly meeting. They informed me they have spoken to the vet in question, have contacted you to offer you a consultation with a qualified behaviourist and are looking at ways of improving the level of behaviour advice given out in future to ensure it is appropriate and up to date. I really applaud the fact that they not only picked up on the issue themselves but are looking for ways to address it going forward.

A comprehensive behaviour evaluation simply cannot be undertaken in a 15 minute skype consultation, but appropriate first aid advice to prevent further reinforcement of the behaviour and to prevent getting into potentially dangerous situations can be given, as can advice on when and who is best to refer to.

RE: New on-demand vet video consultation service reviewed

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 08:22:07 GMT

Hi Anne, genuinely intrigued to hear what you're going to say, because I'm not sure how you can make such an alarmist statement about someone else's advice without being privy to any of the detail I shared during the consultation! For example, I don't specify the breed here. If I'd said I owned a Great Dane, or a Pit Bull, I could perhaps understand. And then there's the degree of growling I didn't mention. Finally, the degree of supervision which I didn't explain in the news story (the child the dog growls at is special needs, and we don't let her interact with the dog except under close supervision by one of us.

RE: New on-demand vet video consultation service reviewed

Anne Seawright — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 07:48:31 GMT

Arlo, I don't have time to comment properly now as just about to go on to work but I have only just read this. Please do not take this 'behaviour' advice. It is completely inappropriate and borders on dangerous.