Psychological Help Is Now Available for the Fido With a Phobia

The rabbit thinks he’s Rambo, baring his tiny buck teeth during ambush attacks on his increasingly terrified owners. Scolding doesn’t help. Neither do bunny treats from the pet store.

What this rabbit needs is a good psychologist.

Like Mike, the neurotic dog in the film “Down and Out in Beverly Hills,” scores of pets these days are being dragged by their collars to the psychologist’s couch.

“Just a few hours of treatment can produce dramatic results,” said Randall Lockwood, director of higher education for the Humane Society of the United States.

“It’s a growing field,” said Pete Borchelt, a New York dog psychologist. “I think it’s a reflection that people no longer regard their pets as just a piece of furniture.”

There was a time when owners of problem pets had only three choices: Live with the situation, find someone willing to take the pet or send it to the Humane Society, where it would likely be destroyed.

But the 1980s have seen the controversial beginnings of a fourth choice--the use of animal psychologists and counselors to change a pet’s behavior.

The Humane Society estimates that there are about 30 “responsible and reputable” psychologists specializing in animal disorders, and hundreds more people selling their services as animal counselors or “animal behaviorists.”

Such counselors seek to treat “extremely neurotic or psychotic behavior,” said Jean Burke, assistant chairman of the Mercy College department of veterinary technology in New York, which offers animal behavior courses.

At an average price of $50 per session it is not cheap, but with experts like Burke estimating that up to 75% of the cases are treatable, you will probably get results. Some practitioners, like Borchelt, even make house calls.

A dog that occasionally barks too much or soils the living room rug probably does not need therapy, she said. Obedience school can cure that. But one that repeatedly tries to bite children or other dogs, for instance, or that constantly hides under the table, may need such help.

Owner and pet attend counseling together. Some therapy can be completed in a few hours. Some can take 15 or more daily sessions. Each session concentrates on behavior modification for both pet and owner.

Take, for instance, a dog that becomes destructive when it hears thunder. A counselor would record the sound of thunder and play it to the dog, gradually increasing the volume until the dog reacts.

Once the dog reacts, the session would stop. It is repeated daily until the pet becomes accustomed, or desensitized, to the sound, said Stephen Daniel, a psychologist who teaches animal behavior classes at Mercy College.

“We have borrowed a lot from human therapy,” he said.

Pets that end up in therapy often have a combination of genetic and emotional problems. Highly bred dogs are often high-strung as well. If owners do not recognize that right away, they may spend months or longer accidentally reinforcing errant behavior.

A pet therapist will treat most animals. The toughest patients can be treated with drugs, if necessary. Valium is commonly used for anxiety. A female hormone used for birth control sometimes is used to control aggressive behavior, although it can produce serious side effects, such as spontaneous abortion.

Daniel attributes the growing popularity of animal therapy to increased awareness of the rights of animals. He also believes that more pets suffer emotional neglect because they are in households where both spouses work or are trapped in apartments with little or no yard space.

Mixed Reactions

But reaction to the trend has been mixed.

“A new field tends to attract a lot of quacks,” admitted Burke.

“There are a lot of veterinarians who think the field is full of quacks,” she said. “I have mixed emotions.”

So does Lockwood. He is supportive of the trend, noting that pet misbehavior is the major reason that about 11.5 million animals, most of them dogs and cats, end up in animal shelters each year.

More than 7.6 million of those are subsequently destroyed, according to a Humane Society survey.

“In so many cases, with a little intervention, that could have been averted,” he said. “Lives could have been saved.”

Still, no system exists for determining whether someone is qualified to be a pet counselor. Most animal-care experts recommend psychologists or veterinarians trained in animal behavior.