Pet Psychiatrists

Although it is a relatively new field, pet psychiatrists are now a recognized and important professional in the pet world. Unbalanced or unstable pets can often benefit greatly with the use of the services of a pet psychiatrists. Having an unbalanced pet is a problem more common that you may think.

Many people think that all they need to do to keep their pet healthy is to feed them, love them, let them outside to relieve themselves and provide a place for them to sleep.  But each pet is a unique individual and has its own character and personality.  Just as humans are sometimes aggressive, fearful or depressed (among other things) so can your pet have distinct personality traits.  Pets can be complex characters that have their own fears and idiosyncrasies.

Often a pet’s behavior reveals a problem that may need to be addressed by a pet psychiatrist.  For instance in a cat, kitty may have a psychological problem if she is seen constantly kneading and clawing at the furniture—or worse is unable to be litter trained.  In most cases kitty will outgrow the problem behavior, but in extreme cases where the unwanted behavior continues, it may be time to consult your pet professional, a pet psychiatrist.  Pet psychiatrists are also commonly called in to address aggressive and fearful behaviors in cats and dogs.

Pet psychiatrists are academic professionals who have studied animal behavior.  They are sometimes called pet therapists, an animal communicator or pet behaviorists as well.  They know how to address your pet’s problem in a positive way.  They have studied what makes animals tick and are quite adept at identifying why your pet may be behaving the way he is, in other words, what is causing his problem.  The pet psychiatrist will show you how to work with your pet to re-train or re-direct his problem behavior.

The pet psychiatrist will meet with you and your pet in an appointment typically lasting a couple of hours.  The pet psychiatrist will want to observe the pet doing the unwanted behavior so most times the appointments will be in your home environment.  The pet professional will then discuss a plan of action with you to help you modify the unwanted behavior. 

If you are having a problem with your pet and cannot seem to solve it yourself, you may want to call in a pet psychiatrist for their help and input.  They are the pet professionals that go beyond your pet’s physical well-being and delve more into what your pet’s personality is like and what makes him do the things he does.  Pet psychiatrists can be expensive, but what is that cost in relation to having a happy healthy pet.