When medication is effective, it lowers emotional arousal to a "workable level," allowing behavior modification training to actually "stick". It creates the mental space necessary for an animal to choose a learned response over a reflexive fear response. 3. The Role of the Veterinary Behaviorist

Research indicates that roughly 68% of dogs exhibiting both gastrointestinal (GI) issues and behavioral problems show significant improvement when both systems are treated simultaneously rather than in isolation.

One of the most challenging areas of the field is differentiating between a "training problem" and a medical disease.

Here is how understanding behavior makes you a better pet owner—and how vets use it to save lives.

Without the medical lens, a behaviorist is guessing. Without the behavioral lens, a vet will misdiagnose a medical problem as "bad manners."