22/05/2026
🐶 Does a puppy consultation prevent undesirable behaviour?
Many puppy owners are unfamiliar with typical puppy and adult dog behaviour, which can lead to unrealistic expectations and difficulties in addressing undesirable behaviour.
📑🩺A study assessed the effect of owners receiving advice on raising a puppy during the puppy’s first visit to a veterinarian.
👨Forty-six owners received advice from a veterinary behaviourist during a one-hour consultation during the time of the first vet visit, while forty-three did not. The owners were interviewed again about their dog’s behaviour at the time of the 1-year booster vaccination appointment.
🤝Dogs whose owners received advice exhibited fewer undesirable behaviours, such as inappropriate elimination, non-stop playing, begging for food, aggression towards unfamiliar people and dogs, mouthing of people, and mounting behaviour.
Some examples of the behavioural advice provided during the consultation included:
💡 How to develop a good relationship and be a good educator.
💡 Understanding sensitive periods in development.
💡 Understanding canine communication and reacting appropriately to it.
💡 Emphasizing the importance of play and providing an enriched environment.
💡 Teaching basic training skills, including understanding the role of classical and operant conditioning, the use of reinforcers and the negative effects of positive punishment and negative reinforcement.
💡 Highlighting the importance of intra- and interspecies socialisation programmes.
💡 Methods for housetraining a puppy.
💡 Techniques for gradually teaching a puppy to stay at home alone.
🎓 Want to learn how science-based behavioural advice improves animal welfare in practice?
Discover our Postgraduate Programme in Companion Animal Behaviour & Welfare and join the online info session 9 June or 25 August 2026 – 8 PM CEST.
To visit the course website:
https://www.odisee.be/en/postgraduate-programmes
To register for the online info session:
🔗 https://formulier.odisee.be/en/registration-online-infosession-postgraduate-courses-cab-vb-and-abt-2026
Reference: Gazzano et al. (2008). The prevention of undesirable behaviors in dogs: effectiveness of veterinary behaviorists’ advice given to puppy owners. Journal of Veterinary Behavior – Clinical Applications and Research, 3, 125-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jveb.2008.04.004
