Pet Behaviourist costs

melbury

We feel that our dog would really benefit from seeing a professional behaviourist and was surprised to find out that our pet insurance would cover this provided he is referred by the vet.

However, I am a bit concerned that if we do claim the costs this will then count against him for the rest of his life (he is only eleven months old) and result in high premiums going forward. Personally I don't see why it should as it is not an illness and he is not at all aggressive, just completely fearful of other dogs.

I just wondered if anybody has ever claimed for this and, if so, did it result in increased premiums?

calicocat

I would think this would count as it will be seen as treatment .

What is he doing at 11 months old that is so out of the norm ? That is still a young dog.

melbury

calicocat wrote: »

I would think this would count as it will be seen as treatment .

What is he doing at 11 months old that is so out of the norm ? That is still a young dog.

As I mentioned in my post, he is absolutely terrified of other dogs, despite attending two lots of puppy classes. If he sees a dog coming he just lies down and won't move until they have gone past, even if they are on the other side of a field. The only reason we can think of is that he missed on the important socialisation period because our vet said he mustn't leave the property until 1-2 weeks after his second vaccination. We have always had dogs, but this is the first time we have had a puppy without an older dog being here, which I am sure makes a tremendous difference in terms of giving confidence and "showing them the ropes."

On Monday after being approached by a friendly Labrador he managed to slip his harness and bolted for home - which involved crossing and running for some way down a quite busy road. We don't let him off the lead on walks because his recall is not good and if he saw a dog he would be gone.

calicocat

melbury wrote: »

As I mentioned in my post, he is absolutely terrified of other dogs, despite attending two lots of puppy classes. If he sees a dog coming he just lies down and won't move until they have gone past, even if they are on the other side of a field. The only reason we can think of is that he missed on the important socialisation period because our vet said he mustn't leave the property until 1-2 weeks after his second vaccination. We have always had dogs, but this is the first time we have had a puppy without an older dog being here, which I am sure makes a tremendous difference in terms of giving confidence and "showing them the ropes."

On Monday after being approached by a friendly Labrador he managed to slip his harness and bolted for home - which involved crossing and running for some way down a quite busy road. We don't let him off the lead on walks because his recall is not good and if he saw a dog he would be gone.

If you have a good vet they may be able to give you some pointers.
I had a GSD pup like this years ago. The vet said she thought she had been bullied within the pack from the beginning. She said it usually stems when they are all feeding and just spreads to all other areas quickly.

She was hard to handle, and the fear then turned to aggression as she got to be about a year, but you could see it stemmed from fear.

Lots of training classes and then agility classes helped her hugely and she was eventually fine off the lead and much less fearful. I did this constantly for over two years though twice a week mainly.

I also dog sat friends CAV puppy. Absolute little charmer , but utterly terrified of everything around him for some reason no-one found out.

I made him go everywhere with me when I had him, even in the car that he hated just to get a loaf of bread. At around 18 months he just came into himself . I don’t think it was any one thing that did it, he just took longer to grow up and be comfortable around life.

Do you have a friend with a very calm friendly dog that could come around, leave them to it in a room for a while and go into the garden out of sight. That may eventually make him understand he is safe.

Bless, it’s horrible when they are like that.

melbury

calicocat wrote: »

If you have a good vet they may be able to give you some pointers.
I had a GSD pup like this years ago. The vet said she thought she had been bullied within the pack from the beginning. She said it usually stems when they are all feeding and just spreads to all other areas quickly.

She was hard to handle, and the fear then turned to aggression as she got to be about a year, but you could see it stemmed from fear.

Lots of training classes and then agility classes helped her hugely and she was eventually fine off the lead and much less fearful. I did this constantly for over two years though twice a week mainly.

I also dog sat friends CAV puppy. Absolute little charmer , but utterly terrified of everything around him for some reason no-one found out.

I made him go everywhere with me when I had him, even in the car that he hated just to get a loaf of bread. At around 18 months he just came into himself . I don’t think it was any one thing that did it, he just took longer to grow up and be comfortable around life.

Do you have a friend with a very calm friendly dog that could come around, leave them to it in a room for a while and go into the garden out of sight. That may eventually make him understand he is safe.

Bless, it’s horrible when they are like that.

Thanks for sharing your experience, it does give me hope!

No I don't know anybody with a calm dog and honestly don't think it would help him at the moment. A couple who had another pup from the same litter called in last summer when they down this way and he was absolutely terrified of his own brother - just hid away and wouldn't go near him. It is very sad.

He is not at all aggressive to people or dogs, but has grabbed me and OH a couple of times if we are doing something that he doesn't like - e.g. using sole of slipper to pick up dog hair, ironing, dusting!

Another trait we simply have to get sorted out is barking - sometimes he just won't stop and it nearly drives us mad:(

sheramber

It sounds like you do really need professional help with more than fear of other dogs.

Insurance cover for a behaviourist is usually limited to a set amount. After that there would be no cover for a behavioural problem and maybe no cover for anything that could be related to it, such as him attacking another dog etc.

If there is exclusion then it shouldn't affect the further premiums.

melbury

sheramber wrote: »

It sounds like you do really need professional help with more than fear of other dogs.

Insurance cover for a behaviourist is usually limited to a set amount. After that there would be no cover for a behavioural problem and maybe no cover for anything that could be related to it, such as him attacking another dog etc.

If there is exclusion then it shouldn't affect the further premiums.

He is not at all aggressive to dogs or people.

Jaymie_kate

At less than a year your dog is still too young I would think and just needs some training which you can provide. Watch youtube videos of popular dog trainers like Caesar Milan. Extremely aggressive dogs are more of a concern and unless your dog exhibits this I don't think professional help would be necessary.

sheramber

melbury wrote: »

He is not at all aggressive to dogs or people.

Maybe not yet but you say he has grabbed you and your husband when doing something he didn't like. That could easily escalate to someone else.

You say he ran away when another dog approached. One day he may be very stressed and attack rather than run away.

Regardless , it is no joy to walk a dog when neither you nor he can relax.

For your own sake and his sake you need to find professional help. The longer it goes on , the more ingrained the behaviour becomes and the more difficult it is to change.

Don't rely on online videos particularly Cesar Milan. You need advice from someone who can see you and your dog together.

calicocat

Hopefully he sounds more like the CAV I looked after. He was scared of the ruddy tv and the people on it, hoover, cooker door banging, the car, people in the street, all other dogs....pretty much everything in one way or another. His parents couldn’t get him to pee in the garden as he was scared of being in there, wouldn’t really eat much. They asked me to go over to get him to pee a few times when they first got him. They figured he didn’t like them , she would ring up in tears saying the dog hated her, and asked me to take him (wished I had actually as he was super cute, but work commitments didn’t allow for it). He just didn’t trust life , I think he was missing the rest of the dogs the breeder had and was missing being in a pack and felt kinda lost without it. He was around 10 months old when they got him.

I was dog sitting at their house the first time as they figured he was too scared to be out of the house when they first got him and wasn’t eating anything. He decided he did eat when I had a pizza, started barking for some.


When I had him a couple of times a week the days were literally about him. We did everything together, lots of things he didn’t want to do to get him used to stuff. He grew to like the tv as I found he liked Born Free , and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. . Learnt the noise of cooker was a fab thing as it meant chicken was coming out of it. The grill fan wasn’t scary once he knew it produced bacon or sausages.

When other dogs were around on walks I ran around like an idiot playing with his ball shouting and screaming his name, to focus on what we were doing not the other dogs around. He barked constantly when out on a walk, which I felt was just extreme stress.

I carried him into local shops if I was buying one thing so he got used to people, noise, people’s random movements etc.

It took quite a while, but eventually he just got less stressed with everything, stopped focusing on his stress and started enjoying things. So my only advice is keep going and do as much as possible . If you do something he doesn’t like with a sausage in your hand he may change his mind...:). . I’m not meaning feed him loads of sausage, just a tiny bit and not every time, but he will focus on the sausage or a toy , and forget the bad stuff going through his head with luck .

Hopefully this may help, or worth a try anyhow before needing a behaviourist.

melbury

calicocat wrote: »

Hopefully he sounds more like the CAV I looked after. He was scared of the ruddy tv and the people on it, hoover, cooker door banging, the car, people in the street, all other dogs....pretty much everything in one way or another. His parents couldn’t get him to pee in the garden as he was scared of being in there, wouldn’t really eat much. They asked me to go over to get him to pee a few times when they first got him. They figured he didn’t like them , she would ring up in tears saying the dog hated her, and asked me to take him (wished I had actually as he was super cute, but work commitments didn’t allow for it). He just didn’t trust life , I think he was missing the rest of the dogs the breeder had and was missing being in a pack and felt kinda lost without it. He was around 10 months old when they got him.

I was dog sitting at their house the first time as they figured he was too scared to be out of the house when they first got him and wasn’t eating anything. He decided he did eat when I had a pizza, started barking for some.


When I had him a couple of times a week the days were literally about him. We did everything together, lots of things he didn’t want to do to get him used to stuff. He grew to like the tv as I found he liked Born Free , and Beverly Hills Chihuahua. . Learnt the noise of cooker was a fab thing as it meant chicken was coming out of it. The grill fan wasn’t scary once he knew it produced bacon or sausages.

When other dogs were around on walks I ran around like an idiot playing with his ball shouting and screaming his name, to focus on what we were doing not the other dogs around. He barked constantly when out on a walk, which I felt was just extreme stress.

I carried him into local shops if I was buying one thing so he got used to people, noise, people’s random movements etc.

It took quite a while, but eventually he just got less stressed with everything, stopped focusing on his stress and started enjoying things. So my only advice is keep going and do as much as possible . If you do something he doesn’t like with a sausage in your hand he may change his mind...:). . I’m not meaning feed him loads of sausage, just a tiny bit and not every time, but he will focus on the sausage or a toy , and forget the bad stuff going through his head with luck .

Hopefully this may help, or worth a try anyhow before needing a behaviourist.

Thank you for such a helpful reply.

He is a certainly a strange one - not at all scared of vacuum cleaner, TV, hairdryer, but terrified of the steam iron:) He has to put in a separate room when ironing is being done as he just goes beserk leaping up and grabbing at your hand (very hard sometimes).

When out on a walk he is not at all scared of any traffic - tractors pulling big trailers, buses, lorries, etc. However, if he sees a dog coming (or even a cat) then unless we can get him across to the other side of the road he just lies down and won't move until they disappear from view. He is even worse when not walking along a road in that a dog can basically be on the horizon at the other end of a field and he just hits the ground and won't budge. It is so strange.