Pets with terrible behaviour problems can be a nightmare for anxious owners. Vet Louise Kinvig saw so many in her Bradford consulting room that she decided to do something about it. Behaviour therapy sounds like something for stressed-out executives or unruly teenagers, but Louise tells Jan Winter how it is helping problem pets.

After seven years as a vet, Louise had seen hundreds of family pets with all sorts of ailments.

But she found that animals' bad behaviour was the real problem for many owners.

In fact, staff at the Thornbury Veterinary Group, where she works, found the most common reason for euthanasia of dogs under the age of two was because of a failure to sort out behavioural problems.

So Louise decided it was time to find a way to help - and after attending courses about behavioural therapy in pets she now offers consultations and programmes specially designed to help with difficult behaviour.

"Consultations last between an hour and one-and-a-half hours so I tend to do them in the evenings or at weekends when it's quiet. We let the animals wander about the waiting room, which gives me an idea of their general character," she says.

She observes the pet and takes a full history of the problems its owner encounters.

The advantage of a vet doing this type of work is that Louise can offer a full medical check to ensure there is no other cause for the behaviour - and can prescribe drugs on the rare occasions when they are needed to help with therapy.

"There's probably more of a call for work with dogs, although the cat-owning population is becoming more discerning. A lot of the problems are in fact normal behaviour.

"A lot of the advice in behaviour therapy is showing owners how to interact with their pets and how to give them the right message," says Louise, who is 30 and married to a partner in the practice where she works.

For dogs, the most common problems are aggression, such as biting, excessive barking and separation problems, where owners find their dogs wreck the house when they're left alone.

For cat owners, some have real problems when they want to integrate a new cat into the family. "We've had some great successes with that but that's what takes the longest time. It can take eight months," says Louise.

"Until recently behavioural therapy has been nothing to do with vets because it's not a medical problem. Some vets don't see the worth in it."

And for some owners, behaviour therapy can mean massive changes in what they do with their pets. "Although they're quite simple things, they mean a major change in an owner's behaviour with their dog.

"For example, so the dog knows its status in the family - which is at the bottom - they shouldn't be allowed upstairs and certainly not into the bedroom. We do it gradually if it has been going on for six or seven years but when you do have a dog which has got problems, something has to change or you don't sort the problem. That can take some time," Louise says.

After an initial consultation, Louise draws up a detailed report and usually does follow-up consultations by telephone, unless there are complex problems.

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