This year, Wandermere Animal Hospital has several exciting behavior topics to cover. Here are some great tips, new products, and a new hospital policy aimed at making your pets more comfortable and improving their mental well-being!

Thunderstorms and Fireworks make your dog nervous? Maybe your pet trembles, hides, paces, whines, or soils. There is help!

• Don't coddle them: Although our first instinct is to comfort them, this actually rewards their nervous behavior.
• Distract them: Initiate a play or training session so that your pet must switch their mental focus to one of reasoning and logic rather than anxiety.
• Use D.A.P.: Dog Appeasing Pheromone mimics the pheromone released by the mother dog after having a litter of pups and conveys a message of well-being, calm, and a feeling of security. D.A.P. is available as a plug-in diffuser (covers 500-700sq ft.), collar, or spray.
• Use behavior modifying drugs: In some cases, pharmaceutical products may be needed. Please contact us for the appropriate medications for your pet.

Tips for Medicating your Pet

• Start using pill pockets as treats, before your pet is sick. Then when you have to give pills inside them, your pet won't suspect anything.
• When using pill pockets, use 3. The first 2 will be empty and will get your pet eating them in rapid succession. By the 3rd one, your pet will likely swallow it down without even a second thought.

Difficult Nail Trims

Recent seminars concerning dog behavior indicate that restraining dogs that are overly anxious or difficult for nail trims is damaging to their mental well-being. It increases their anxiety and fear and makes future visits to the hospital more stressful. Because of this, Wandermere Animal Hospital is changing its policy regarding difficult nail trims. If your pet displays intense fear or anxiety we will not proceed. Instead we will offer a gentle sedative so that the procedure can be performed easily and in a non-traumatic fashion for your pet. The sedative is an injection, acts quickly, and can be reversed as soon as the procedure is over. If your pet requires a sedative expect them to remain in the hospital for 1-2 hours. You can also improve your pet's anxiety over nail trims by starting at an early age, and rewarding them for allowing you to handle their feet and nails.

Doggie Alzeheimers,

otherwise known as Cognitive Dysfunction, can cause several behavioral changes in our elderly pets including...disruption of sleep/wake cycles, vocalizing, housesoiling, confusion, disorientation, and forgetting previously known commands. These behavior changes are not a normal part of aging and there is something you can do. Senilife is a new product we are carrying that is a safe alternative or adjunct to prescription medications. It contains a unique combination of ingredients that work synergistically to improve the common signs associated with cognitive dysfunction. Senilife has been shown to improve cognitive dysfunction in 86% of patients, some in as few as 7 days. Currently, the manufacturer is offering a 100% guarantee, which means if you try it and it doesn't help your pet, you will get a refund. What do you have to lose?!