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World-First Free Advice Initiative For Vets Launched By UK’s Largest Vet Behaviour Clinic
2 hours ago 
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With thousands of dogs surrendered to rescue centres every year in the UK alone, the UK’s leading vet behaviour clinic, Behavet, has launched ‘Behavet Impact’, a brand-new, contribution-focused initiative to help dogs and owners facing behaviour problems.
A large part of this new commitment involves equipping vet clinics with the tools to offer first-line behaviour advice. As Dr Tom Mitchell MRCVS, Behavet clinical director and CEO, explains, “We have a goal of integrating free behaviour advice into over 1,000 vet practices in the first 12 months of our Behavet Impact mission and have already reached over 400 practices in under 3 months, highlighting both the need and desire of the entire profession to plug the welfare gap in behaviour that currently exists.”
The emergence of complex behaviour problems is a serious cause of concern for dog owners who, faced with an overwhelming abundance of free, conflicting and ineffectual advice, may become increasingly frustrated and disengaged from their dog’s struggles. A 2013 study of dog owners revealed that 48% felt that a single behaviour problem was enough reason to strongly influence their decision to rehome their dog.
Despite the overwhelmingly positive impact that early clinical intervention can have for dogs with behaviour problems, vets are faced by a seemingly insurmountable barrier of accessibility. Limited time during consultations, patient insecurity or overwhelm, uncertainty about what advice to offer and concerns about whether guidance is up to date and worthwhile all influence the delivery of support in first-opinion circumstances.
This obstacle represents just one aspect of the widening “welfare gap”, where pet owners, lacking suitable guidance, feel detached and pessimistic about these behaviour struggles, impacting the relationship they have with their dog. Consequently, welfare outcomes worsen and so the cycle continues. Many of these outcomes are, crucially, shaped in the earliest stages of behaviour problems, when owners seek, receive, and often struggle to act on advice before seeking further specialist support. With owners more likely to rely on free options, many dogs affected by behaviour problems never receive the targeted help they need in the first place.
This is specifically why first-opinion behaviour advice offers a vital, and often missed, opportunity to distinctly influence outcomes and ensure intervention is well-timed, well-placed and well-delivered. As 65.6% of UK shelter dogs were euthanised for behaviour problems in 2009, recognising this and taking proactive measures towards early intervention can change the reality of behaviour problems for many dogs and owners, reducing behaviour-related rehoming and euthanasia, and giving dogs a brighter, better chance for the future.
Behavet Impact set out to bridge this gap in a world-first, equipping 406 UK vet practices, in its first phase, with completely free-of-charge first-aid behaviour support, including online training on what to cover during 10 minute behaviour consultations on a range of common behaviour problems and providing owner-facing resources vets can give directly to clients to provide free, evidence-based, easy-to-follow guidance when time is limited. Digital training materials, posters and client leaflets were delivered to practices with the aim of starting conversations about behavioural support in clinical environments before problems worsen and working to close the “welfare gap” for dogs and owners, one patient at a time.
To explore Behavet’s free first-opinion behaviour advice resources, get help with your pet’s behaviour, and learn more about their work visit: https://www.beha.vet/
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