Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Image rotator by Isonomy.

Home

Where to Find Us

2 Wednesdays per month: Veterinary Specialty Center

Tuesdays and alternate Wednesdays: Elmhurst Animal Hospital 

You can also check out the Appointment Calendar on this web site

(Click on "Locations" for info on each location)

Search this site


The Mission of Chicagoland Veterinary Behavior Consultants

Behavior problems in pets are one of the more common reasons for owners to relinquish their companions. Activities such as aggression and anxiety based behaviors often results in a break down of the bond that exists between pets and people. Our behavior practice is committed to assisting pet owners in re-establishing that bond.

Chicago Veterinary Behavior Consultants concentrates primarily on the treatment of behavior difficulties in companion animals (primarily dogs, cats and pet birds). Our goal is to identify problem behaviors and differentiate normal behaviors which are inappropriate for the situation versus abnormal behavior. Diagnosis is based mainly on history, observation of the pet directly or through videotape and any needed laboratory testing (performed either by your veterinarian or at the time of the appointment with our practice.

Typical behaviors which we are presented with include:

  • Anxiety related disorders (such as separation
    anxiety) and phobias (thunderstorm and noise phobias).
  • Compulsive Disorders (tail chasing, flank licking, light chasing, etc.).
  • Elimination Problems (Housesoiling, marking, litter box issues)
  • Aggressive Behaviors of Dogs and Cats


Diagnosis is based on:

  • History/Interview
  • Physical Examination
  • Laboratory Evaluation
 

Animal News

animal behavior news from mongabay.com
  • Fish take less than a decade to evolve
    Evolution is often thought of being a slow-process, taking thousands, if not millions, of years. However a new study in The American Naturalist found that Trinidadian guppies underwent evolution in just eight years, or thirty generations. Less than a decade ago Swanne Gordon, a graduate student at UC Riverside, and her team introduced Trinidadian guppies into the Damier River in the Caribbean island of Trinidad. They placed the guppies above a waterfall to allow them to flourish in a largely predator-free environment.
  • First captive bonobos released into the wild
    A group of 17 orphaned bonobos are being released into the wild for the first time this month. Set free by the world’s only bonobo sanctuary, Lola ya Bonobo in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the bonobos will be released into a 50,000 acre (20,000 hectare) forest where the species has been absent for years.
  • Will jellyfish take over the world?
    It could be a plot of a (bad) science-fiction film: a man-made disaster creates spawns of millions upon millions of jellyfish which rapidly take over the ocean. Humans, starving for mahi-mahi and Chilean seabass, turn to jellyfish, which becomes the new tuna (after the tuna fishery has collapsed, of course). Fish sticks become jelly-sticks, and fish-and-chips becomes jelly-and-chips. The sci-fi film could end with the ominous image of a jellyfish evolving terrestrial limbs and pulling itself onto land—readying itself for a new conquest.
  • Frogs species discovered living in elephant dung
    Three different species of frogs have been discovered living in the dung of the Asian elephant in southeastern Sri Lanka. The discovery—the first time anyone has recorded frogs living in elephant droppings—has widespread conservation implications both for frogs and Asian elephants, which are in decline. "I found the frogs fortuitously during a field study about seed dispersal by elephants," Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz, a research fellow from the University of Tokyo, told Monagaby.com.
  • In the dark, bats identify each other by voice
    Individual bats have the ability to tell the difference between other bats just by the sound of their voice, according to a study published in PLoS Computational Biology. Researchers from the University of Tuebingen, Germany found that the greater mouse-eared bat could distinguish between their fellows’ echolocation calls. A subject bat was tested by having to select between two others depending on their calls. The subject bats chose correctly over 80 percent of the time.
  • Reed wablers use social learning to defend themselves against cuckoos
    The cuckoo bird is famous for its parental strategy: rather than raise its own children it infiltrates the nest of an unsuspecting bird of a different species, replacing that bird’s eggs with its own; when the cuckoo babies are born the ‘adoptive’ parents end up unwittingly rearing young that is not theirs. However, at least one bird species—the reed wabler—has learned to defend itself against such clever incursions.
Websites by Simplweb