References
Desensitisation and counterconditioning — not a task for the enthusiastic amateur!
Abstract
Many companion animals find it difficult to cope with the social and physical stimuli that they encounter in their domestic environment. Some of these animals will develop behaviours intended to enhance their attempts to cope in such environments. In many cases these behaviours fail to meet the owner's expectations of acceptability and advice is sought to address their companion animal's behaviour. Too often, owner attempts at altering pet behaviour concentrate on preventing the animal from engaging in the behaviour that causes problems for the owner, furthering the animal's welfare problem. However, owners that seek help from their veterinary practice can expect to receive advice that assists in removing the animal's underlying motivation to initiate the problem behaviour — thereby not only resolving the problem for the owner, but also improving the welfare of the pet. As many behaviour problems reported to (and experienced within) a veterinary practice involve fears and phobias, this article discusses how desensitisation and counter-conditioning can be used to address such issues.
Desensitisation (DS) and counter-conditioning (C-C) are techniques used to reduce the expression of a behaviour that an animal engages in, by overcoming an animal's sensitivity to the behaviour initiating stimuli that have previously initiated stress resulting from anxiety, fear or phobia (Heath, 2002). These behaviours are responses that an animal has developed to enable it to manage its exposure to a stimulus and consequently to experience a reduction in stress.
However, the initial stress will be associated with learning that is intended to enable the animal to predict ‘what happens next’, allowing the animal to prepare an appropriate response to enhance its capacity to remain ‘safe’ (Bowen, 2003). So if an appropriate behaviour modification programme is to be designed, the learning process that created the behaviour must be thoroughly understood (Mills, 2002). In addition, the innate learning mechanisms lead animals to prepare more effectively for potential danger through the use of generalisation — effectively enabling the animal to initiate its selected, safety enhancing, behaviour on experiencing other stimuli that predict the likely exposure to the original problematic stimulus (Bowen, 2003). This means that the problem response that has resulted in an animals' presentation within a practice, may not be the original initiating problem (Heath, 2002), making any behaviour modification problem relatively complex to design.
Register now to continue reading
Thank you for visiting The Veterinary Nurse and reading some of our peer-reviewed content for veterinary professionals. To continue reading this article, please register today.