Behaviour Consultations

Many dogs, despite their owner’s best care, may struggle with certain aspect of living in a human society and as a result can develop behaviour problems. Living with animals with behaviour problems can be very stressful, but fortunately many of these can be treated or managed so that they don’t damage your relationship or restrict your life with your dog. These are best treated as soon as possible and in order to support our owners, we have a full time Animal Behaviourist in practice who will be able to guide your through how to help your dog.

Common Dog Behaviour Problems

• General Anxiety and Fears and Phobias, including noise aversion
• Separation Anxiety
• Excessive Behaviour
• Repetitive Behaviour
• Aggression – reactivity on walks, resource guarding, territorial aggression

The cost is £275, which includes a Pre Visit Questionnaire, a consult of approximately 2 ½ hours, a full written Behaviour Modification Plan and follow on support by phone or email.  Further visits, where necessary are charge at £100 per session.

Most insurance companies will cover the cost of behavioural referrals.

Dog Training

All dogs require training to be able to live a full and enriched life within the family. Basic training will not only make your dog more cooperative but should also be fun and enhance your relationship. Many nuisance behaviours respond well to training.

Our qualified dog trainer Hazel, offers one to one training in the home environment or out on walks. The types of training covered are:

• Basic training e.g. sit, stay recall, loose lead walking, leave it, send to bed
• Pulling on lead
• Recalls on walks
• Attention seeking behaviour e.g. jumping up, pestering

The cost is £50 per hour.

Habituation and Desensitisation to Vet Practice & Procedure

For dogs that are nervous only at the vets, with offer habituation and desensitisation visits with a vet nurse where we can take our time to gradually get them comfortable in the veterinary environment and with routine procedures. The dog will require regular sessions and homework will be given to owners for a few weeks to build their confidence and make this a less threatening and more rewarding experience.

New Rescue Dog Home Visits

Bringing a rescue dog into your family can be an exciting but challenging time. In order to help him / her settle in as quickly as possible and to help prevent behaviour problems, our Dog Behaviourist offers a special home visit tailored to rescue dogs’ needs.

The cost for this is £70 per session.

Pre-Purchase Advice

Getting a new Puppy is a very exciting time, but this is a big commitment and there are lots of things to think about to ensure your get the right match for your lifestyle and to help your new addition to settle in.  We offer a pre-purchase advise session where you can ask any questions you have about which breed, sex or age, where to source your puppy, how to introduce to other members of your household and how to ensure you provide the best care in these early days.

The cost for this is £45 per 45 minutes.

Puppy Home Visit

Here at Holly House Vets we understand that your puppy psychological welfare is just as important as their physical health and many new owners have lots of questions about how to ensure they are providing the best care for their new pup.  For owners who would like a little more personalised support with their new puppy, we offer a 1½ hour home visit with our behaviourist. These sessions allow plenty of time to answer all your care and management questions, to review your home set up and discuss common issues such as socialisation, puppy biting, toilet training and getting started with training.

The cost for this session is £70 and include a copy of our Puppy Booklet.

Puppy Owner Advice and Guidance Sessions

Getting a new puppy is an exciting time, but it can also be quite overwhelming and even experienced owners forget just how much hard work youngsters can be. All owners want to give their new addition the best start in life, but with the amount of information available and with best practice constantly changing, it can be hard to be confident you are making the right decisions.

We offer two lecture / discussion sessions where you will obtain up to date information and the opportunity to discuss your questions and experiences with a vet nurse or behaviourist, as well as other owners. It can be reassuring to see that most owners have similar issues!

Puppy Session cover:

1.  Health Care and Nutrition

2.  Management, training and behaviour

The cost for the 2 hour lecture session is £20.

Looking for more pet advice? Please visit our dog advice pages

Puppy Classes

Early training and socialisation is very important for all dogs to help them grow into well adapted and well behaved members of society. These first training classes, for pups from 12 weeks to 6 months, give you and your puppy the opportunity to meet other pups and owners.

Classes are fun, using only positive methods and focussing on play between owner and dog. You will have the opportunity to take the Kennel Club Good Citizens Puppy Foundation Certificate.

The cost of the 6 week course is £70 (10% discount for Pet Health Club members).

Course Content

• Understanding basic principles of positive dog training
• Training through play and games to make it fun and keep your dog motivated
• Socialisation and confidence activities
• Handling, health checks and familiarisation to practice equipment
• Attention and response to his/her name
• Positions and stays
• Loose lead walking
• Recall
• Settling and being relaxed