Customer Reviews

Pet Behavior Protocols: What to Say, What to Do, When to Refer

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I am studying to be a veterinary technician, and this is one of the books that I am required to read. It has come highly recommended to me, both by my professors and a co-worker who is a certified behaviorist. This book is for behaviorists, shelter workers and veterinary professionals who deal with animal owners; it is NOT a training manual for people who wish to train their dogs, as some reviewers seem to think. This is an excellent book for its intended audience. Mr. Webster has reviewed other works that he has not even read, therefore I'm not sure I would trust such a review, let alone any review that contained such poor grammar and vocabulary. If you are a dog owner looking for a training manual, there are many other books available, such as The Dog Listener, by Jan Fennell, or The Other End of the Leash, by Patricia B. McConnell, Ph.D.

I work in an animal shelter in the behavior department where I do behavior consultations for people who have adopted animals from us. I refer to this book very often,it is very easy to follow and understand. The knowledge and experience is unmatched. It goes step by step for you and it is easy to just pick it up and look for what you need. I would and do recommend this book to anyone interested in pet behavior.

I am a feline behavior counselor, and am pleased with Hetts' book--her no-nonsense approach, her practical, constructive slant. I'd like her to produce a book that is strictly about cats, with this thinking in mind, adding more in-depth information about lesser-known behavioral issues, and her experience and constructive comments/ recommendations about the latest research regarding, for example, the use of drug therapy on behavioral matters, about possible integration of ferals into the home, etc. More in-depth discussions, in general, would be useful--sometimes if the initial approaches do not work, I've found, deeper exploration often yields real results. And this woman, after all, has an enormous amount of experience.

Review of Pet Behavioral Protocols By Suzan Hetts To Begin with all rights were reserved and their was a (about) 160 word disclaimer, that did not sit well with me. I am skeptical about a book that is going to be used as a reference that says, it makes no representation about the suitability or accuracy of the information contained in this work

In applied behavior as a field only dog and cats are discussed in the book. Of those two selections I only am reviewing the dog portion for I have no expertise in cats.

Dr. Hetts refers to the applied behavior field within that field with a diagnostic approach to dog behavior and how professional people should handle, in general and specific ways, people and dogs that have real or imagined problems. The protocols have to do with what to say as well as what not to say to your client, in a basic communication course dealing with the specifics of dog behavior. As the writer says it is not a cook book for solving the behavior problems but a way to get all the information you need to make a diagnoses and assign a treatment or regiment suitable to correct the behavior. Dr. Hetts does refer to the behavior specialist that they may be responsible for lives (dog/human) based on what they tell their client.

The author refers to behavior modification and different ways to modify behavior, about the way a behaviorist should be an educator, and defines his/her duties (I would call that a job description). Describes a multidisciplinary project to establish guidelines for dog trainers. Also what tragic results can come from abusive training techniques like hanging a dog until it passes out for not obeying a command. Dr. Hetts stops well short of saying not to physically punish, yell, or blast an air horn to get the behavior you want.

Then to a crash course in animal learning that speaks of behavior modification not of instilling new behavior. As an alternative I would rather have a new behavior in the animal than a modified behavior. This is my example: If the dog previously would bit the first person walking by a modified behavior would suggest that he would bite the third or fourth person in line or only on Tuesday and not on Saturday and Sunday, not to stop biting. By definition alone of the word modify (to make less extreme) would suggest that scenario.

The author gives the reader a definition of punishment as decreasing the frequency of behavior and that there is positive and negative punishment. In her (disclaimed book) opinion that it is ok to use a shock collar the get acceptable behavior. Later in the book there is a suggestion that incorrect behaviors can be ignored and only the wanted behaviors to be rewarded. But so little information is provided in later chapters on the specific protocols and so much on how to use positive and negative punishment that ignoring unwanted behavior and rewarding good behavior may be forgotten as the solution. This is where I believe the author has missed the point. There is enough scientific and antidotal evidence to suggest that we are dealing with thinking (limited) animals that humans can establish a communication with. Another point was missed when the effects on children who watch there dog getting shocked. Are they learning dominance works to get their own way? Who will have the damaged ears when using the air horn in classical conditioning?

In most of the following chapters there is a section on the use of punishment. Earlier in the book she describes under what conditions punishment will work that you would have a better chance of winning the lottery than having success at punishing an animal correctly as stated to do so in the book. Then there is the, if a little is good then a lot is better attitude of America.

The next ten chapters deal with specific problems and some of the questions that need to be asked. In a chapter on fears and phobias they seem to put most of the blame, for fear and phobias, on lack of socialization and inappropriate use of punishment. There is that punishment subject again. Then why sometimes it is good and bad to sooth your phobic dog during a thunderstorm. Those 10 chapters need to be studied. For they are written in pseudo scientific, obfuscate, (to confuse a mind), and make me wonder if the author has actually trained an adequate number of dogs for obedience competition or work on a ranch to test their own theories. If they did train them how did they turn out? What gets me is that for the last 135,000 years (Charles Vil'A, UCLA) we as humans have gotten along well with the dog until the last 30 years. This $76.00 book has some suggestions, very few answers and a 160 word disclaimer. So I was very disappointed when that much effort has come up so short on explaining to everyone what has happened to our relationship with our dogs and how this book intends to help keep millions of dogs from being euthanasia. There is a solution already to be put into use. They touched on it in one paragraph in the book (pg41) and the books have already been written about the shift in thinking. If you use this book as a definition as to the state of the art/science the author admits in the disclaimer that they really don't know. The vets and scientist are only guessing and they are hoping for a break. If they don't know it now the break is a paragraph on pg. 41.