Bristol Veterinary School
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Animal Behaviour Clinic
The Langford Animal Behaviour Clinic at the University of Bristol is a referral service that helps owners with undesirable or abnormal behaviour patterns in their pets.
The service currently receives regular referrals from first opinion veterinary surgeons from a wide area of the country.
The service is based at Langford Vet School, with the clinical staff being part of the internationally recognised Animal Welfare and Behaviour group.
Since all the clinicians are actively involved in companion animal behaviour and welfare research and training scholarships, referring vets and pet owners can be assured that the advice that they receive is not only evidence based, but also at the forefront of current knowledge in the field.
The clinic is also the only centre in the UK that is approved by the European College of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine for the training of residents in veterinary behaviour.
What cases do we see?
Although the majority of the case-load in the clinic is made up of dogs and cats, we also see parrots, rabbits and horses with undesirable behaviours.
The most common problems that we see in dogs are:
- aggression towards other dogs
- aggression towards people,
- separation related behaviours, and
- specific fear responses (such as fear of fireworks).
In cats, we commonly see cases of:
- inappropriate elimination,
- marking behaviours (such as urine spraying), and
- aggression towards other cats or people.
However, since we work from the 'first principles' of ethology, associative learning and functional neurophysiology, we are able to assist with a whole range of behavioural disorders, however unusual they may seem!
Please contact us if you are unsure about the suitability of a case for referral.
Our approach to cases
Our approach to clinical cases is to utilise our understanding of
- ethology (the 'normal' behavioural repertoire of each species)
- learning theory (how animals change their behaviour to adapt to their environment)
- developmental biology (how the early part of life influences later behaviour)
- physiology (normal processes and changes in the body)
- veterinary medicine (the influence of diseases and pain)
- neurobiology (how the brain works),
- pharmacology (the influence of drugs on the body)
We integrate these into interpreting how an individual behaviour develops in an individual animal.
Our treatment approaches are based on positive training methods