The first thing to appreciate about animal behavior services is the lack of specific credentials that assure competence. Currently there are at least three scientifically oriented groups attempting to set standards for the business of animal behavior modification and training.

The term idiopathic is usually attached to behaviors such as acral lick dermatitis, pica, psychogenic alopecia and cribbing to denote an undetermined origin. While these behaviors are technically unexplained, they have correlations that hint at causality. The three factors that each of these behaviors share are selective breeding, the absence of culling through natural selection and close confinement.

Our popular understanding of animal behavior rests in two major areas of study – ethology and behavior analysis. Ethologists study the way animals behave in a natural habitat. They study body language, posturing and assorted ways that animals influence each other and their environment.

This year, millions of dogs will die because of the absence of proper care. Their numbers exceed all the animals treated in all the veterinary hospitals across the country. Their common failing is behavioral, not medical or nutritional. This behavioral train-wreck is composed of several innocuous but highly lethal behaviors: jumping on people, darting out the front door, destroying property, tugging on leash and biting.

In the world of modern behavior therapy, there are two popular mainstays – gradual desensitization and counter conditioning. If a dog is terrified of thunderstorms, one plays back a sound recording of thunder at very low volume and "desensitizes" the dog to the thunder over a long period of time.

Tens of millions of dogs and cats die from behavioral problems each year. The exact amount is unknown and perhaps unknowable, but tens of millions is a pretty good ballpark number. This number exceeds all deaths at veterinary clinics from all causes, by several times.

A discussion of the ethics of behavioral treatment begins with some important topics. First, can you stick to the ethics of veterinary medicine and still be on firm footing with behavioral issues? Second, what does "do no harm" mean in the context of behavioral therapy? Third, how will you provide your clients with effective training and behavioral therapy?

One aspect of veterinary behavioral therapy is the use of psychotropic drugs to control behavior. To set the context for my comments, I am not a veterinarian.

Within the study of psychology are several sub-disciplines that focus on animal behavior. One of these fields is called behavior analysis. Unlike ethology, the study of how animals behave in their natural habitat, behavior analysis deals primarily with the way behavior is changed by the environment. This field is also called the experimental analysis of behavior.