Problems of Adherence in Behaviour Modification

Both veterinary specialists and generalists often give advice on behavior problems and adherence to this advice (also referred to as “compliance”, defined as “the extent to which the patient’s action matches the agreed recommendations”) is critical to successful treatment outcomes, since the majority of treatment is carried out by the owner. In clinical animal behavior, the definition of adherence can be modified to read: “the extent to which the owner’s action matches the agreed recommendations.” Indeed, adherence/compliance-related issues are recognized as one of the biggest challenges within clinical behavior practice. Although much researched in the human health field, this topic is much less well studied in the veterinary and clinical animal behaviour fields, despite the pioneering work of AAHA (2003). This reported an overall adherence of 64%, reducing to 20–30% for certain more complex treatments. Adherence results specific to clinical animal behaviour are not available, but in a study of pet owner adherence, Talamonti et al. (2015) report that pet owners have more difficulty applying new behavioral management rules than any of the other forms of veterinary treatment investigated. It is therefore likely that adherence rates in clinical animal behaviour management may be very low, although it is clearly integral to the actual success of behaviour consultation. [...]