The Gentle Touch

Dr. Muriel Brasseur and her dog Selkie

Pets and their people are a big part of my world. I am a zoologist and animal behaviorist and I see pets with behavioral problems on veterinary referral. My consultations consist mostly of dogs with the odd cat thrown in, and I am often called in as a last resort.

It all started many years ago when I was a veterinary nurse. When faced with a fearful dog, I would say to the vet, “Give me a few minutes to gain this dog’s trust” instead of dragging it into the surgery by its collar and slamming a muzzle on it. I would sit with recovering animals for hours, determined to give them some comfort so that hospitalization would not be a completely negative experience.

And so I was the one who inherited all the difficult patients for restraint. I clearly remember a client walking into the clinic with a very large Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo and a pair of raptor gloves, and all the nursing staff disappearing to the kennel room while I stood there thinking, “Bring it on!”

Here’s how it works: After my clients complete a preliminary pre-consultation questionnaire, I make a risk assessment and a visit plan. I visit clients to observe them and their pets in their everyday environment, and to learn more about the problems they struggle with. If I am presented with a human-directed aggression case, I will meet dogs and their owners outside on neutral territory, introduce myself on a walk, and proceed from there.

I have been known to rearrange whole homes to make them safer and more dog or cat friendly. Inevitably, I deal with many rescued dogs and they can present the biggest challenges as well as also the most rewarding results.

What I do is not like anything on TV. None of the methods used by qualified behaviorists make use of intimidation or the falsely held belief that you have to dominate your dog to make it behave. I believe these methods belong in the Middle Ages and that they can cause great damage to the special bond humans share with their dogs. Instead, I encourage my clients to have a relaxed, mutually beneficial, two-way, equal partnership.

I love my work but it’s no walk in the park. There are days when it’s the best job in the world and some days it can be the worst. But I believe that if you help animals you help people, and that if you help people you help animals.

Dr. Muriel Brasseur (BSc Hons, PhD) established the Oxfordshire Animal Behavior Center in England in 2007. In particular, she has been extensively involved in rehabilitating ex-racing greyhounds from the track to a home environment. For more information, visit her website at www.oabc.org.uk