Providing a behavioral resource with Ease

Annie Valuska, PhD, principal scientist for the pet behavior team at Purina, discussed companion animal behaviors that owners may typically see and what they can mean, in a dvm360 interview. The interview also discussed how miscommunication between pets and their owners affect animal behaviors. Some of these behaviors can lead owners to surrender their pets to shelters.

In this video, Valuska discusses the Ease online program, a resource for veterinary practice that provides access to behavior experts. The program is owned and operated by Ease Pet Vet LLC and is supported by Purina ProPlan.

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The following is a transcript of the video.

dvm360: What is the Ease online program for veterinary practices?

Valuska: Purina ProPlan is very supportive of Ease. So, Ease is a program that allows veterinary practices to access expert behavioral support from its team of board-certified veterinary behaviorists and a certified applied animal behaviorist, and they are able to access those services at no cost.

There are a lot of pets that could benefit from behavioral help, but there aren't very many people [who] are credentialed with this kind of expertise, so your average veterinary practice likely doesn't have a certified applied animal behaviorist or a board-certified veterinary behaviorist on staff to help with these kinds of cases. The goal of Ease is to try to bring this kind of expertise into these clinics, to give these general practitioners access to these certified applied animal behaviorists and board-certified veterinary behaviorists, and allow them to help pet parents and offer this kind of expertise to their clients.

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