While a vet can prescribe Prozac for a compulsive dog, behavior science teaches them to prescribe enrichment first. This includes:
The most radical shift is in the paradigm of pain. We have long understood nociception—the neural signal of tissue damage. But we are only now beginning to validate animal suffering as a distinct clinical entity. Behavioral science has given us grim scales for grimacing in rabbits, for posture changes in sheep, for the cat's half-closed eye. We are learning that a rat will press a lever to self-administer pain relief even after the wound has healed—because the memory of pain, the fear of its return, is a pathology unto itself. While a vet can prescribe Prozac for a
Techniques like Desensitization (gradual exposure) and Counter-conditioning (changing the emotional response to a trigger). But we are only now beginning to validate