‌Image credit: Carole Fureix

Companion animals are hugely important to many people as pets and in ‘service’ (e.g. military, medical detection, and livestock guarding dogs). However, in these roles, they may suffer poor welfare or exhibit behaviour that is viewed negatively by owners and/or reflects underlying affective or cognitive disorder.

Our clinical behavioural research aims to better understand the causes of such problems and to develop and test new treatments and preventive measures. We have the only UK centre approved by the European College to train veterinary residents in this field, and we use our on-site behavioural referral clinic to apply our research to real-life cases. Our ground-breaking Bristol Cats Study also provides data for our research.