Behavioural Referrals Ltd Veterinary Practice

We were referred here through our vets. The staff were very helpful & the vets themselves but I found that unless we reached out for support, we was just left - they are very expensive and I felt like we was just getting told that all our issues may be sorted with pain relief medication which I didn’t feel comfortable doing, we wanted face to face training. Ruth was very helpful when we needed support over the phone but I just feel for the price you pay I expected regular training sessions & interaction with the dog themselves. It is only when you reach out to the team you get a teams call or an invite to the site with no training it is just conversation with them not interacting with the dog what so ever - I just felt for the price is not worth it and so we decided to discharge our dog from under the care as we was throwing money away just to be told to give him pain medication which is not what we wanted to do , there was no proper training sessions with our dog one to one, they never even interacted with our dog the whole time we was under them.

My dog had been really well trained but a combo of cognitive decline and deafness led to unwanted behaviours. I was desperate to seek advice about how to modify this behaviour and so agreed to the package. Case history was taken over a couple of hours and then the next appointment offered was 6-7 weeks later. I would NEVER have signed up for the very expensive package if I had been told at the beginning that the second appointment was be 6-7 weeks later. Really not impressed. Poor communication and lack of clarity.

As a pharmacist dealing with prescriptions for pets from numerous vets I found this practice so easy to deal with. We had a problem with a prescription for a controlled drug for Bentley the dog. Laura H dealt with the problem quickly and efficiently. Extremely impressed!!

My husband and I would just like to thank you all at Behavioural Referrals for all your help and support with our labrador Wyn . Thank you Dr Tooley for our initial consultation which helped us understand Wyn more and the reasons around his behaviour. Thank you to the bookings and repeat medication team who were always helpful . Special thanks to Isla and Laura at Oakbank Stables , for all your rehab support and to whom Wyn began to trust and feel comfortable around . All the strategies you taught us we are still using and will continue to do so. You both do an amazing job. When we noticed Wyns behaviour change when he emerged from the puppy stage, we thought we had a 'vicious' labrador and we were devasted , confused and did not know what to do or where to turn. You have taught us that his behaviour is around his anxiety and explained this in an easy way for us to understand . By following all your advice and his rehab programme , we now have a more relaxed Wyn who we understand more and he is a much more 'happier' dog . So again, a huge thank you from from us all !

When we got our dog Buddy he was 11 weeks old and weighed just 0.8kg. He was unbelievably cute and we all grew attached instantly. We quickly realised that his upbringing hadn’t been as good as we’d thought. He hadn’t been vaccinated properly, had worms, diarrhoea and was passing blood. He became very ill. Thanks to visits to our local vet and a late night dash to an emergency veterinarian hospital he improved. Then he was able to be given all his vaccinations to allow him to go outside. Worrying so much about his physical health, his mental health and his key early socialisation so he could grow up to be a normal happy dog took a backseat. It soon became apparent he was experiencing behavioural problems and couldn’t cope. We eventually arrived at our wits end. We all loved him but his behaviour had become stressful and disruptive and affected every aspect of home life. From getting up to going to bed everything revolved around the impact on Buddy and trying to minimise anything that made his behaviour worse. Continuous barking, showing signs of aggression, anxiety, stress, it wasn’t fun for us or him. Only if you’re going through it do you know what it’s like. Fortunately our local vet put us in contact with Behavioural Referrals. Buddy is nearly 3 and a half now. I won’t lie and say there’s any magic cures, and Buddy won’t ever be a ‘normal’ dog, but he’s shown great improvement working with Behavioural Referrals. We’ve had regular home visits by both dog trainers and behavioural vets. He’s on medication now and the combination of the medication, the training we’ve had to enable us to train him, and the opportunity to learn how his brain works and be better able to read him and manage him has definitely helped. We’re hoping for continued improvement and a better quality of life for him and of course us. I know it’s a lengthy review but if you’re going through what we went through and are looking for help and wondering where to go, then I can’t recommend Behavioural Referrals enough. Everything is done with kindness, and trying to encourage the good behaviour and not punishing bad behaviour. Hopefully my review might be useful to someone out there who also needs help with their four legged family member.