Consultation

Locations & Scheduling

Davis, CA

Dr. Sophia Yin makes housecalls and ranch appointments in the Davis, California area (from Vacaville to Sacramento).

To schedule a consult in the Davis area, email Dr. Yin’s office with a schedule of your availabilities, your home address and a 1-3 sentence description of your pet-related issues. Dr. Yin has both weekend and evening consult slots. To reserve your spot you must send in a completed preconsult form.

Schedule a housecall appointment in the Davis area »

San Francisco, CA

Dr. Sophia Yin sees behavior consults on Wednesdays in San Francisco at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists.

To schedule a consult in San Francisco, contact San Francisco Veterinary Specialists at (415) 401-9200, or visit their web site at www.SFVS.net

Schedule a consult in San Francisco »

Fees & Information

Davis, CA (housecalls)

First visit (1.5-2 hours): $300.00

Follow-ups (50 min): $130.00

Consult package: $560 for a set of three sessions, includes access to the Low Stress Handling book online edition, and a copy of Dr. Sophia Yin’s How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves book. Sessions must be redeemed within 6 months. (No refunds on non-redeemed consults).

Puppy or Kitten Starter: $270 for three sessions, Individual sessions $100.00. Includes access to the Low Stress Handling book online edition, and a copy of Dr. Sophia Yin’s How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves book). Sessions must be redeemed within 6 months. (No refunds on non-redeemed consults).

Horse, Goat, Pig, Chicken Cat (and other hoofed stock) Clicker Training Sessions: $270 for three sessions Individual sessions $100.00. Includes access to the Low Stress Handling book online edition, and a copy of Dr. Sophia Yin’s How to Behave So Your Dog Behaves book. Sessions must be redeemed within 6 months. (No refunds on non-redeemed consults).

No refunds on non-redeemed consults.

Travel fee to Woodland and Dixon: $20.00

Travel fee to Sacramento: $35.00

For potential clients living out of Dr. Yin's travel range, with a referral from your vet, Dr. Yin can see you in her Davis Office.

San Francisco, CA (at SF Veterinary Specialists)

First visit (1.5-2 hours): $320

Follow-ups (30 min): $111
(1 hour): $138

Consult package: First visit plus one recheck (1 hour) $403 (save about $55.00. 2nd consult is good for 6 months. No refunds on missed or non-redeemed 2nd consult).

Preconsult Forms

Before your consultation, download the preconsult forms you’ll need, use Word to fill them out, and email them back to Dr. Yin at sophia@nerdbook.com.

• Canine: Separation Anxiety
• Canine: Aggression to People
• Canine: Other Problem
• Canine: Puppy Starter
• Feline: General

Other Forms

Adobe Reader required to view and edit PDF files, you can download it for free.

• Board and Train Contract (pdf)
• Informed Consent Form (pdf)

How many consults will I need?

Feline cases: Generally require 1-2 consults. Follow-ups can often be done via phone. Cats on behavioral medications should be rechecked yearly by Dr. Yin and get yearly bloodwork.

Canine cases: Generally require at least 2-3 consults for owners to gain the skills needed to resolve the issues and control the problems well. The average number is 3, so some require just one visit and more difficult situations require more visits. Marked behavior changes can occur within the first several days to a week of starting the behavior modification plan though. Optimal scheduling is to have rechecks every 1-3 weeks rather than waiting extended periods between follow-ups. You are welcome and encouraged to bring your dog walker or referring dog trainer (if they are willing to follow the plan) to the consult so that they can help coach or assist you through the behavior modification program.

Some clients with dogs will be able to participate in Dr. Yin’s group dog classes on the UC Davis Campus. These classes are taught quarterly on Sundays. Get more information on classes.

WHAT TYPES OF PROBLEMS DOES DR. YIN ADDRESS?

Problems include but are not limited to:

Cats: Aggression to people or other animals, fear, spraying or pottying outside the box, destruction, excessive vocalization.

Dogs: Snapping, nipping, biting, lunging, growling of any kind, fear, noise phobias, barking and lunging or shying away from people, dogs, cats, inanimate objects, doorbell, visitors. Compulsive tail chasing, spinning, light chasing. Anxiety when separated from owners. Unmanageable at the vet or for general grooming or husbandry or medical procedures. Inability to calm down. General anxiety.

Puppies & Kittens (Under 4 months of age): These are preventive sessions where we focus on methods for training the puppies/kittens to accept and enjoy being handled for medical and husbandry procedures such as veterinary exams, toenail trims, injections, receiving liquid or tablet-form medications, having their collar suddenly grabbed, being held or restrained in many different positions. I also teach strategies for training the puppy or kitten to be comfortable around unfamiliar people, in new environments, and around other animals. Fear is the number one cause of aggression to people and other animals of their own species and anxiety is the number one reason for cats urinating outside the box. Both can be prevented with well-planned early socialization. We also work on exercises that teach both puppies and kittens to focus on their humans and to calmly ask for what they want by sitting instead of jumping, yowling, whining, or being destructive.

Pig, goat, horse, chicken, cat: These are preventive and general husbandry training sessions where pets learn simple, fun behaviors as well as tricks. These are not behavioral consults for major behavior issues, rather they are training sessions for tricks or better general behavior. This is for animals not yet showing aggression. As such, a behavioral/medical record and evaluation are not included with this type of visit.

WHEN IS THE PROBLEM BAD ENOUGH TO WARRANT A CONSULT?

Many of the cases veterinary and applied animal behavior consultants see are those in which the pets have caused thousands of dollars of household damage, bitten many people or dogs, or involve family members who are at their wits end. Most of these issues could have been prevented or addressed with much less emotion or effort months prior when they were probably barely recognizable as issues to the owner. As a result, it's safest for clients to come in early on, even if they are just wondering whether the issue could become a problem. At minimum, clients will learn strategies to prevent the signs from blossoming into a full-blown problem and will gain techniques to improve their bond with their pets.

PRECONSULT CHECKLIST

• Bring a hungry pet and bite-sized treats that they like. We often use the pet’s meals-worth of food during a given consult session. If the pet is not hungry then we will be missing a prime opportunity to practice the technique that you will be using at home.
• Bring video and photos: If you can, take video or photos of the problem behaviors as they occur within the context of your house. For instance, if your dog has potential separation anxiety, bring photos of the areas of destruction or video of what the dog does when you leave the house. For cats that are pottying outside the box, take photos of the areas they soil and draw a map of the house and label these areas as well as their litter box areas. Also take photos of their litter boxes.
• Send the preconsult form well in advance: Be sure to fill it out carefully and think about events as they occur in chronologic order. The better the information you provide for me, the more efficient I can be at devising a plan for you.

WHAT HAPPENS IN A CONSULT

Stage 1

Prior to the consult, owners download and complete the appropriate preconsult form (Microsoft word) based on the reason(s) for the visit. Doing so allows Dr. Yin to devote more of the consult time to explaining the behavior modification plan and coaching owners on the appropriate techniques. Please e-mail the preconsult form to Sophia@nerdbook.com with the title "animal behavior" at least 48 hours prior to the consult. You will receive a reply confirming receipt.

Stage 2: The Consult

The first part of the consult is dedicated to obtaining a thorough history based partly on your preconsult form replies. This involves obtaining detailed information about the onset and progression of signs and a careful description of the animal's problem behavior and the contexts in which it occurs. The history is vital for fully ascertaining the extent of the problem and how it affects the household and its individual members. This in turn helps in determining how to tailor the modification program to meet your needs. The second part of the consult focuses on explaining the causes of the problem behavior and discussing the behavior modification plan. We start working on some of the foundation exercises for addressing the problems and observe the pet's response to the exercises.

Stage 3: Homework:

In order to change a pet's behavior, owners have to first modify their own behavior so that they only reinforce their pet's good behavior and avoid accidentally rewarding detrimental behaviors. This requires a new awareness of how your actions influence your pet's actions, and takes practice and requires coaching and teamwork among family members. Owners will also make environmental modifications (especially with cats). To simplify the process and help you keep with the plan, Dr. Yin provides owners with a typed over view of the plan, ancillary reading material and access to quicktime videos to view from her web site.

Stage 4 Follow-up appointments:

Dog owners should plan on scheduling a minimum of two follow-ups consults. Follow-ups are generally essential because each technique builds upon the pervious one and the plan is not complete until you've learned all of the needed techniques for dealing with the situations. Additionally at each consult, the pet's response to the previous exercises is evaluated and the plan is modified accordingly. Each week, owners work to improve timing, consistency and execution of the techniques.

Stage 5:

Dogs in Davis can also enroll in dog class and semi-private training sessions once they've completed the initial three sessions. Read more about Dr. Yin's dog class »

Additional Diagnostic Work-up

In some cases, the problems suggest a medical abnormality. In such cases additional medical work-up is warranted.