Your vet
Dr Chantelle “Channy” McGowan
BVSc, MANZCVS (Behaviour), Elite Fear Free Certified Professional & Coach. A registered veterinarian since 2011, practising in South Australia and Victoria, with a particular interest in behaviour medicine. Pronouns she/they.
Dr Channy started The Calm Pet Vet because a standard 20 to 40 minute appointment is a poor fit for the animals who need the most care. A frightened dog does not become less frightened because the schedule says the appointment is over, and a cat who has spent 40 minutes in a carrier is not giving you an honest physical examination at the other end.
So the whole model changed instead. Care happens in your home, where your pet already knows the smells and the floor and the exits, or by video, where they never move at all. Appointments are long enough that a pet can decide in their own time whether we are safe. Nothing is held down, nothing is rushed, and your pet is allowed to say no.
15 years of general practice sits underneath the behaviour work, which matters more than it sounds. Pain, thyroid disease, poor sleep and gut disease all show up as behaviour first. A trainer cannot rule those out. A vet has to.
Elite Fear Free Certified
Professional and Coach, the highest Fear Free tier
Where we stand
What the qualification means, and what it does not
The pet behaviour industry is not regulated. Anyone can print a title on a website tomorrow, and there is no register to check them against. So here is exactly what Dr Channy holds, written the way the veterinary boards require it to be written.
MANZCVS is earned by examination
Membership of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists is awarded after college-set examinations in a chosen chapter, in this case Veterinary Behaviour. It sits well above a weekend course or an online certificate, and it is assessed independently.
It is not a specialist qualification
The college says so plainly, and so do we. Registration as a veterinary behaviour specialist requires a residency and Fellowship, and Australia has only a handful of people who hold it. Dr Channy is not one of them and does not claim to be.
The word most vet sites quietly misuse
Titles ending in -ist imply the standing of a registered veterinary specialist, and both the Victorian and South Australian boards treat them that way. Plenty of practitioners use them anyway. We do not, because a title you are not entitled to is the first thing that should make you doubt everything after it.
Where a case needs more, we say so
Some cases genuinely need a registered veterinary specialist, or a return to your regular clinic, or a referral hospital. When that is the honest answer, you get it early rather than after you have spent months and several thousand dollars finding out.
Membership of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists is earned by examination, but it is not a specialist qualification. Australia has only a handful of registered veterinary behaviour specialists. Where a case needs one, we will say so and refer.
Background
15 years, and the road that got here
Behaviour medicine is not a career you start in. It is one you arrive at after enough general practice to know how often a behaviour problem turns out to be a medical one.
- 2011
Graduated and registered
Qualified as a veterinarian at the University of Melbourne and registered to practise. General practice came first, and it is still the foundation of how they work: behaviour cases are medical cases until proven otherwise.
- Practice years
Head Veterinarian, cat-friendly clinic
Led the veterinary team at an ISFM-accredited cat-friendly clinic. ISFM accreditation is not a logo you buy, it is an audited standard covering handling, hospitalisation and the physical layout of the building. Working to it daily is where a lot of the low-stress handling practice was built.
- Industry
Scientific Services Veterinarian
Worked in scientific services for a therapeutic pet nutrition company, lecturing veterinarians and nurses on nutrition and behaviour in Australia and overseas. Standing in front of a room of clinicians who will pull apart a weak claim is a good discipline for staying close to the evidence.
- Mentorship
Supervised by a veterinary psychiatrist
Began taking behaviour cases in clinical practice under the supervision of Dr Gabrielle Carter, a veterinary psychiatrist. Case-based supervision is how behaviour medicine is genuinely learned, because the difficult part is rarely the diagnosis, it is judging when medication helps, when it does not, and what a household can realistically sustain.
- 2023
MANZCVS (Behaviour) awarded
Passed the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists membership examinations in Veterinary Behaviour. The exams are set and marked by the college, not by a training provider, and they can be failed.
- 2024
Published, and recognised for it
Co-authored 2 peer-reviewed veterinary behaviour papers. One was named Most Commendable Paper in the Australian Veterinary Journal in 2024. Peer review means other veterinarians examined the work and were free to reject it.
Qualifications and memberships
Veterinarian since 2011
A registered, practising vet for over a decade.
MANZCVS (Behaviour)
Membership of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists in Veterinary Behaviour Medicine, awarded 2023.
Elite Fear Free Certified
Elite Fear Free Certified Professional and Coach with Fear Free LLC.
Pet Professional Guild Australia
Member of the PPGA, an association of force-free veterinary professionals.
- Low Stress Handling certified
- Fear Free Coach, as well as Elite Fear Free Certified Professional
- Registered with the veterinary boards of both Victoria and South Australia
- BVSc, University of Melbourne
How we practise
Nobody honest can promise you a fixed dog
Behaviour work is slow, it is unglamorous, and it depends as much on what a household can sustain as on what the textbook says. Anyone promising to fix your dog is selling bull-dust.
Emotion first, obedience second
We treat how an animal feels, not just what they do. Suppressing a behaviour without changing the underlying fear usually removes the warning and keeps the danger.
Force free, and consent based
No prong collars, no shock, no dominance theory, no holding an animal still until they give up. Your pet gets to opt out, and a session that ends early is not a failed session.
Medication when it is warranted, not by default
As a vet, Dr Channy can prescribe. That is a genuine advantage over training alone, and it is also a responsibility. Medication is proposed when the anxiety is severe enough that learning cannot happen without it, with the reasoning explained and the alternatives named.
A plan you can actually run
A perfect protocol nobody has time for helps nobody. Plans are built around your household, your work hours and your street, and they get adjusted when reality disagrees with them.
Inclusive care
Whoever you are, you are welcome here
This is stated openly rather than implied, because the people who need to know it should not have to work it out from a photograph.
Australian Rainbow Vets and Allies
Dr Channy has been heavily involved with Australian Rainbow Vets and Allies, and is non-binary and intersex. Pronouns are published here for the same reason they are given at the door: so nobody has to guess or ask.
The Veterinary Kaleidoscope
Dr Channy helped found The Veterinary Kaleidoscope, a veterinary diversity and inclusion organisation, and has been closely involved with it since. It runs a conference dedicated to inclusion inside the profession itself.
An openly LGBTQIA+ and disability friendly practice
Care happens in your home or on a video call, which removes the waiting room, the car trip and the stairs. Tell us what you need in your enquiry and it will be planned for, not improvised on the day.
Where we work
Adelaide first, Melbourne for behaviour, telehealth anywhere
The service area is split deliberately, and it is worth reading before you enquire so nobody is disappointed.
In-home GP vet care
Adelaide and South Australia only. Vaccinations, skin and ear consults, pathology, senior checks and at-home euthanasia.
Behaviour consults
Adelaide, Melbourne, and Australia-wide by telehealth. Dr Channy is registered in both states, which is why Melbourne behaviour work is possible and Melbourne GP work currently is not.
Home visits, not a clinic address
There is no waiting room to sit in. We come to you, so travel is charged separately and quoted with your estimate.
Tell us what is going on with your pet
You do not need a diagnosis or the right words. Describe what is happening and what worries you most, and we will tell you honestly whether this is something we can help with, and what it would involve.
The online form is the best way to reach us. Every enquiry is read personally, usually within a week.