The process
What actually happens, start to finish
Most veterinary websites describe a behaviour consult in a sentence and leave you to find out the rest after you have paid. This page is the whole thing: the paperwork, the timings, the cost, and the parts we cannot do.
Read it before you enquire. If the shape of it does not suit you, that is genuinely useful to know now, and we would rather you found out here than halfway through.
Before you book
The 2 things people push back on
Both are fair. Both have honest answers, and both are easier to hear now than later.
“I need this sorted now”
Completely understandable. Living with a dog who lunges at every passing bike, or a cat weeing on the bed at 3am, is exhausting and it does not pause while you wait for an appointment.
But fear, anxiety and aggression are not habits to be corrected out of an animal. They are emotional states, usually built over months or years, and the learning that undoes them happens slowly and only when the animal is under threshold. A plan that promises next week is either suppressing the behaviour, which removes the warning and keeps the danger, or it is not being straight with you.
What we can do quickly is give you management strategies that reduce the pressure immediately, and, where the anxiety is severe enough to block learning, medication that makes progress possible at all.
“Why is there so much paperwork?”
Because the alternative is spending the first half of an expensive appointment on questions you could have answered on your couch with the dog asleep next to you, and with your partner in the room to correct your version of events.
The questionnaire is also better data than a live interview. Behaviour history is detail heavy, and people remember more accurately with time to think than they do on the spot with a vet watching.
The paperwork is not administrative overhead added to the consult. It is the first part of the consult, and it is a large part of why the appointment is worth what it costs.
Time
A behaviour work-up takes 3 to 4 hours
Not 3 to 4 hours in your living room. That is the total across the whole work-up, and it is the honest comparison to make before judging the price.
Standard vet appointment
20 to 40 min
Enough for a vaccination, a sore ear, or a lump check.
A behaviour work-up
3 to 4 hours
Questionnaire, records review, the consult itself, and the written plan.
Where the hours go
You complete the questionnaire
Your time, at home, at your own pace. Take it seriously and the consult is twice as useful.
Dr Channy reviews it, plus your clinical history
Before you meet, not during. Records from your regular vet are read alongside your answers and any video you have sent.
The consult itself, 90 to 120 minutes
In your home or by video. Long enough for your pet to settle and for the conversation to get past the surface.
Writing your plan
Done afterwards, deliberately, so it reflects what was actually observed rather than what was scribbled mid-appointment.
Step by step
From first enquiry to follow-up
- 1
You send an enquiry
Tell us what is happening, how long it has been happening, and what worries you most. You do not need the right terminology. If a behaviour consult is not the right thing for your pet, we will say so before you have paid anything.
- 2
We confirm the right service and send your booking pack
In-home or telehealth, behaviour consult or GP visit, Adelaide or Melbourne. Once that is settled you get the paperwork pack and a time. Behaviour appointments are long, so there are only a few of them each week.
- 3
You complete the paperwork and the deposit
Contact and pet details, the behaviour questionnaire, a request for your vet records, the consent form and a booking deposit. This is the part people resist. It is also the part that makes the consult worth what it costs.
- 4
Dr Channy reads everything before you meet
Your questionnaire and your full clinical history are reviewed ahead of the appointment, alongside any video you send. That is why the consult can start with the real conversation instead of 40 minutes of basic history taking.
- 5
The consult, 90 to 120 minutes
At your home, or by video with your pet in their own space. We observe, examine where it is safe and useful to, work through the history properly, and talk openly about what is realistic in your household.
- 6
Your written plan arrives afterwards
A practical, step by step plan you can actually run, including environmental management, a training approach, and medication with the reasoning explained if it is warranted. Your regular vet gets a copy if you would like them to.
- 7
Follow-ups, because first plans are drafts
Behaviour plans get adjusted. A revisit checks what worked, what your household could not sustain, and what the animal is telling us. Progress is measured in months, not appointments.
The booking pack
Every form, and why it exists
Nothing in here is collected because a template said to. This is what you will be asked for and what each piece is actually used for.
Contact and pet details
Boring but load-bearing: signalment, where you live, who else is in the house, and how to reach you if we are running late.
The behaviour questionnaire
The longest piece, and the one that changes the outcome most. It asks about onset, triggers, frequency, what you have already tried, what happened when you tried it, and the daily shape of your pet's life. Answering it takes real time. Answering it honestly, including the incidents you feel bad about, is more useful than answering it neatly.
Records from your regular vet
Behaviour cases are medical cases until proven otherwise. Pain, skin disease, gut disease, thyroid problems and poor sleep all present as behaviour change. Previous bloods, medications and examination notes rule things in and out before we start guessing.
The consent form
Sets out what the consult covers, what happens with your information, and what we will and will not do to your animal. Nothing is held down, and your pet can decline to participate.
The booking deposit
A long appointment that is missed cannot be refilled at short notice. The deposit comes off your invoice and holds the slot.
Set aside a decent block of time for the questionnaire rather than filling it in on your phone between other things. If something is hard to write down, write it down anyway. Behaviour consults are not a place where anyone is judged for what their animal has done, and the difficult details are usually the diagnostic ones.
Cost
What it costs, published
Behaviour pricing is published here because it should be possible to work out whether you can afford this before you make contact.
Travel is charged from $135 for in-home appointments. Telehealth has no travel charge.
Behaviour Counselling
In-depth behaviour consultations (Adelaide & Melbourne).
- Extended Initial Consult90-120 minfrom $680
- Revisit30-45 minfrom $330
- Fear Free Training30-45 minfrom $330
All consults are Fear Free and inclusive of GST. Out-of-hours appointments, travel, prescriptions, medications and pathology testing are quoted separately. We prefer to give you a tailored estimate for your pet's exact circumstances.
We are a GapOnly clinic
If your pet insurer offers GapOnly, your benefit is assessed on the spot, usually in under 10 minutes. You simply pay the gap - the amount your policy does not cover - and that is it.
Payment plans with VetPay
Payment in full is due at the end of each consult. If that is hard right now, VetPay lets you spread the cost into manageable fortnightly payments, so your pet still gets the care they need.
Honest limits
What this does not include
The useful part of any service description is the part that says no. Here is ours.
There is no guarantee, from anyone
Behaviour change depends on the animal, the diagnosis, the household and what you are able to sustain when it is raining and you are tired. Anyone promising to fix your dog is selling bull-dust. What you are paying for is a correct assessment and a plan built on evidence, delivered by someone who will tell you the truth about the odds.
Some cases need to go elsewhere
Where a case needs a registered veterinary specialist, a referral hospital, or simply a return to your regular clinic for a work-up first, you will hear that from us early. That is a better outcome than a year of well-meaning consults that were never going to help.
Telehealth cannot examine your pet
Video works well for behaviour, because it shows an animal being themselves at home instead of being frightened in a consult room. It cannot palpate an abdomen or look in an ear. Where a physical examination is needed, we will arrange one or ask your regular vet to.
GP care is South Australia only
In-home general practice work is adelaide and south australia only. Behaviour consults cover adelaide, melbourne, and australia-wide by telehealth.
Questions
Asked before every booking
There are no guarantees, but being in a familiar, safe space with you present often eases the stress of veterinary care. There is no travel stress, no unfamiliar animals in a waiting room, no unpleasant clinic sights and smells. In a calm setting we are usually able to make more progress than in a clinic.
Before we arrive, set up the area you would like us to use with your pet's favourite bed, some comfort toys, treats and a couple of spare towels. If your pet is very anxious, we may provide medication to give a few hours beforehand - it is far easier to keep a calm pet calm than to settle one in a panic.
Yes. We are a GapOnly clinic, so if your insurer offers GapOnly your benefit is assessed on the spot and you pay only the gap. We also offer VetPay payment plans to spread the cost into fortnightly payments.
We travel across Naarm (Melbourne) and Kaurna Country (Adelaide). Mobile GP veterinary services are currently available in Adelaide and South Australia. Veterinary behaviour consultations are available in both South Australia and Victoria, and telehealth is available wherever you are.
Send an enquiry through our contact form or call 0411 261 934. Tell us about your pet and what is worrying you, and we will help you work out the calmest way forward.
Ready to start?
Send us the short version of what is happening. We will tell you whether a behaviour consult is the right next step, what it would cost for your pet, and roughly when we could see you.