Ep 6: What Actually Happens During a Cat Behaviour Consultation?

Ep 6: What Actually Happens During a Cat Behaviour Consultation?

Many people consider booking a behaviour consultation but aren’t quite sure what actually happens during one.

In this episode of Cat Talk by Alice Cat Expert, clinical animal behaviourist Alice Chau walks through the consultation process — from the information gathered before the appointment, to diagnosis, training plans, and follow-up support.

Alice explains why most of her consultations are conducted online, how this often works better for cats, and how understanding the full context of the household is essential when addressing behaviour problems.

In this episode

• Why many cat behaviour consultations are now done online
• What information clients provide before the consultation
• How case history and behavioural assessment work
• What behavioural diagnosis and prognosis mean
• Why client education is part of the consultation process
• How training plans are designed collaboratively
• What realistic expectations and progress milestones look like
• How follow-up support works after the consultation

Behaviour consultations are not about quick fixes. They are structured assessments that look at the cat, the environment, and the household as a whole.

If you're wondering whether a behaviour consultation might help in your situation, you can book an assessment call using this link: https://calendly.com/alicechau/free10min

Behaviour isn’t random — there’s always a reason.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hi, I'm Ali Shao, a clinical animal behaviorist specializing cats. In this podcast, I answer common questions about cat behavior. Behavior isn't random. There is always a reason. When we understand our cat better, we take care of them better. This is Cat Talk by Alice Cadixper. Hi, welcome back to Cat Talk by Alice Cat Expert. In this episode, we're going to talk about what actually happened in a behavioral consultation. Because in the last episode, I keep explaining to you what my job is about. So today I'm going to tell you actually what happened when I'm doing my job. First of all, since the COVID pandemic, a lot of the behavioral consultation worldwide have moved online. Some of my colleagues have gone back to in-person or at least a hybrid format. In my specific case, I haven't particularly gone back to in-person. That's because I work with cats. And in the case of cats, I just find it so much better to work online. And I'll explain to you why. Because with cats, when a stranger comes into the home, they tend to behave differently. And then I'm not actually seeing their natural behavior. They might end up hiding, freeze, or become very aroused. Um, in my job, it's very important for me to see how the cats interact with the environment and also how they react with their people naturally. And then another advantage is I noticed since the pandemic, I'm able to help more people. I have since have people contact me from all over the world, in Asia, in North America, in all over Europe. These are people I would have otherwise not been able to help if I have to do in-person consultation. And also, even local clients, I think it saves a lot of time for both of us. First, I don't have to travel, and secondly, my clients don't have to prepare their house. You know, the way whenever somebody comes into your house, you are trying to make it nice, you're hoovering, you are getting biscuits and you're making tea and things like that. So it's less of this now. When we're doing online, we just turn on the camera and then we uh set to work. We don't have to do all these, you know, nasty things like tea drinking and biscuits eatings and stuff like that. Before the consultation starts, what happens is once the client books to consultation, um, I have a booking system, and the system will automatically send them an email with a list of requests. Because I will need clients to send me a bunch of data in order to help me to prepare the consultation, and also during the consultation, we can make better use of time because then we have more time to talk about the problem instead of data gathering, especially for some background stuff, such as floor plans, such as video of the behavior in question, and then also uh pictures of the environment. Uh, if they have like a garden, I may want to see the garden, and then also sometimes people will send me uh house tour videos so that I can actually see the environment. This is super important for me to have a visual of the environment because behavior doesn't happen in isolation, they are often influenced by the environment, the household routine, the relationship between different animals and the humans, and the history of the behavior. So the environmental context is very important for uh in relation to diagnosing the behavioral problem. Now, during the consultation, what actually happened is the first part of the consultation will involve me asking a bunch of questions. Um sometimes I joke about it and says it's a bit like law and order, it's uh investigative uh work. I'll look at each of the cats in the household, take detailed history of their lives, the moment they join the family up till now. Uh, the uh if people have other animals, maybe they have a dog or bird or some other animal. Sometimes I have dealt with guinea pig ones. All of those details I need to know about, and then uh all the humans in the house, even humans that might be part-time in the house, such as you know, maybe there's uh family members who come every Wednesday because they're helping with child care, and maybe people have cleaners or gardeners and things like that. I need to know all the details, and then as I said, I need to know the information about the environment. Uh, the clients already sent me all the floor plan and footage and photos already, but then maybe I have follow-up questions to ask. Actually, uh, you know, what does this picture mean? And uh which uh one of the rooms is open or are the door closed, you know, all the details. And then we will sit down to talk about the daily routine, and then finally we'll zoom in to the details of the specific problem. Uh, especially for certain behavior, I need to really get down to the microscopic details of the sequence of how the behavior happened, such as aggression. I need to know what happened before the aggression, during the aggression, and how does it stop, and then what happened afterwards? Does the cat go back to normal, or does the cat take hours to calm down, or is it a case that the person has to come in and forcefully remove the cat? You know, all of these details is very important in diagnosing the behavioral problem. It's super important to take all the details because, as I said, behavior doesn't just happen, it's not random. Behavior usually involves a combination of emotional state, learning history, environmental factors, and also sometimes physical health, like I've explained in the past few episodes. And the second part of this process is diagnosis, pronosis, and client education. Diagnosis in behavior doesn't mean we are putting labels on the cat, but it does help the client to understand what we are dealing with. Sometimes it might be a case of understanding the behavior is fear-induced, or is it a case of frustration, it might be a case of misplaced hunting behavior, or maybe sometimes it's the environmental stress, or maybe as I said, it could be physical health. And then I will also explain the behavioral science, how this behavior happens. Uh, I found that client education part is the most important because it will help the client to understand why we put the training plan in place and why the training plan looks like the way it looks. And also, I think it's very empowering for the client to understand the science so that they after I'm long gone and the problem is resolved, in the future they will still be able to notice any new changes in their cards down the road and then be able to intervene early. I do have clients who come back to me a few years after when they notice a new problem, and that's because they have been educated to spot those things early and they're able to intervene earlier. And then the next stage of this conversation, we will sit down to work out a training plan together. Because there's no point of me designing a training plan alone where maybe the client found it not manageable or too complicated, or they just simply don't have time. So when you discuss a plan that they found manageable, easy to follow, and they feel confident in doing that, and also it needs to fit into the household routine, and every household is different. So the client input is very, very important during this process. Uh, so this is why I want to say to you, it's not a case of me telling the client, you know, do this one, two, three, four, five. It's a teamwork thing, uh, as I discussed in the past few episodes. Sometimes it might also be a case of a three-way teamwork. It might be me, the vet, and the client. We are trying to figure these things out together. So, how does the training plan look like? Usually it will involve management strategy, like I like to call that the first A piece. Like, what are we going to do right now? Like, literally, tonight, right? And after that, we'll talk about the midterm thing, such as environment enrichment or mental enrichment, because usually for those things, it will take the client a little bit of time, maybe a week or two, to gather all the material and have things set up. And then in the long term, we will work on training strategy. And then finally, we will sit down to talk about the roadmap, expectations, and follow-ups. Behavior changes take time. So, we will also discuss the roadmap for progress, what to expect, what do you expect to see in the next few days, what do you expect to see in the next few weeks, what do you expect to see in the long term, and also we will talk about how the milestone looks like. Often it sounds like you know, if the cat is able to do this, this, this, then we'll move on to the next thing. So, did the client have a very clear expectation of how does it look like in the next few weeks? We will also talk about a realistic timeline because different cases might have different timeline expectations. Some cases can be resolved in two, three weeks. Some cases I have a feeling that it's going to take six to eight weeks or maybe 12 weeks or whatever. So it also depends on how much time the client has, depending on the family setup and job and resources and finance and all that stuff. So I usually would be able to make a reasonably accurate estimate as in how much time we need. Some changes can happen very quickly, you know, literally in a few days, and then some changes will take longer time. I usually explain to the client all the details of what to expect. Follow-up is also a very important part of this process because, as I said, often we need to work piece by piece. We need the cat to be able to do this, this, this before we move on to the next thing. And then also when it comes to training routine, a lot of clients, I can even say the majority of clients might have never done any animal training stuff before. So not only is a learning curve for the cats, but also a learning curve for the person. As a result, I do provide WhatsApp support across all my packages so that my client has the ability to send me footage on WhatsApp so that I can eat give them immediate feedback. Uh, you know, sometimes with training might be a case of oh, maybe the timing of the click needs to adjust a little bit. Oh, maybe the way you uh position yourself, your body in relation to the animal need to adjust a little bit different. Maybe you need to kneel down, maybe you need to stand up or whatever. So it's not a case of having a consultation and then uh my clients is all alone. Uh we have we still continue the conversation over WhatsApp for the next three months. And sometimes we do need to change the initial training plan because maybe, oh, this is not working. Don't worry, we will try something else. So, this is why it's very important to have a follow-up process where we continue the conversation. A consultation usually lasts from 60 minutes to 90 minutes, to be honest with you. Often we go over time because I'm just so invested in the story that I'm asking more questions and more questions. Um, but yeah, so on average it's about 60 minutes to 90 minutes. If you're listening to this episode and you feel like you might need help, I would really recommend you to book an assessment call. The assessment call is a short conversation for me to get some background information of your problem. I should be able to give you a general idea of what's happening, and then we can discuss if a consultation is needed, or maybe it's a case that I need to refer you back to the vet, or maybe I would give you something to try, and then we will talk about having a consultation. If you want to explore more about the assessment call, the booking link is in the show description. Thank you for listening to Cat Talk by Alice Cat Expert. If you find today's episode helpful, please don't forget to follow the podcast and share it with other cat people. Remember, behavior isn't random, but there's always a reason. Until next time.