Beyond the Prescription: What Happens When We Prescribe for Relationships, Not Just Symptoms in Behaviour Cases?
Overview
True progress in behaviour cases comes when medication is used to support relationships—helping animals and their caregivers move from distress to connection. In this insightful and practical webinar, Dr. Findy Wills, veterinarian and clinical animal behaviourist, explores how principles from human psychiatry’s concept of relational prescribing can be applied to veterinary behaviour cases. In addition to targeting the symptoms of behavioural disorders, relational prescribing offers another perspective—placing medication within the wider context of the dog’s relationships, environment, and capacity for learning. Rather than seeing behaviour medication as an isolated intervention, this approach explores ways we can integrate medications into a multimodal plan that includes relational and caregiver support.
What you’ll learn through clinical examples and case reflections, Dr. Wills will explain how relational prescribing reframes the use of medication in behaviour cases, including:
Why prescribing is not just about what drug, but how and when medication is used. Strategies for aligning pharmacological interventions with relational goals in the dog–owner bond. Ways to balance short-term stabilisation with long-term behavioural change.
Who should attend: This webinar is designed for veterinarians, nurses, and behaviour professionals seeking to deepen their confidence in integrating medication within holistic behaviour support. It is ideal for practitioners wanting to move beyond lists of drugs toward a more relationship-centred approach.
Why This Matters: Behavioural problems are among the most common causes of suffering, rehoming, and euthanasia.
By combining symptom-targeted prescribing with a relational perspective inspired by human psychiatry, clinicians can use medication not as an endpoint, but as an enabler of recovery, learning, and stronger bonds—helping both animals and caregivers thrive together.
Presenters
BVSc (Hons I) MSc Clinical Animal Behaviour
Let’s Talk Paws – Veterinary Behaviour Services
