Helping pets that act out: The specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine giving hope to families

SINGAPORE – When a dog starts snapping at children or a once-affectionate cat begins soiling every sofa in sight, most owners turn to animal trainers or online forums for help.

They now have another option: Dr Emmanuelle Titeux, Singapore’s first recognised specialist in veterinary behavioural medicine.

It is a specialised field that diagnoses and treats behavioural problems in animals, combining medical knowledge with behavioural science to improve pet welfare.

The 62-year-old Frenchwoman, who works at Beecroft Animal Specialist & Emergency Hospital, an independent specialist-owned hospital in Alexandra Road, knew she wanted to be a vet at age seven.

No one in her family kept pets. There were also no family farms, no dogs sprawled in the living room. What she remembers was watching Daktari (1966 to 1969), an American drama series about a wildlife vet working in the fictional Center for Animal Behaviour in Africa. 

“I’ve always been interested in the behaviour of animals, and I thought then that if I could work at such a special centre, it would be great,” Dr Titeux says with a laugh. 

But not everyone shared her enthusiasm, and she was told that being a vet is “not for women”. 

She pushed on anyway, graduating in 1988 from Ecole Nationale Veterinaire d’Alfort (ENVA) and completing a surgical internship there in 1990. She then spent about 15 years in general practice at her own clinic in Paris.

The biology of behaviours

The turning point in her career came when she volunteered at Clever Dog Lab, a research centre at the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, while living in the Austrian capital.

She discovered ethology, the scientific study of animal behaviour, which gave her a language and framework for something that had fascinated her since childhood. 

Instead of seeing behaviour as “personality” or “stubbornness”, she saw patterns – normal and abnormal – that could be systematically studied and treated.

That decision led her through the demanding European college pathway – internships, residency and rigorous examinations – to receive European Board of Veterinary Specialisation status as a behavioural medicine specialist in 2019.

Not just naughty pets

Dr Titeux, who has four adult children, relocated to Singapore in March 2024 with her husband, taking along with them their two dogs – Scapin, a four-year-old border collie, and Samsam, a five-year-old smooth fox terrier.

Many patients she sees since joining Beecroft in February are struggling with issues that their owners are unable to resolve. They include dogs which cannot stop barking or cats with stress behaviours, such as self-induced hair loss. 

Her first task is to decide how much of what she sees is medical and how much is behavioural.

“In the consultation, we include all that is related to physical condition and physical disease to disentangle that from behaviour and what is from the organic part of the animal,” she says.  

That medical lens is what sets her speciality apart from training alone. A dog’s new aggression, for instance, may turn out to be driven by pain or a brain or heart tumour – conditions where punishment-based “training” to stop the misbehaviour can be ineffective and cruel. 

Once the disease has been investigated with the animal’s primary vet, the work of behavioural medicine begins.

“First, I build behavioural therapy – what I need to change in the cat’s or dog’s life, where it is sleeping and what it is eating,” she says. “Then, I propose a change in the activity of the animal, and then the relationship between pet and owner.” 

That might mean more structured exercises, predictable routines, changes in how families greet or handle the animal and environments that better match species needs, especially for small-space, indoor-only pets.

But perhaps the most unusual part of her practice is not the science – it is her insistence on hope.

She has seen owners coming to her feeling guilty for trying other ways to resolve behavioural issues before considering that the problems may be medically related. 

Even when the diagnosis is serious, she says many owners leave feeling better. “They are still relieved because they have an explanation and they have a solution,” she says.

Asked if there are cases that are simply too far gone, and her answer could double as a motto for her unique career. “It’s never too late to help any animal.”