Sudden shaving can cause dogs to become mentally depressed

　　Having pets also brings many benefits to owners, but if the owner's routine is irregular, it will affect the dog's mental condition. For dogs who cannot speak, mental illness is scarier than physical illness.
　　1. Substantial Benefits of Pet Ownership to Owners
　　1. Relief of high blood pressure:
　　Pets can effectively intervene in high blood pressure, regulating heart rate, blood pressure, endocrine system, and mental state. It alleviates stress caused by intense work and life, improving physical and psychological health.
　　2. Relieving loneliness:
　　Many lonely elderly people keep pets to dispel loneliness. The biggest problem for empty nest elders is not material life, but loneliness.
　　3. Helping children with autism:
　　Trained pets can help cultivate children’s confidence and self-esteem, as well as foster compassion and love. They can also assist in treating children with autism.

Dogs being beaten by their owners

　　2. Mental Issues in Pets Caused by Abnormal Treatment
　　1. Experiencing abuse and fright:
　　Pets that have once been stray or suffered abuse, beatings, or severe fright are more prone to related mental illnesses and tend to have worse tempers.
　　2. Owner’s chaotic schedule:
　　Modern poor lifestyle habits, like night owls staying up all night and returning home at 3 or 4 am, then sleeping until noon or afternoon, can be difficult for pets to adjust to, causing long-term stress and mental confusion, possibly resulting in abnormal behavior.
　　3. Abnormal pet behaviors:
　　If pets exhibit abnormal behavior such as repeatedly pacing indoors, walking with偏斜方向 (walking direction偏颇), poor appetite, behavioral disorders, or suddenly urinating/defecating indoors or biting people, and no physical illness is detected, owners should consider bringing the pet to a behavior medicine specialist.
　　4. Pets can also feel jealousy:
　　There was a dog at home who stopped eating, and the vet later discovered it was because the owner recently got a second dog. The dog used refusal to eat to gain the owner’s attention. Such jealousy behaviors can be improved through behavioral correction.
　　5. Separation anxiety behavior:
　　Some dogs that are close to their owners feel anxious as soon as the owner leaves, running around wildly at home, chewing furniture, or even bumping into things until the owner returns. This is a typical case of separation anxiety disorder in pets and can be improved by medical treatment.
　　3. Pet Psychiatry: Treating Emotional Disorders in Pets
　　1. The only clinic of its kind in Taiwan:
　　Pets also have psychiatry. The National Taiwan University Veterinary Hospital recently opened Taiwan’s only specialty clinic for pet behavior treatment, specializing in treating behavioral deviations and emotional disorders in pets.
　　2. Filling out related questionnaires:
　　Pets cannot speak, so to consult the "Behavior Medicine Department," owners must carefully fill out relevant questionnaires. Veterinarians act like detectives, piecing together clues from questionnaires, interviews with owners, and interactions with pets to understand the pet’s background and changes in behavior.
　　3. Tailored strategy design:
　　Next, the vet will conduct physiological examinations to exclude diseases, then design personalized improvement strategies based on each pet’s condition to correct behaviors.
　　4. Behavioral correction for pets:
　　Pet psychiatry is more about correcting behavioral deviations. Depending on symptom severity, about 20% of pets in the country have behavioral issues. Most can be improved through correction and medication.
　　5. Medication treatment improvement:
　　Pets, like humans, can have abnormal behaviors caused by psychological trauma. Behavioral correction and medication treatments can improve symptoms and reduce the chance of being abandoned by owners.