Initial Dog Behavior Consultation and Clinical Canine Behavior Assessment

Meet Your Certified Canine Behaviorist

Will Bangura, M.S., CAB-ICB

CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FDM, FFCP

Will Bangura, M.S., CAB-ICB, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FDM, FFCP, is a Certified Canine Behaviorist specializing in aggression, reactivity, fear, anxiety, phobias, separation anxiety, resource guarding, and compulsive behavior. He integrates applied canine ethology, the principles of applied behavior analysis, learning science, and force-free behavior modification in complex cases, has trained dogs for more than fifty years, thirty-six of them professionally, and works with pet parents throughout the Phoenix metropolitan area and worldwide by video.

He is one of only three professionals in the United States accredited through International Canine Behaviourists, and Arizona's only CAB-ICB Certified Canine Behaviorist. He holds a Master of Science in Psychology, completed postgraduate coursework in canine cognition through Harvard University, holds the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers credentials Certified Behavior Consultant Canine-Knowledge Assessed (CBCC-KA) and Certified Professional Dog Trainer-Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA), is a Fear Free Certified Professional (FFCP), and is certified in applied canine ethology (FDM).

Will is the founder of Phoenix Dog Training, host of the Dog Training Today podcast, author of Sniff to Soothe, and an expert witness in dog behavior and aggression cases.

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How the Assessment Works, Start to Finish

Before we meet: I study your dog's case

Once you book, you receive my Behavior History Questionnaire and Trigger List. They are long, and they are long on purpose. Serious behavior has a history, and I want as much of it as you can give me before we meet: when it started, where it happens, what comes right before and right after, what has already been tried, and your dog's health history. You can also send video and your dog's veterinary records.

I read everything you send. I look for patterns, for gaps, for triggers that cluster together, for anything in the health history that could be contributing, and for the safety problems that cannot wait. From that, I write a preliminary case formulation for my own use and the questions I still need to ask you, so the consultation starts from a working understanding of your dog's case rather than from a blank page.

The consultation: about two hours

Whether we meet by video or in your home, we spend about two hours on your dog's case. We go through the history in detail, often starting before your dog came home and working forward to the most recent incident: when the behavior happens, what sets it off, what your dog does first, what happens next, what has made it better or worse, how quickly your dog winds up and how long it takes to settle, and what everyone in the household has learned to do in response.

When it is safe and useful, I observe your dog. I do not deliberately stage a growl, lunge, or bite so that I can watch it happen. Creating a risky incident can increase your dog's distress and rehearse the very behavior we are trying to reduce, and your history, the pattern of incidents, video that already exists, and safe observation tell me far more than provoking your dog would.

When safety is a concern, we agree on immediate management steps before the consultation ends, so you are not waiting on the written plan to make your home safer.

After the consultation: the assessment is written

This is the part most pet parents have never been offered. After we meet, I bring together everything you sent, our conversation, and anything I observed, and I write the assessment. Depending on the case, you receive a Functional Behavior Assessment, a separate Safety and Management Plan when your case needs one, a Behavior Modification Plan and Recommendations, and, when a medical question needs answering or behavior medication is worth discussing, a written summary for your veterinarian. They are prepared as confidential case documents for you and your dog, and you can share them with your veterinarian and with anyone else who cares for your dog.

The follow-up meeting is included

I send the reports first, so you can read them at your own pace and note what you want to ask. Then we meet by video to go through them. I do not read the report to you. I explain what I believe is going on and why, what matters most for safety, what I recommend, and what the next phase would look like if you choose to continue. That meeting is part of the assessment, and it is included in the fee.

What Is in the Written Assessment

The Functional Behavior Assessment is the core document, and it is written for your dog, not adapted from a template. It typically covers:

• The presenting problem and your goals
• Your dog's behavioral history and the incident record, in order
• A health-history review: what in your dog's health history could be contributing, and the questions I recommend your veterinarian evaluate
• The functional behavior assessment: what happens before the behavior, what your dog does, what changes afterward, the learning history and conditions around it, and the factors that appear to be setting off and maintaining the behavior
• The case formulation: my working explanation of how the emotional, learning, environmental, developmental, and health factors fit together in your dog's case
• A risk and safety assessment: the risk factors I see, the situations in which risk is highest, who may be most vulnerable, and the management the case requires
• A behavioral outlook: an honest read on what improvement is realistic, what it will take, and the factors likely to affect progress, including the hard conversations when a case calls for them
• Recommendations for management, skills, behavior modification, and veterinary follow-up
• How progress will be measured

No behavior assessment can guarantee what a dog will do in the future, so risk is reviewed as circumstances change. The Safety and Management Plan, when your case needs one, is the practical document: how to prevent the next incident while the behavior work is done, how to arrange your home and routines, what to do in an emergency, and how to keep your dog feeling safe, not only everyone around your dog.

The Behavior Modification Plan and Recommendations lays out the direction: what we work on first and why, what the stages look like, and what tells us it is time to move on to the next one.

How I Assess Behavior

I am a certified canine behaviorist with a Master of Science in Psychology. My assessment work draws on the principles of applied behavior analysis, applied canine ethology, learning science, and affective neuroscience, the science of emotion and arousal in animals. In plain language, the assessment answers four questions.

What has your dog learned?

Using the principles of applied behavior analysis, I look closely at what happens before the behavior, exactly what your dog does, and what changes afterward. A behavior often keeps happening because it reliably changes the situation: the person backs off, the other dog moves away, the food stays, attention arrives, or something uncomfortable stops. Finding that pattern tells us what may be maintaining the behavior and what we can change. It is one part of the assessment, not the whole explanation, because emotion, health, development, and the wider environment shape serious behavior too.

What is your dog feeling?

In most of the serious cases I see, fear, anxiety, frustration, conflict, or high arousal is an important part of the picture. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior states that fear is the most common cause of aggression in dogs, and in the same statement it emphasizes that aggression can have many causes and that the individual dog needs careful medical and behavioral assessment. In fear- and conflict-related cases, growling, lunging, or biting may help a dog create distance or stop an interaction the dog finds threatening, uncomfortable, or frustrating, which is not a dog trying to take charge and not stubbornness. In other cases the function and the contributing factors are different, and working that out is part of the assessment. When fear or frustration is an important driver, I want the change to last and to leave your dog better off, which means addressing the emotional response as well as the learned behavior and the environment around it, not simply suppressing the warning signs. That is also why obedience commands alone rarely resolve it, and why confrontational and aversive methods, which can heighten fear and anxiety and increase the risk of aggression, are never part of my work.

What is your dog, as a dog?

Applied canine ethology asks me to look at the behavior through a canine lens: development, breed and individual tendencies, sensory experience, canine communication, social behavior, and species-typical needs. When those needs, or the environment around the dog, are chronically out of balance, they can contribute to stress and behavior problems. A behavior that looks puzzling as a training problem often makes sense once you understand the dog, the context, and the behavior's biological history.

What else is going on?

Pain, illness, medication effects, sensory changes, gastrointestinal problems, skin disease, and other medical factors can contribute to, trigger, or worsen behavior, and so can the household routine and the way people have responded to the behavior over time. I do not diagnose those conditions. When the history raises a concern, I document the behavioral findings and ask your veterinary team to evaluate the medical question. That is why I read your dog's health history and why I ask about the whole household.

Serious behavior is rarely one thing. The assessment works out which factors appear relevant for your dog, how they may interact, and which need to be addressed first, before we decide what to do about it. It is the first phase of the EASE Method, the four-phase framework I use for serious behavior problems: Evaluate, Arrange, Skill-Build, and Emotional Repatterning.

What I Do, and What Your Veterinarian Does

Virtual or In-Home?

Both options include the same written assessment and the same follow-up meeting. You work directly with me.

Before You Book the Free Call, Watch This

In two minutes, I explain what the assessment covers, what it is not, and how to choose between virtual and in-home.

Who This Assessment Is For

Pet parents facing serious or complex behavior: aggression toward people or dogs, reactivity, barking and lunging, growling, snapping, bite history, resource guarding, separation anxiety, fear, panic, phobias, compulsive and repetitive behavior, dogs fighting in the same home, and fear at the veterinarian or groomer.

It is also for families who have already worked with a trainer and seen little real change. Often, I find that important contributing or maintaining factors were never fully assessed. This is where we slow down, look at the whole case, and work out what was missed.

What Pet Parents Say

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After the Assessment

The assessment is the foundation. If continued behavior modification is recommended, the program is built for your dog: the number of sessions, the format (virtual, in-home, or a combination), and the pace depend on the behavior, the level of risk, your household, and how your dog responds. Every session comes with written instructions for the work between sessions. When a medical workup or a behavior medication evaluation is part of the plan, it runs alongside the behavior work, with your veterinarian. Nothing about the next phase is decided until you have the assessment in your hands and we have talked it through.

Questions Pet Parents Ask Before Booking