Bernardsville News, February 1989 Chester Man Helps Pet Owners Deal With Behavior Problems by Joyce Jones

At the receptionist's desk in the local veterinarian's office stood a woman with her five-year-old daughter and an apricot cocker spaniel, its stubby tail wagging. The child looked at the dog affectionately as the mother said, "I want this dog put to sleep; it bit my daughter last night." Had this woman come to Jeffrey Loy, an authority on animal behavior, this situation might have had a happy ending. Loy, who heads the Animal Behavioral Research group in Chester, winces when he hears that a person could end an animal's life when there is an alternative. That is why he is in the business of saving animals and giving options to pet owners with a problem, he said. "There are not necessarily easy solutions to the situation of the biting dog," Loy noted. The punctures on his skin attest to his working with dogs that have bitten him during the therapy. But the smile on his face comes about as he relates his successes. "Dogs just don't bite for no reason. Their behavior results from a blend of genetics and the environment. The problem can start to build so easily and just as easily could have been avoided," said Loy who also offers programs in the prevention of animal biting. "People get a little puppy and what could be farther from their minds that his dog may sometime bite. But with some care and understanding that one bite could never happen," said Loy who travels more than 50,000 miles a year throughout the country to help pet owners in distress. "If I fail, the animals' life may end and this is a heavy burden I carry into each case," he explained. Referrals come to him from veterinarians, animal trainers along with pet owners who are at a dead end with their animals. Part of his research includes putting himself in a situation where he may be bitten. "The bite stops here," he said, revealing his scarred arms. "I can tell more about the problem through the bite. Failures teach us very, very well. That's part of my research and why I take the risk of being bitten. "The bite helps in analyzing the problem. A shy animal will let go and run after biting, sort of like a hit and run driver. "The more aggressive animal with a dominant personality tends to hang on." Many times people are so emotionally attached to the animal, they are not in a position to solve the problem. Also by the time they come to me, many are very afraid of the pet. "What goes on in the home can be controlled. It is so easy to do the right things and it is my job to try to teach people what to do and how to do it effectively. "But sometimes, without understanding why, so many little things can go wrong for the owner and his pet that it becomes a tragic comedy of errors." Loy explained that any dog can bite once in its lifetime. "That," he stresses, "doesn't mean that it is going to become a biter. "But in a bad situation I have the Jeff Loy theory which is behavior is going to get better or it will worsen. Any behavior that stands still will tend to get worse," he said. Calling it poison to behavioral success, Loy said the pet owner must stop being afraid of the animal. "That's the first hurdle. The person must have a confrontation with the dog and then we work together to understand what instigates the animal to bite." Loy, who had been trained as a mathematician, said he has always loved animals. For many years he was a training instructor as the Seeing Eye in Morristown. Coming from a family whose careers span from physician, psychiatrist, nurse, pharmaceutical business, he said caring for people and their problems, in this case, their animals, was an obvious career choice for him. He lives in Chester surrounded by a bevy of domestic and wild life in and about the home. While his work is concentrated mostly behavioral problems of dogs, he also deals with cats, shy horses, pecking birds or denizens of wild life like black bears in the mountains, coyotes on the plain, raccoons and a host of animals with problems he is called upon to help. Each of his cases, he said, provides him with further research in solving the difficult problems. "Life doesn't come easily and should not go easily," said Loy, who has devoted himself, if called upon, to help animals like an apricot cocker spaniel with a stubby wagging tail stay alive.