Dogs on and off the shrink's couch

Taking a cue from the great Sigmund Freud (whose favorite Chow Chow, Jo-Fi, attended all his sessions), Manhattan psychoanalyst Dr. Joel Gavriele-Gold brings his two enormous Bouviers des Flandres, Broodje and Dova, to his Upper West Side office every day.

"They are super listeners, incredibly sensitive to people’s needs," the good doctor says of his canine co-practitioners. They also provide plenty of kibble for thought: according to Gavriele-Gold, pets are quite often an impetus for much-needed treatment. Your attitude toward a pet may provide insight to psychological problems that you might have, Gavriele-Gold explains.

To prove it, he authored a book, When Pets Come Between Partners. "What inspired me to write the book was seeing how pets got involved in my patients’ relationships," Gavriele-Gold says. "Until recently, the problem of pets interfering in relationships had been a closet issue. People were embarrassed to talk about it."

Take one of Gavriele-Gold’s cases, a man named Barry, his wife Estelle, and their dog Fred (names have been changed). "Barry came to see me because he was terribly upset," says Gavriele-Gold. "He and Estelle had just moved here from another state, and Barry worried that Fred was missing his ‘girlfriend’ back home, a Collie, because the dog was acting hostile toward Estelle. So I asked Barry if he had a girlfriend back home."

As it turned out, he did. Barry, says Gavriele-Gold, was simply projecting onto the dog his feelings of missing his girlfriend and resenting his wife. "Once that was clarified, the couple started to look at their relationship, and they realized that they didn’t have too much going for them anymore,"says Gavriele-Gold. "Barry and Fred later moved in with Barry’s girlfriend."

How you treat your dog says a lot about your psychological profile, the doctor adds. "Look at the way you communicate with your dog, what kinds of feelings get stirred up when you interact," he says. To illustrate the connection, he points to Sebastian, who couldn’t stand to be ignored or interrupted – during his childhood, his parents had paid more attention to his brother, who had severe emotional problems.

Sebastian’s girlfriend, Sybil, had two Yorkshire terriers," recalls Gavriele-Gold. "The Yorkies frequently ran across the room and landed in his lap while he was talking. This was totally intolerable to Sebastian; he took the interruption as a personal injury."

The problem? "He was basically repeating his childhood experience, when he was feeling slighted by his parents," explains Gavriele-Gold. Sebastian and Sybil eventually broke up.

Sadly, couples with pet problems often just get rid of the animal. One of them will say, ‘It’s me or the pet,’ and the animal frequently gets dumped at a shelter or euthanized. That’s one of the most common tragedies in this country," he concludes. "I wish people would take a look inside themselves, rather than thinking it’s a problem with the animal."