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Directions for Veterinary Behavior Consultants office at Animal Specialty Group (ASG) in Kearny Mesa.
Dr. Patrick Melese
Veterinary Behavior Consultants
5610 Kearny Mesa Rd. Suite B
San Diego, CA 92111


From Hwy 163:

Exit Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and head West, take first right (immediate) onto Kearny Mesa Road. The building is 1/4 mile north on the left side of the street. Dr. Melese's behavior office is at the Veterinary Surgical Specialists/Veterinary Behavior Consultants entrance, which is Suite B in the front of the building towards the right when you are facing it. You can reach the behavior office routinely at 858-259-6115 but if you urgently need to reach Dr. Melese on day of your appointment once he has left his home office in the morning (for example if you are lost or unavoidably delayed, etc.) you can use his emergency cell phone at 858-692-8338 to reach him at the Kearny Mesa facility. Please reserve the use of this cell phone number only for urgent contact on the day of your appointment after the doctor has left his home office or for true behavioral emergencies for Dr. Melese's patients of record as he cannot give behavioral advice until after he has seen your pet.

Phone number: 858-259-6115 FAX: 858-259-0013

VBC Biography/ C.V.

Patrick Melese MA, DVM, DACVB: 

Dr. Melese is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Behaviorists and director of VETERINARY BEHAVIOR CONSULTANTS, a veterinary practice dedicated to preventing and solving behavior problems in animals since 1988. Dr. Melese recently concluded a three year appointment as clinical faculty with the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine. He was also concurrently appointed as a lecturer in Animal Behavior at U.C. Davis and in that capacity supervised and mentored residents in Clinical Behavior, helped teach veterinary students and perform clinical research. In 2002 Dr. Melese reactivated his San Diego based private behavioral specialty practice and has resumed seeing clients and their pets with behavior problems (now at the Animal Specialty Groups in Kearny Mesa) and provides local and national continuing education for veterinarians.

Dr. Melese's training includes a B.S. in Zoology and a Masters degree from the Department of Zoology at the University of California, Davis in 1980 where his subjects were Animal Behavior and Neuroscience. Afterwards, Dr. Melese worked with Professor Benjamin Hart, D.V.M., PhD. doing behavioral research and publishing several papers in physiological psychology at the U.C.Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. He continued to work with Dr. Hart through veterinary school and assisted with the Veterinary Teaching Hospital Behavior Service until graduating in 1986.

Since receiving his Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) from U.C. Davis in 1986, Dr. Melese has been active in the field of Clinical Animal Behavior. He keeps abreast of recent advances in the behavior literature, attends numerous seminars and consults with colleagues in the field throughout the world. He works as a consultant to practitioners, clients, breeders, rescue groups and institutions with specific behavioral problems. Dr. Melese also regularly serves as an expert witness in animal bite cases in Superior Court cases as well as evaluating aggressive pets impounded by Animal Control Department. He is an invited lecturer to Veterinary Medical Association meetings, major national and international veterinary conferences, kennel clubs, professional dog training meetings, and Animal Health Technology programs. Dr. Melese has been featured speaker at local (San Diego Human Society and S.P.C.A., Escondido Humane Society) and national (American Humane Association) humane organizations. Dr. Melese is active in studies to test new treatments for animal behavior problems and has been selected by several of the major pharmaceutical companies to be a Southwestern center for clinical trials to test new behavioral products.

Over the years Dr. Melese has been featured on numerous television news segments and special reports on the local, regional and national stations (Networks, EXTRA, PBS Television, etc.) in the San Diego Union/Tribune, several regional newspapers in California and other states and on several radio talk shows. He has also been featured on international programs shown in Japan and Korea.

Dr. Melese was founding president of the San Diego Chapter of the Delta Society (an umbrella organization of professionals and pet owners interested in animal, people and their interaction in the Human/Animal Bond). Dr. Melese is an active and longstanding member of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, and the Animal Behavior Society where he has given presentations at both of their national meetings. He is also a member of the International Society for Applied Ethology, San Diego County Veterinary Medical Association, California Veterinary Medical Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association. Dr. Melese founded Veterinary Behavior Consultants, a veterinary referral and consulting practice limited to animal behavior problems, in 1988 and has also been a respected general practice veterinarian (medicine and surgery) for many years. In addition Dr. Melese owned and operated the Tierrasanta Veterinary Hospital in San Diego for a number of years until it was sold to a general practitioner in 1999. Dr. Melese remains the only board-certified Veterinary Behaviorist in private practice based in Southern California.

Francine Crocker