Dog Behavior

Archive for the ‘Behavior at the Veterinary Hospital’ Category

For many of our pets (and us!), going to the veterinarian is a stressful event. The hospital can be a scary place. It has unusual smells and noises and there may be unfriendly dogs or cats in the waiting area. Things that happen there can be frightening for pets, such as being handled and manipulated by unfamiliar people, having various instruments inserted in body openings, and being given injections. If we do nothing, and simply let our pets have unpleasant experiences, chances are that our pets will become frightened and possibly even aggressive when they go to the veterinary hospital

But it doesn’t have to be that way. By working with your veterinary staff you can make visits pleasant and even down right fun. This is an important topic for us, because we want our dogs’ veterinary visits to be something they enjoy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Does your dog flip out when you, or your veterinarian or groomer tries to cut his nails or touch his feet? Dogs aren’t born being sensitive about their feet or having their nails trimmed.

Now, in this 6th audio tip you can discover how to prevent this problem and what to do if your dog won’t tolerate nail trims. You do NOT want to allow anyone to wrestle and pin your dog to the ground just to get his nails cut.

Look in the video category to see the results of acclimating a puppy to nail trims the right way, and then listen to this audio to learn how to get those results.

Audio content is protected for our subscribers.  If you haven’t yet subscribed, go to the Registration page from the top navigation bar above.

[Content protected for Audio Tips And Articles members only]

WATCH THE VIDEO THEN READ THE ARTICLE

 *Puppy class video from Puppessori and Christine Shedron, Golden CO 

Puppies aren’t born hating or being afraid of nail trims and having their feet touched.  They acquire these behaviors either because their owners fail to actively accustom their dogs to feet handling and nail trims, and/or because puppies have bad experiences with nail trims.

When you ask your veterinarian, groomer, or other pet professional to trim your dog’s nails, this procedure should require no more than two people.  If 3 or more people are having to wrestle a frightened, defensive animal to the ground to cut his nails, there is no benefit to this to anyone. 

Try a Calming Cap, use other passive restraints such as a head collar, or ask your veterinarian for medication to sedate and calm your dog. 

Nail trims don’t have to be nightmare experiences.  Watch the video above to see how puppies can learn to enjoy nail trims, resulting in adult dogs – in this case our Coral – who are relaxed and tail-wagging happy when trimming nails.  You can use these same procedures if your dog already has a nail trim phobia, but you’ll just have to progress a whole lot slower in tiny baby steps. 

These procedures are called counter conditioning and desensitization and you can learn more about how to implement them in our DVD program by the same name.