Catty loves all this vet prep work! All those vet things that are often scare a dog, Catty now thinks are pretty amazing. "Vet prep" is a fun time because we've made this training time into a game, Catty and I have a great relationship with a solid foundation in trust and I use pretty high value food as a reinforcer for amazing work!
We show off our chin rest and the use of the opthalmoscope. Catty's makes the choice to place her muzzle in the cup of my hand. She can move away at any point - there is never any restraint by from hand. We broke this down in a series of steps over the course of a week. Here's the end result broken down:
Chin rest with moving the opthalmoscope in front of her face.
Next step is chin rest with the opthalmoscope and turning the light on. That woof you hear is Viva and Catty does a great job of ignoring it.
Final step me getting close & looking in her eyes with the opthalmoscope & the light on.
Here we are getting ready to use the stethoscope and Catty says "Oh fantastic, you brought the bucket!"
Here we go with playing The Bucket Game while using the stethoscope and Catty says "No problem and I love this game!".
It's great that D'light is curious - he's basically standing on top of the vet tools checking them out. And then he shows interest in the stethescope and he's given a yummy food reinforcer. With sweet D'light I'm always looking for and then reinforcing any curiosity he shows. And Catty is a super start being so patient while D'light engages with me.
Way to go Catty I know we are going to rock our vet visit!
Stay tuned as next we will be using The Bucket Game with Catty wearing her muzzle while we work with a needle free syringe.
What a clever and thoughtful idea! Taking the time to work with pets before they need the vet can only help if they need to go under traumatic circumstances- when ill or injured for example. Catty is clearly loving all the attention as well, obviously a very bright and willing dog.
ReplyDeleteElvira Mullins @ Anne Nelson Vets