Time for vet prep at the vet so, I gather our tools: steak, muzzle, backpack with Catty's mat and bucket.
We headed to the vet early Sunday morning.
Our vet opens at 8am and it's pretty quiet on a early Sunday morning. When we arrived, I left Catty in the car and went into the vet's office to let them know what I was doing. This is where it is so important to have a vet practice that you trust and can collaborate with. I let them know that I needed a room and maybe a vet tech.
Time to get to work!
Catty says "Are with doing something fun at this place?"
Super cute Catty girl and neither of us are stressed. This is a big deal because up until all our vet prep I was always a stress case when taking Catty to the vet. I didn't want Catty to fell so uncomfortable and stressed out - feeling like she needed to bite.
I am so thankful for all the amazing resources online and from positive trainers who have helped us get to this point.
"You brought steak?!"
"Oh yippee here's the steak!"
"What do I have to do to get that steak?"
"Just wearing my muzzle gets me steak?! That's awesome as I love my muzzle!"
"Why did we take off the muzzle? I want more steak!"
"Fine I'll put the muzzle on myself to get more steak!"
Such a silly girl and we are having a great time. I ask for a vet tech to come in and I do some of our "vet prep" work with the bucket game, chin rest and muzzle. I wanted to see if by adding a stranger in the room, Catty could play the training games. Sure enough she didn't have any problems! I did not have the vet tech touch her other than to offer her a piece of steak when he left. I had given steak to Catty as he came into the room and when she would look at the vet tech and then look at me.
We did our work of "up" which is getting from the floor to the table.
Trial run went great and we actually had two trial runs at the vet. This was more about me feeling comfortable than it was Catty.
I also brought along a jar of baby food in case we need that as a reinforcer. It's easy to use when Catty is wearing her muzzle.
"Lets keep practicing vet prep!"
We are ready for prime time so stay tuned to hear about our actual vet visit!
But before that happens stay tuned to see what we did each time we left the vet's office after vet prep.
This is a great way to remove the pressure and the stress of a visit to the vet. I tried for ages to get my dog to relax before going in to the vet's office, but I realised that it was actually me that was getting stressed about it and not the dog. He was just reading my emotions and copying them.
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