🐾 If only all routine check ups could be this simple!🐾
Or... maybe they could be? :D
Felice (Puppy Partners) and I are really excited to offer this unique 2 day workshop focused on making life easier for vets, vet nurses and vet techs working with dogs!
Over the 2 days we'll cover strategies for handling and restraint of dogs that will make clinic life easier and safer, and of course, less stressful for the dogs you care for!
🗓️ Date: 7th & 8th October
🏢 Venue: 28b Dewer Ave, Ridgehaven, SA
Register here: https://puppypartners.as.me/vetprofessionalsworkshop
Topics include:
∙ Embracing Low Stress: Discover the value of a calm and empathetic approach in veterinary care.
∙ Decoding Dog Behaviour: Learn canine behaviour and body language to better understand the dog.
∙ Effective Communication: Learn coaching skills that ensure clear communication with pet owners.
∙ Decision Making: Assessing situations to understand when to proceed or pause to get the best outcome for the dog.
∙ Prevention Strategies: Explore ways to prevent stress in dogs during their visit.
∙ Low Stress Equipment: Familiarise yourself with tools and equipment for the comfort of the dogs and safety for the staff.
∙ Gentle Restraint Techniques: Acquire practical knowledge on safe and low-stress restraint methods.
∙ Creating Optimal Environments: Design veterinary spaces that promote a relaxed atmosphere.
Spaces are limited, so secure your spot now!️
Gwen has been in the wars again 😭
So we've had lots of tablet time while we work out what's happening!
Tonight, Gwen was dining on a mixture of yoghurt, ricotta, salami and dried beef lung reinforcers!
Our tablet training process generally follows this pattern:
1. Offer the tablet (not hidden in food)
2. Reinforce taking the tablet eith very high value food (even/especially if they spit it out! The key is to reinforce the mouth opening/investigating rather than the spitting it out)
3. Follow up with a 2nd reinforcer of high value
4. Repeat
Over time we have very slowly built a bit of a delay so that Gwen will swallow some bland tablets before being reinforced.
You can start practising this behaviour (especially if your dog hates tablets) with diced carrot, then empty tablet capsules (from a chemist), and then other very small or tasty tablets to start.
If your dog hates tablets, it is always worth asking your vet if there is an alternative medication that is less bitter or easier to administer.
We tend to break our tablets in half so that she's less likely to chew one (and so we get more practice).
Of course you can hide tablets in food. But for some dogs and some tablets it can backfire and peope often end up escalating the type and quantity of food they need to hide it in!
Gwen likes to back chat on cue
We love tricks that encourage social interaction, make things fun and that deviate from the norm!
This one especially seems to confuse people because she's enjoying herself so much when she's being 'told off'.
Beinf able to tell a dog off when they get something wrong doesnt need to be a part of our training or life at all! Of course, the real trick is making sure you set them up to get it right in the first place and celebrating that!
(Just in case it needs to be said, I don't actually advocate for telling dogs off, saying 'no' or calling dogs naughty :) this is a trick we've been working on)
Give them a choice!
We control (as a necessity) so much of their lives on a daily basis, and yet there are so many opportunities to give them safe choices!
Choices don't have to be big to be meaningful. They can be simple: options for beds and bedding locations; which after dinner chew they prefer today; which direction they feel like walking in, or; which new toys (or rotated toys) they'd like to play with first!
Choice can improve welfare and might build confidence too!
Gwen loved checking out our loot from the massive sale at RSPCA PetVille today.
We are so sad to see them go and wish the wonderful team there all the best with their next steps. The sale is on this weekend, so get in quick if you need anything!
Thankful for all our hard work tablet training so routine medications don't have to be a battle!
Gwen is great at this for most tablets, but we do still have times where she spits out bitter ones (we reinforce her for taking the tablet in the first place and then just pick it up and offer and reinforce again).
Yes, you can hide tablets in smelly/soft/ tasty treats (sometimes we do), but if your dog dislikes tablets generally, you'll find you may end up in a pattern of escalating quantity or type of food, and a more stressful morning/night feeding routine.
We had a period with Gus with an awfully bitter anti nausea med that he simply stopped eating food from us at all. We ended up working eith our vet to find an alternative medication which worked much better and was much easier.
Morning prep for first chemo
Teaching Gwen to stand for leg cleaning
