Engage Veterinary Behaviour and Training

Engage Veterinary Behaviour and Training Hi-I am Dr Cate Webb-an experienced Veterinarian, Behaviour Vet and Dog Trainer with 15 years experience.

I have a Membership of the ANZCVS (Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists) in Veterinary Behaviour.

06/07/2025

Teaching Molly the Labradoodle to swim
Over 4 sessions in summer I helped Molly find the courage to enter the home swimming pool and swim.
Molly showed a curiosity for water, and I don’t doubt if a duck flew in she might find the courage to jump in after - but we needed another way.
Molly trusts me and we have navigated many challenges together. We took it slowly at Molly’s pace, and she grew bolder every session.
Molly loves the water - and her genetics are water dogs - poodle and Labrador.
Swimming in the pool will provide lots of joy and great exercise with her family over the hot Brisbane summers.

30/06/2025

Louis is happy to use the treadmill now - but it can’t compare to a free run in a paddock. As many activities as I can provide in the suburbs - my dogs” true joy is in having freedom to explore nature and just be dogs

30/06/2025

“Hold” and retrieve are really useful trained behaviours. I had a flare up of a back condition in the past few days and would have loved my dogs to help me out by picking up things on the ground - as it was very painful to bend down.
So I thought I would start teaching my dogs for this. I trained Ava a lot in her first two years (she’s 8 now), and she has a good understanding of hold and bring, and retrieving random objects, but not picking up random objects. She did really well today based on all that prior learning.
I started to teach Louis to hold an item when he was a puppy - keeping it fun and with him actively thinking and making decisions.

21/06/2025

Louis needed preparation for an underwater treadmill rehab program post shoulder surgery. Hydrotherapy in a strange place is a big task for a dog who is fearful of strangers and a little anxious in strange environments and unstable surfaces. I have an old treadmill at home which I used to prepare him. He was fearful of this movement and beeps at the start. I progressed slowly on his terms allowing him control over the situation to build his confidence. Supporting his body was important until he was confident to walk on his own. I didn’t think he was ready for his first underwater treadmill, but we had time to work through baby steps and he trusted me and he rocked it!
Louis had a full hydrotherapy session and visibly relaxed into the underwater walking. (Not pictured). Looking forward to next session.

My Louis had bilateral shoulder arthroscopic surgery last month at 9months of age for developmental joint disease - shou...
21/06/2025

My Louis had bilateral shoulder arthroscopic surgery last month at 9months of age for developmental joint disease - shoulder OCD (Osteochondrosis dissecans). There is a significant genetic influence in these developmental joint diseases, including shoulder OCD. Shoulder OCD is commonly seen in some larger breeds, but also Border Collies.

Louis is feeling much better now he doesn’t have ouchy shoulders with cartilage pieces floating around. The surgery removed the broken cartilage fragments to reduce pain and help healing. However, the surgery is not curative, but instead "damage control to slow osteoarthritis disease progression".

Louis is not alone. As a Behaviour Vet, pain, including musculoskeletal pain (or discomfort), is always at the front of my mind in my patients as a possible influence in dogs and cats who show signs of anxiety or use aggressive behaviours.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a "young dog disease". It is primarily driven by developmental disease in dogs - and not "wear and tear" of old joints as we used to say. It is ALOT more common than people think.

A 2024 research study, published in the elite journal Nature, in the team of Enomoto and Lascelles took a random sample of 123 dogs of ages 8mnths-4 years from a single vet practice. 12 joints were radiographed and examined. Approximately 40% of these young dogs had radiographic osteoarthritis in 1 or more joints. Approx 16% (20 of these 123 "normal" dogs) had moderate clinical painful osteoarthritis.

Only two of these dogs were receiving OA pain management. Yet earlier effective treatment of OA pain may better control the pain and long term negative impacts on muscle strength, emotional state (such as anxiety and aggression). (see Gruen 2022).

The most frequent joints effected in this sample were elbows and hips, then hocks and stifles, then shoulders and lumbosacral joints.

I have linked this study in the comments.

The 4 Pillars of OA Management (Dr Kirby Shaw - Board certified SA surgeon and rehab specialist) are:-
1. Pain management
2. Weight management
3. Omega 3/Fish Oil supplementation (at correct doses)
4. Exercise - e.g. low impact, regular, controlled walks
(Now advised - 60 minutes broken into 3 or 4 sessions)

I am addressing these 4 pillars with Louis in order that he maintains strength, flexibility and comfort through his life. He can of course still play and run and enjoy his life to the full - but with care and understanding of his OA and how best to manage it.

25/05/2025

Jessie the labrador "steam train"

Before, Jessie would charge ahead to visit the neighbour for treats and pats — with her poor mum being pulled along behind!

I focused on building value in Jessie’s relationship with her mum and teaching her what we did want: to walk with her mum, not drag her over.

Using simple, reward-based training at doorways and on walks, I helped Jessie learn to stay connected and enjoy walking together — no towing required!

27/02/2025

Louis and I using Engage-Disengage to help him learn to habituate to/tolerate scary triggers.

Louis is a sensitive soul. He is sensitive to strange noises and is quick to bark, but he quickly runs to me for treats now and recovers. Louis has always been a little wary of strangers. He's OK if they ignore him. He is resilient enough to explore and investigate things that worry him.

I make sure I am free for training whenever any tradies are scheduled, to make it a more positive learning experience. When tradies first arrive Louis has a loud worried bark from the house.
He is much more comfortable when I put him on leash and bring him out to investigate and play engage/disengage.

Louis is a little worried in the first clip with the big noisy Stump Muncher in the backyard. He moves around more quickly than normal and needs to check it out a bit. He was able to disengage from the stimulus and eat, but he was anxious and not improving so we went inside after this minute.
In the second clip he is more comfortable with the IKEA assembler and he could then go on to use his thinking brain well and do some of his daily games.

18/02/2025

Louis - 6months - Dremeling nails

Louis is a star for nail care.

He didn't mind his paws being handled as a puppy, so that was a good start!!!

He needed his hairy underpaws clipped early on and consistently to prevent him from sliding on the cork floor and banging into corner walls. He didn't mind the small quiet clippers when he was sleepy.

I started nail care from 8 weeks - handle his paws and give him treats when I was cuddling him when a sleepy pup/ clip the tips of his nails with clippers/let him sniff and explore the dremel/turn the dremel on and off and give treats/rub the dremel handle against his nails and give treats/hold his paw in the position I would need and give treats/do this for longer periods/teach him to love the carpet top table and stay while I prepared his activities for the morning/stay restrained on the table with a harness and leash/stay on the table of his own accord when handled/examine his paws/ears/teeth/coat consistently every other morning on the table

Lots of baby steps to prepare for stress free nail trimming

11/01/2025

Molly - labradoodle - about 18 months in Feb 2024

More shaping games to build confidence in learning - Part 2

Targeting, feet in a box, go around a cone
I could more easily and quickly lure Molly onto a platform or around a cone, but the target behaviour is not my main aim (see Part 1)

11/01/2025

Molly - labradoodle - about 18 months in Feb 2024
Shaping games to build confidence in learning
Targeting an object on the ground with her paw

Molly was a very anxious dog when I first met her, and anything that looked like training was stressful to her.

Molly gradually learned to trust me, and we found a food reward she loved (peanut butter). This took months to want to eat food.

I introduced shaping games when Molly was keen to interact, eat food, and had learned a marker word "yes" - meaning "come to me and get food. And if you repeat what you think led me to say "yes", then I will say "yes" again and you can get food again"

I wanted to do shaping games with Molly to build her confidence that she was allowed and actually rewarded for "trying things out" and she was not going to get into trouble if she was wrong. I wanted Molly to learn that her behaviours matter - and give her a fun and appropriate way to "make me" give her rewards.
I wanted Molly to learn to interact with the environment and objects around her and not be scared of them.

Here I am marking ("yes" ) and rewarding Molly for small approximations of a behaviour I have in mind. I could more easily and quickly lure Molly onto a platform or around a cone, but the target behaviour is not my main aim. If Molly was to try something creative that I didn't have in mind, then I definitely would have marked and rewarded that. The aim is attitude and not perfection.

I started Molly targeting an item on the ground with her paw. This behaviour can then blend into "going away" from me towards a target.

I then progressed to other objects to target and other objects with other behaviours - see video 2.

01/01/2025

Early "chin" training with Louis my groodle pup

Very useful for body handling at the groomers or vets, an easy fun trick to build your relationship, a calming focussed behaviour and also a useful behaviour for a mouthy juvenile/adolescence as an alternative behaviour to mouthing

01/01/2025

Louis - Beginning Scent work

My 5month groodle is learning to search the pipes for food.

I am doing this for fun and hunting/foraging enrichment.

It is also a great rainy day activity, or a mentally stimulating way to provide breakfast in the morning before leaving for work... (though I LOVE training and playing with my dogs, and so have quite a few activities I can do with them).

I have the pipes already from my previous dog. Cardboard boxes or something else would work as well.

I started with hiding one of these bases with food in the house for Louis to find - just like a dinner bowl.

It also shows the 101 uses of teaching a stay on a platform. (I don't use the word stay though). Louis has this down pat.

I will probably teach Louis to search for an odour later on - but it is not a priority. I want him to really enjoy hunting and searching for food, and getting directly rewarded when he finds it.

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Toowoomba, QLD

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