Doodles of all kinds are currently a trending breed! They are also a breed that requires a lot of grooming maintenance to prevent matting, which is really painful! Keeper has been groomed from a very young age, which means she's been exposed to everything from combs to forced air dryers to nail clippers, which is why she is a super star while being groomed at a year old. Grooming is not an easy task with puppies, but we promise it pays off as long as you are consistent and use positive reinforcement. You, your dog, and your groomer will be happier in the long run!
Fear Free cat exams at Sechelt Animal Hospital sometimes involve playing with water! Little Charlie loves water so she entertained herself with the tap while her brother got his vaccinations. Dr. Shetty didn’t want to stop the fun so she got her exam at the sink!
Muzzle Training Part 2!
So, we've got the first step down pat (touching her chin to my open hand) and now we need to go to the next step: Having her rest her chin on my hand until I release her.
Seems simple, right? However, as you can see from the first part of the video, I tried to make her wait too long too quickly, and she got frustrated (and very drooly)! Remember, as far as she knows, she is doing everything correctly and still not getting the reward; she doesn't realize I've changed the game, and only thinks that I'm not doing my part properly! When she (or I, for that matter) gets frustrated, then learning becomes more difficult, so we needed to reset. I got her to do a spin (which is an a command she knows like the back of her paw) and went back to just touching her chin to my hand; she got a reward (ie, confirmation that she's doing the right thing), and was able to refocus.
I then gave her a little break because Flicker insisted on his time in the spotlight. This also increased Lemon's focus because how dare I give him some of her cookies! A little competition is a good thing sometimes, lol.
Once Lemon and I got him out of the way, we went back to training! This time, I started with making her wait only 1 or 2 seconds before the reward, and gradually extending it to 6 seconds over several tries. As you can see, she was much less frustrated and more successful than before! She is still a little impatient (as you can see by the oh-so-subtle nose nudges) but that's ok!
We'll keep working this step until she is less impatient before moving on to the next: Introducing the muzzle for the first time! Stay tuned...
Juneau came to see us yesterday to get some sutures removed from her abdomen. She was so comfortable that she didn't want to leave after we were done, and we had to offer her a bribe to get up out of Melissa's lap!
Clearly we did not meet the appropriate belly rub and snuggle quota for her, but we made up for it with cookies 😄
Let’s talk muzzle training!
First things first: A DOG WHO NEEDS TO WEAR A MUZZLE IS NOT A “BAD” DOG.
Muzzles are useful for any number of reasons, from the obvious bite prevention, to the less obvious “my dog is super friendly but will eat literally everything on a walk and I need something that can stop it because I can’t afford another vet visit for foreign body surgery, toxicity, or gastrointestinal distress”.
Maybe your dog is the friendliest thing in the world and would never bite, but there are some things that can push even a normally placid dog into biting. Fear is a big one, as well as pain, and these are two things that your pet may encounter at the vet clinic. 95% of the time, dog’s who need a muzzle in the clinic don’t really want to bite us but we’re strange people doing strange things to them in a strange environment and the dog knows they don’t have the option to run away, so that leaves biting as the only available defense mechanism; we do our best to make vet visits a positive thing and to respect a pet’s boundaries, but sometimes we don’t have any option but to push through.
Unfortunately, when we do have to muzzle a dog, it’s often the first time they’ve ever experienced one, and that can make their fear and anxiety even worse; in the future they may associate a muzzle with an unpleasant or painful experience, and it will be that much harder to handle them the next time. Obviously, this is not an ideal situation, but muzzle training is something you can do at home that will help!
Muzzle training is getting your dog used to having a muzzle on and to associate it with a positive experience, so that when that have to have it on in a “real-life” situation it becomes one less thing to be scared about. It may even bring them some comfort because if they are in pain, or if they are scared, the muzzle can be at least one safe and familiar thing.
It’s an easy thing to say, but how the heck do we do that?! I’ve
Mico is a legend around here as the epitome of cat-like reflexes!
She is one of the most sweet and compliant kitties for nail trims and exams, but she ALWAYS whips around to try and give us a no-claws-slappin' when she gets back in her kennel.
Keeps us on our toes and, more importantly, makes us smile every time! 🥰
Open Monday-Saturday for appointments, food sales and prescription refills. We are a full service animal hospital located in downtown Sechelt.
