Vet and Groomer Stress
Let's be honest, vet and groomer visits can be hard for you, your dog, and even the staff when your dog is highly stressed. Care doesn't always stop when you leave the vet or groomer either: having to give medications at home or wanting to be able to brush your dog between grooming visits can be hard as well. This is all known as "cooperative care." I'm here to help with the whole experience from care at home to visits your pup needs.
I've been a vet assistant for 5 years now, so I know all the ins and outs of how vet visits go, what your dog needs to make everything less scary, and how to prepare them for all kinds of visits from vaccines to blood draws and everything in-between.
All of the components listed below, except for "Happy Visits" can be done with my Day Training service, where you don't always have to be present for training! Click here to learn more about Day Training.
Want to learn more or get started? You can either email me, or fill out a quick and easy form for me to contact you to go over everything by clicking the button below!
There are a lot of components to think about when it comes to reducing stress for everyone. We will tailor a specific plan for your dog's needs, whether they only need help with getting their ears cleaned or with every step of a vet visit.
Below are the different parts I can help you and your dog with to help your dog be more comfortable.
Happy Visits
"Happy visits" entail going to the facility, but not necessarily getting anything done to your dog, and showing them it can be a nice place full of treats and great people. We will show our dogs that the lobby, exam rooms, people, and even the scale doesn't have to be scary.
Tolerating Touch and Restraint
At home we will work on getting your dog used to being touched from nose to tail, and in different ways from strokes and pokes, to prepare them for all the different ways they may need to be handled at the vet and groomer. We will also cover some impulse control games to help teach our pup to remain more still while they are being worked with.
The Scary Tools
Before we are able to use things like nail trimmers, brushes, and the bottle of ear wash with our dogs, we need to show them that they aren't scary. We do this by creating a more positive association with these items that need to be used. Once they are no longer scary, we can work on actually using them on our dogs.
Teaching Behaviors to Help with Visits
There are some skills we can teach our dogs that help with the process of being examined or groomed. For example, we can ask our dog to lie on their side for exams or nail trims or offer their face to look at their teeth or put a muzzle on. We can even teach our dogs to file their own nails down with a scratch board to help maintain them and have fewer nail trimming sessions. The video here is my dog Kangaroo showing some of these behaviors.
Muzzle Conditioning
Muzzles are a great tool to keep everyone safe, just in case your dog is really scared or in pain. When conditioned and fitted properly, a dog can wear a muzzle comfortably just like they do a collar or harness! You never want to just put one on your dog's face without conditioning as this can be stressful and they may injure themselves trying to paw it off.