Guest Blog Author: Juliana DeWillems KPA CTP, CDBC - Owner, JW Dog Training
One of the best ways to keep your dog happy and healthy is to do proactive medical and grooming care with them. From keeping their coat brushed, to cleaning their ears, to trimming their nails, to cleaning minor cuts and scrapes, staying on top of your dog’s health starts at home.
Using the Dr. Cuddles heal-at-home products is an integral part of your pet’s wellness regimen. However, your pet needs to feel comfortable with these procedures in order to maximize their safety benefits, and not all dogs and cats tolerate being cleaned or groomed. What do you do if you run into the issue that your pet doesn’t allow you to clean their ears or eyes, or tend to their injuries?
Here are five ways to make your pet feel more comfortable with at-home medical and grooming care:
- Create a comfortable trust-building zone where you will do all your training.
Training your dog or cat to feel comfortable with handling, grooming, and medical care requires building trust with them around the procedures. Find a space in your home where you will do your training and where your pet can build a positive association. Make sure you use a comfortable non-slip surface like a carpet, rug, or bed. In this space your pet will always have the chance to opt in and out of the training.
2. Use lots of high value treats.
Pull out your pet’s favorite treats for this training. I recommend something small, stinky, and squishy. Real meats and cheeses can be a great option for exciting high value treats. Remember to break them into tiny pieces to avoid over feeding.
You use high value treats to both create a positive association with the procedure, and to reward desirable behaviors like remaining in position and allowing handling.
One important step here is to have the treats come after you do a small step of handling. You want the hard step (handling) to predict the happy step (the treat). Reversing the order and having the food predict the scary handling runs the risk of poisoning your treats and breaking trust.
3. Go at your pet’s pace.
Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to helping your pet get comfortable with medical and grooming care. You want to meet your pet where they are and break the training into very small steps. Taking too big of a leap in the training can cause stress in your pet.
Here’s an example of the steps I recommend when teaching your pet to get comfortable with ear cleaning using the Dr. Cuddles heal-at-home ear care+ (there are likely way more steps than you realize!):
- Start with your pet sitting or lying down in front of you, reward
- Reach for your pet, reward
- Reach for their ear without touching, reward
- Touch the ear briefly, reward
- Touch the ear for a few seconds, reward
- Gently hold and rub the ear, reward
- Hold the ear and look into it, reward
- Hold up the cleaning bottle away from your pet, reward
- Touch the ear with a clean wipe, reward
- Rub the ear with a clean wipe, reward
- Rup the eat with a wipe that is wet with water, reward
- Touch your pet’s ear with a wipe that has cleaner on it, reward
- Rub your pet’s ear with a wipe that has cleaner on it, reward
- Clean your pet’s ear with the heal-at-home ear care +, reward
See how many small steps ear cleaning can be broken into? The benefits of breaking the training into such small pieces include that your dog is more likely to be successful, and that you’ll be able to better identify the piece they are uncomfortable with so you can work more on that.
4. Pay close attention to your pet’s body language and listen to their “no”s.
Animals communicate how they are feeling and what they are experiencing by using their body language. Through each step of the training process you want to see relaxed body language from your pet.
If at any point you see stress or avoidance from your pet, that’s a sign they are uncomfortable, so you want to back off to an easier step or take a break. If your pet is backing away, turning their head away, showing you a whale eye (the whites of their eyes), shaking, or vocalizing in any way, those are signals that they are stressed and a sign you should not move forward.
If you listen to your pet’s “no,” you are more likely to get a “yes.” Forcing your pet to endure any step of the procedure is likely to set your progress back or break their trust.
5. If you have to do any medical or grooming procedures where you need to use force or remove your pet’s choice, do it in a place other than your trust-building zone.
There will unfortunately be times when your pet needs medical care or grooming before you’ve done enough training around whatever procedure is needed, and therefore they might be uncomfortable around it or try to avoid it. If this is the case, do the procedure somewhere completely different than your trust-building zone where you typically do the training. By making the picture look completely different than the times you do training and build trust, you prevent losing too much progress. The negative experiences your pet might have around the procedure won’t be associated with the space and techniques you’ve been using.
When you do have to use gentle restraint and remove your pet’s choice for engaging in a procedure, you still want to end with a big treat party. As soon as you put your pet down or let them go, make a big exciting deal about running over to their treats and throwing a tasty treat party. This way you are more likely to end on a positive memory.
This training requires time, patience, and understanding, and it is so worth it to invest in! Helping your pet feel more comfortable with grooming and medical care at home can improve their overall quality of life and happiness.
About the Author:
Juliana is the Owner and Head Trainer at JW Dog Training. She has been training dogs since 2014 after she graduated with distinction from the Karen Pryor Academy. Juliana enjoys applying her knowledge of canine behavior and the science of learning when working closely with pet parents to improve their dog's behavior. Watching the training plan strengthen the bond between owner and dog is her favorite part of the job. Follow Juliana on Instagram.