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VET CARE

The More Please Signal comes into play with vet care as well. So does voluntary restraint. In fact, the two go hand in hand.

The dog can go into a restraint position as her MPS. It should also be on cue so that you can ask for the behavior at the vets.

For example, when we need a blood sample from Peanut’s jugular vein, I take a toy from my pocket and say Leave It as I set it down. I give him the cue for the restraint pose and he moves to where I can hold his chest with one hand and hold his head back turned away from the vet tech. she can take the blood from his neck safely. As she takes the needle out, I put my thumb on the cotton she has placed there. I hold it for a few seconds to keep him from bleeding and then release him to grab his toy.

During each vet visit, I keep this behavior strong by doing several fake blood draws, both before and after the real one. We built up to this by doing pretty much the same thing as what I explained above with grooming. The only difference is that the injection itself can’t be the marker, because he has to move to get his toy, and I can’t have him charging after his toy when he has a needle in his neck.

First I taught the ‘self restraint pose’ and built up to ‘press the cotton ball for 5 seconds’ before releasing him. Then started having a friend give him fake injections with a syringe that had no needle. I used the cotton ball press as a marker, because the release to get the toy always happened 5 seconds after that. It was a predictable signal that the reinforcer was coming.

In other words, after each item on the list below, your friend will put a cotton ball on his neck (next to your fingers) and then you will press the cotton for 5 seconds and release your dog to get the toy or treat. I recommend asking your vet or vet tech to show you exactly where they would need to take blood or do injections. Do the same exercise for other places that blood is taken or injections are given.

• Syringe comes out from behind your back, not approaching the dog (allow dog to sniff the nail file at any point that she wants)
• Syringe moves slightly closer to the dog (however many steps you need)
• Syringe touches the dog
• Syringe touches the dog and helper lightly pinches the skin
• Syringe touches the dog and helper lightly pinches the skin and pokes the syringe around as if looking for a vein (remember, no needle)
• Syringe touches the dog and helper lightly pinches the skin and holds the syringe in place, drawing the stopper out

Note: my friend didn’t wear scrubs or a vet coat, but that would have been helpful.

You saw the video before of Peanut doing a blood draw. Here’s some training work that we did after (and before) the blood draw to keep his behavior strong.

[vc_video link=”https://vimeo.com/135269416″]

Other tips: Exhale and relax. Your puppy is getting from information from you as to whether he should be nervous. Stay relaxed and avoid patting him repeatedly. Do some easy training in the waiting room, like Touch, Find It, or other tricks. Generalize to other people doing the restraint if possible, especially if you travel a lot without your dog.

If you have trained your dog to be comfortable with blood draws and restraints in this way, do your best not to let her be taken into the back for a blood draw. She really probably is more comfortable with you if you have trained her.

GOING FOR A WALK

Your dog will fuss less about getting a harness on if it’s done when she is ready for it. Teach her to put her head through the harness instead of just looping it over her head without her permission. If she needs to lift her feet, teach her. If you have a step-in harness, teach her to step into it, rather than always grabbing her paws to put her into the harness. It’s a targeting exercise.

Training can take several days or more, so in the meantime, you can use treats or targeting to lure her head through the harness, then have someone keep feeding her or set several on the floor so you can clip the harness on before she wiggles away. This is a temporary measure, at best, so teach her to cooperate in getting the harness on. If your puppy is having trouble, you can also use collar for a week or so while you train your puppy to enjoy his harness.

Here’s a video by Emily Larlham on teaching a puppy to be comfortable with the harness. I might make one change by having the movement toward the harness be even more of the dog’s idea, but Emily’s technique is good.

You can also use the More Please Signal with the harness. The nose through the harness is the MPS, the behavior that says “do it again.”

First: teach her that the clip sound on the harness means treats are coming, so that when you get to the final stage of putting the harness on and clipping it, that’s an automatic “YAY” moment for the dog. Doing this first also creates a positive association with the sight of the harness.

Teach head through: use a verbal marker to mark and reinforce targeting the harness, then getting the nose through the harness using Touch, and build up to just holding the harness out and getting the puppy to put her head through. Move it around so she has to work to get to where the harness is and put her head through.

Now that you have that: as long as her head is through the harness, you can do the “classical conditioning” of associating something with treats. To make some good associations, treat after each of the steps below. Keep the harness held up so she can back out if she wants. If she backs away at any point, just stay where you are or move away and wait for your puppy to put her head back through the harness. If she’s backing out a lot, you are going to fast.

Here’s an example of some steps:

• Touch her shoulder with the back of your hand (one treat for each shoulder)
• Scratch her shoulder (one treat for each shoulder)
• Scratch both shoulders for one treat
• Touch her side with the back of your hand (one treat for each side)
• Scratch her side (one treat for each side)
• Scratch both sides for one treat
• Scratch her belly from the side.
• Ask for the Shake (paw) behavior, if that’s part of getting your harness on
• Touch her with a strap of the harness (various places, one treat for each spot)
• Lower the harness onto her shoulders (but keep ahold of it so she can back out)
• Set the harness onto her shoulders, treat, and immediately remove it. Then move away so she has to get to you to put her head back through. Note: I always say “head down” just before I remove the harness, for predictability and stress reduction.
• Set the harness on to her shoulders and mess with the straps, then treat and remove the harness. Move away, as above.
• Make the leash clip noise while the harness is around her neck but not fully on her body
• Put the harness on and clip it, then treat and immediately remove it. Move away as above.
• Put the harness on and toss several treats for her to find.

When you take the harness off, start by petting her politely and then just work your way to the clips, rather than just lunging at her harness. Use the 5-second rule, even for this. Feel free to use treats to extend how long she wants to hang around you, though. 🙂 The same applies for putting the leash onto the harness.

You can also teach her that the sound of the leash clipping is like a clicker. Treat her whenever you make a leash clipping noise. Give it some extra power by repeating clip/treat/pause.

If the leash gets tangled around her feet, it usually means you accidentally let the line go below her knees, so she could step over it. It happens. Instead of grabbing at her feet to move them over the leash, get her to do it herself. For example, cue Shake, have her sit, lure her to step over the leash, etc.

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