I decided after today's appointment, I want to teach Gimme some handling skills specific to veterinary procedures, to help her prepare for those kinds of experiences. She was not happy about the x-ray and even with me taking charge, she was more anxious than need be. Sure she bounced back - she IS resilient; still it didn't need to be so unpleasant.
I do have to say with her confidence around people, she isn't bothered by most stuff. She licked peanut butter the whole time they were doing the blood draw - only pausing briefly in her licking when they actually stuck her with the needle, but not bothering to turn and see what they were doing. Given what a drama queen she was the first time our vet took her temperature (at 9 weeks), this is huge improvement. She was totally fine with the veterinarian's very personal exam. She was a little curious about the vet tech who kept sliding a catch basin under her as she was peeing. Gimme would turn to look at this weirdo, which would cause her business end to move sideways and no longer be over the basin. She wasn't afraid, just didn't expect it.
Generally Gimme will let me roll her over onto her back, but mostly I really take my time and it always ends in a tummy rub and booby fluffling. She even volunteers this position in the morning when she is sure I've waited too long to get up. There is something about giving her a tummy rub and booby fluffle which wakes me up happy. Smart Gimme - works every time.
Tonight I started free-shaping her to "plop". It was a good way to get her started, if not totally effective. She quickly started throwing "grape" at me (rollover). It wasn't exactly how I intended it to go, but worked well to set me up to introduce a little hands on while bending over her. I'd use my hands to interrupt the rolling and steady her on her side, while giving her a steady stream of treats.
From there I got down on the floor with her and lured her into "plop" position and then used a lot more hands on while she got her treats. She got about 200 treats, so I'm sure the association is a good one. This clearly falls under desensitization and counter-conditioning.
More than anything, I want her confident about the idea of getting into this position when I ask for it in any location and on any surface (whether or not its on a verbal cue) AND most important, for her to be comfortable and relaxed with whatever handling might need to be done.
I'd love to hear what things you've taught your dog to help them prepare for veterinary procedures. Feel free to share, eh.
Showing posts with label Desensitizing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desensitizing. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Friday, July 12, 2013
NW Practice
I intended to get in a practice yesterday, but I couldn't get to it before Public Dog class and I didn't think she had enough brain left to do it afterward. Not wanting to do it close to trial day, I decided to do it tonight. I set up three inaccessible hides - one in my bedroom nightstand, one in a block of modeling clay on top of the faucet in the bathroom, and one stuck to the pan under the magic crate in the living room. She did a nice job all around.
Gimme started by running all over scanning all the rooms one after the other and not settling down. Partly I think this is because we haven't done searches at home in forever. It may also be because I woke her out a sound asleep snooze to search, so she wasn't focused yet. And lastly, because I let her. After she had scanned each room twice, I used casual your-Mom-is-a-clutz-and-in-the-way body blocking to keep her in each room.
The first room she went in after I decided to block her was the bedroom. I really thought she was going to find that one right away as she had her nose very near it early on. The nightstand is right inside the door, so it was a threshold hide. She never went into the walk-in closet at the far end of the room, where I've hidden odor before. She got stuck on the edge of the door and even pawed at the doorknob twice. I was not using gloves or tweezers and while I don't remember touching the door, I must have, transferring odor - bad me. She finally found source though and got rewarded with a nice big chunk of chicken.
I closed the bedroom door as we left and she next went in the bathroom. Since the hide was in the tub end that would be obscured by the door, I walked in and shut the door behind me. Gimme found out pretty quickly that the odor was in the tub, but no way was she going in THERE. As she focused her attention on the correct end of the tub I moved some things out of her way and she managed to streeeeetch her neck out to where the odor was and then just lifted her paw toward it. It was awkward, so I accepted that as close enough and rewarded her close to odor.
Next we went to the living room and this time she trotted all around scanning the room. On the third pass she found it and neatly pawed right on the front edge pointing exactly where the tin was hidden 6 inches in.
An interesting note - I wondered how she would do with the bathroom hide, since she has developed a concern about that room. I saw no sign that she even thought of it while she was in search mode. I've continued my desensitizing program of just tossing treats on the floor in there from time to time. She is tending to check it out more often. We've done the peanut butter licking thing three times and one of them she stayed in the room afterward while I took a bath, even though the door was open enough for her to leave. She used to always snooze on the big fluffly dog bed in there while I bathed. I hope we get it back - I like seeing her contentedly snoozing nearby.
It occurs to me that I may freeshape her to get in and out of the tub on her own. She never gets baths, so I'm sure she hasn't any lasting objection. I used to keep my dogs' water bowl in the bathroom when I lived in Alabama (until they got too old to get in and out of the tub easily). If it ran dry, Anthony would wait in the tub for me to refill it.
Once I had a dinner party and had pulled the shower curtain to hide the stained grout. All was going well and only one chicken fillet had been stolen, everyone was happy and having fun. Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream coming from the bathroom. It seems the bowl was empty and Anthony had been patiently waiting for a long time. When someone came in and didn't reach in to turn on the tub and refill the bowl - he stuck his head out and goosed a bare bumm.
Living with dogs is such great fun, doncha think...
Gimme started by running all over scanning all the rooms one after the other and not settling down. Partly I think this is because we haven't done searches at home in forever. It may also be because I woke her out a sound asleep snooze to search, so she wasn't focused yet. And lastly, because I let her. After she had scanned each room twice, I used casual your-Mom-is-a-clutz-and-in-the-way body blocking to keep her in each room.
The first room she went in after I decided to block her was the bedroom. I really thought she was going to find that one right away as she had her nose very near it early on. The nightstand is right inside the door, so it was a threshold hide. She never went into the walk-in closet at the far end of the room, where I've hidden odor before. She got stuck on the edge of the door and even pawed at the doorknob twice. I was not using gloves or tweezers and while I don't remember touching the door, I must have, transferring odor - bad me. She finally found source though and got rewarded with a nice big chunk of chicken.
I closed the bedroom door as we left and she next went in the bathroom. Since the hide was in the tub end that would be obscured by the door, I walked in and shut the door behind me. Gimme found out pretty quickly that the odor was in the tub, but no way was she going in THERE. As she focused her attention on the correct end of the tub I moved some things out of her way and she managed to streeeeetch her neck out to where the odor was and then just lifted her paw toward it. It was awkward, so I accepted that as close enough and rewarded her close to odor.
Next we went to the living room and this time she trotted all around scanning the room. On the third pass she found it and neatly pawed right on the front edge pointing exactly where the tin was hidden 6 inches in.
An interesting note - I wondered how she would do with the bathroom hide, since she has developed a concern about that room. I saw no sign that she even thought of it while she was in search mode. I've continued my desensitizing program of just tossing treats on the floor in there from time to time. She is tending to check it out more often. We've done the peanut butter licking thing three times and one of them she stayed in the room afterward while I took a bath, even though the door was open enough for her to leave. She used to always snooze on the big fluffly dog bed in there while I bathed. I hope we get it back - I like seeing her contentedly snoozing nearby.
It occurs to me that I may freeshape her to get in and out of the tub on her own. She never gets baths, so I'm sure she hasn't any lasting objection. I used to keep my dogs' water bowl in the bathroom when I lived in Alabama (until they got too old to get in and out of the tub easily). If it ran dry, Anthony would wait in the tub for me to refill it.
Once I had a dinner party and had pulled the shower curtain to hide the stained grout. All was going well and only one chicken fillet had been stolen, everyone was happy and having fun. Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream coming from the bathroom. It seems the bowl was empty and Anthony had been patiently waiting for a long time. When someone came in and didn't reach in to turn on the tub and refill the bowl - he stuck his head out and goosed a bare bumm.
Living with dogs is such great fun, doncha think...
Monday, July 8, 2013
Public Dog (11)
We had class at the park today. We started with parallel walking. Where the class was held, we were walking around a track and there was very little space outside the track... so I took the inside position so I could manage the distance. I made a joke was that everyone that parallel walked with us must feel like they are walking alone. They changed pairs frequently. When we started, Gimme just couldn't focus enough for cheese. So I pulled out the peanut butter. Initially I lured her to get her brain engaged and remind her what was available to win, and then made her work for additional licks. We started at 35 feet away, but by the end we were at 12 feet from our last walking partner.
After that everyone just sat down with their dogs and encouraged them to lay about calmly. We were on the outer edge and the nearest dog was 10 feet. I would have liked to have more space, but that would have put us sitting out in the hot sun. Gimme would do okay for short bursts, but then she would pop up again. She wasn't misbehaving... just couldn't get relaxed. In hindsight, there was another shady patch about 60 feet away and I should have moved over there. That was much more space than she needed, but it would have made it easier for her to relax and made it a more positive experience for her - next time.
After that they had us all move one-by-one to another dog. Gimme didn't do as well as she has in the past. I think it was too much at the end of class and with 7 other dogs in sight, to be left with a stranger. She didn't do badly, just never relaxed, even though Elizabeth was shaping her to lay down. The second stranger resorted to non-stop treats and that pretty much got her all amped up again.
Mary called later and we met to walk the kids around the lake. Gimme did pretty good with her "whazzat" work and got admired and petted by a lot of people. She also got petted by a number of small children. On a positive note, she was able to relax enough during some of our "whazzat" stops to lay down all stretched out. It was closer than she's done before and I'm thinking it probably seemed easy compared to class - at least she didn't appear to be trigger-stacking, so that's good. I do think that I need to improve my game and do the "lets-go" much sooner when she gets stuck... In the future I plan to count in my head during "whazzat" and when I get to three if she hasn't looked back to me, then we'll do the "lets-go" and increase our distance.
I sure wish there was going to be an opportunity to get Gimme and Grafton together out at the fort for an off leash romp before Sunday. That's our trial day (second NW2 attempt) and I'm sure she'd benefit from a good rousing play session. Its going to be a verrrrry long day, since its almost a 4 hour drive to/from where the trial is held, so we'll be leaving home at 4 a.m. Its a resort town and, being summer, all the hotels within a 2 hour drive are booked solid (and expensive to boot).
Dang hormones - I know I've mentioned that Gimme's dog-dog threshold has gotten significantly larger since her false pregnancy and we're working to recover lost ground. I've also noticed a couple other things that she's gotten "weird" about since then. Neither of these are huge, but I don't like it that she has these concerns in her own home. The one is an old issue, that I hadn't really worked through, since it was not that much concern to her, and easy to avoid. Of course, now it and the other have become a bigger deal, so they are moved to a front burner.
After that everyone just sat down with their dogs and encouraged them to lay about calmly. We were on the outer edge and the nearest dog was 10 feet. I would have liked to have more space, but that would have put us sitting out in the hot sun. Gimme would do okay for short bursts, but then she would pop up again. She wasn't misbehaving... just couldn't get relaxed. In hindsight, there was another shady patch about 60 feet away and I should have moved over there. That was much more space than she needed, but it would have made it easier for her to relax and made it a more positive experience for her - next time.
After that they had us all move one-by-one to another dog. Gimme didn't do as well as she has in the past. I think it was too much at the end of class and with 7 other dogs in sight, to be left with a stranger. She didn't do badly, just never relaxed, even though Elizabeth was shaping her to lay down. The second stranger resorted to non-stop treats and that pretty much got her all amped up again.
Mary called later and we met to walk the kids around the lake. Gimme did pretty good with her "whazzat" work and got admired and petted by a lot of people. She also got petted by a number of small children. On a positive note, she was able to relax enough during some of our "whazzat" stops to lay down all stretched out. It was closer than she's done before and I'm thinking it probably seemed easy compared to class - at least she didn't appear to be trigger-stacking, so that's good. I do think that I need to improve my game and do the "lets-go" much sooner when she gets stuck... In the future I plan to count in my head during "whazzat" and when I get to three if she hasn't looked back to me, then we'll do the "lets-go" and increase our distance.
I sure wish there was going to be an opportunity to get Gimme and Grafton together out at the fort for an off leash romp before Sunday. That's our trial day (second NW2 attempt) and I'm sure she'd benefit from a good rousing play session. Its going to be a verrrrry long day, since its almost a 4 hour drive to/from where the trial is held, so we'll be leaving home at 4 a.m. Its a resort town and, being summer, all the hotels within a 2 hour drive are booked solid (and expensive to boot).
Dang hormones - I know I've mentioned that Gimme's dog-dog threshold has gotten significantly larger since her false pregnancy and we're working to recover lost ground. I've also noticed a couple other things that she's gotten "weird" about since then. Neither of these are huge, but I don't like it that she has these concerns in her own home. The one is an old issue, that I hadn't really worked through, since it was not that much concern to her, and easy to avoid. Of course, now it and the other have become a bigger deal, so they are moved to a front burner.
- One is that she's very concerned about the bathroom - that stems from something that happened a long time ago and it used to be just a very mild concern to her. Since the false pregnancy, she doesn't want to go in there at all. I'm letting her spend a minute or two once or twice a day licking peanut butter in there... and also tossing cheese in there when she isn't looking, so she can find it later. These I hope will desensitize her to the concern she feels. I'm thinking I may play the name game in there as well... I'm sure it won't take too long to resolve this.
- The other is that she's acting concerned every time I take a deep breath or make any blowing sound. She's the only dog I've ever known to notice my breathing. I first realized she was tuned into it because she picked up on the fact that I take a deeper breath when I'm about to get up from the computer (other dogs keyed in on me sliding the keyboard in), but she wasn't concerned about it. Well, during her false preggers, I think I must've taken a deep breath and then coughed or sneezed and startled her, because now she is more vigilant about it and actually concerned. I recently read something that said when a dog is pretty anxious about something, that your goal should be to work on it no more than every other or every third day. So I'm taking it slow with this and trying not to breath in the way I know concerns her (i.e. no blowing on a spoonful of hot soup, etc).
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