Teaching Your Pets to Love Examination

[Dr. Jeff]

Hi everyone-

During Monday's (2/17/20) Empower Hour! webinar we'll be taking a deeper dive into teaching you specific strategies to help your pets love home (and vet) examination.

This thread is the place to post any of your questions about this topic and see any of the resources about it.

For example, on page 9 of the heart webinar-course toolkit, the home heart exam is discussed.

https://www.holisticactions.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Heart-Dis-ease-Toolkit-on-42F282F18.pdf

There was also a video demo. with Vanya, my fearful rescue pup, about it which you'll also find here.

Here's a video demonstrating a training technique that can be used for vet visits:

And here's one with Lisa, who will be teaching us on Monday, using the same methods:

And lastly, also at the vet, here's Lisa and Willow getting a fear free blood draw. Before starting this training to tolerate exams, Willow had been traumatized by even going to the vet.

And here's Cailie also at the vet office:

However, training to tolerate examination, both for cats and dogs, is not just for the vet's office.

Your home physical exam adds important symptom information for your Holistic Medical Decision Making Step 2 research.

It's therefore super useful to get your pets used to it as you adopt a new pup or kitty.

You can even train your kitty to tolerate things like a mouth exam which most cats hate:

And here's Pam Johnson-Bennetts useful kitten training tips:

Teach Your Kitten to Enjoy Being Touched - Cat Behavior Associates

Listen to the audio version of this article You’ve just brought a new kitten home to the family. Although it’s loads of fun to watch this revved up little character run, tumble, and explore everything, you need to start the training process right away. Many cat parents are good at...

www.catbehaviorassociates.com

 

[Dr. Sara]

These are great!
I would recommend two additional resources.
The first is a book by a conventional veterinary internist, describing how to advocate for your dog in your relationship with your veterinarian. The same principles can obviously be applied to cats:
"Speaking for Spot" by Dr. Nancy Kay
The second is a book discussing an holistic approach to animal care by a colleague who is a veterinary homeopath:
"The Complete Book of Cat & Dog Health" by Dr. Lise Hansen
Cheers,
Sara

 

[LisaP]

Thank you for the training videos, but these dogs seem so calm compared to what we experience. We don't know what our dog has experienced in the past, but as we pull into the parking lot of the vet's office,, our dog starts to tremble. She pees on the floor in the waiting room. The vet tried to feed her treats, but as soon as she stopped, our dog became "scared aggressive." Now, she gets muzzled before she even walks in the door. I don't know what to do next except hope that she doesn't have to go back to the vet.

 

[Dr. Sara]

Dear Lisa,
When a dog has developed a fear reaction to the vet office, you need to change the dog's opinion of the place before you will be able to make any progress. Sometimes anxiolytic medications, like Trazodone, may be needed during the period when the dog is being taught that the office is not a scary place. I would suggest that you consider consulting a veterinary behaviourist to help you through this period.

American College of Veterinary Behaviorists

certifying board for veterinarians who are specialty trained to advance the behavioral health of animals through clinical practice, research, and science-based behavior education

www.dacvb.org

 

[LisaP]

Dear Lisa,
When a dog has developed a fear reaction to the vet office, you need to change the dog's opinion of the place before you will be able to make any progress. Sometimes anxiolytic medications, like Trazodone, may be needed during the period when the dog is being taught that the office is not a scary place. I would suggest that you consider consulting a veterinary behaviourist to help you through this period.

American College of Veterinary Behaviorists

certifying board for veterinarians who are specialty trained to advance the behavioral health of animals through clinical practice, research, and science-based behavior education

www.dacvb.org

Thank you so much Dr. Sara. I will definitely consider a veterinary behaviorist! Might be helpful for some other issues in my house as well. I appreciate the suggestions!

 

[LisaP]

Thank you so much Dr. Sara. I will definitely consider a veterinary behaviorist! Might be helpful for some other issues in my house as well. I appreciate the suggestions!

Well, I know I live in the middle of nowhere, but there isn't a behaviorist within 100 miles of my zip code. Maybe someone in my area needs to start a new veterinary practice focusing on pet behavior?

 

[aruna]

Yesterday we had a great Empower Hour! with Lisa and Brad Waggoner from Cold Nose College.

They sent the sessions slides which have a lot of useful information on how to train our pets to love being examined - download them here.

You can also watch the replay here.

 

[aruna]

You can watch the home heart exam video here: