Accepting Medical Care
One overlooked, yet necessary part of your dog’s training routine is appropriately accepting medical treatment.
EVENTUALLY, your dog is going to have to go to the vet. Hopefully, it can be a short and painless visit, but unfortunately, that is not a common occurrence. Often if your dog is at the vet, it can be one of the most stressful experiences of his or her life. It is our job as owners to responsibly mitigate their stress as much as possible during this time through proper training, guidance, trust, and preparation.
The best way we can teach our dogs how to accept medical treatment is to teach them appropriate coping mechanisms and to do our best to foster and maintain our dog’s trust during stressful situations.
Some ways we can foster these qualities are:
ALWAYS respond calmly to the situation, no matter how anyone else, or the dog reacts. You cannot help anyone if you are stuck in your own reaction.
IF YOU FEEL YOURSELF BEGINNING TO REACT, REMEMBER TO TAKE DEEP BREATHS, PHYSICALLY SLOW DOWN, MENTALLY MAKE A PLAN, AND SLOWLY AND CALMLY REINFORCE THAT PLAN. *IF YOU CANNOT CALM DOWN TO AN APPROPRIATE LEVEL, CALMLY REMOVE YOURSELF FROM THE SITUATION.
ALWAYS enforcing our dog’s boundaries and communication - just because veterinarians and their technicians work with dogs all day DOES NOT mean that they are educated about dog behavior and communication, not to mention how that behavior and communication can rapidly and dangerously change when the dog is injured and under incredible amounts of pain and stress.
Be sure that you have educated yourself on body language, and have worked with your dog enough to identify his or her specific communication style, and when they are trying to communicate things like : discomfort, pain, stress, fear, anxiety, overstimulation, or aggression. ALWAYS respect the signals that your dog is giving, but particularly during an examination as they will likely feel much more unsure and vulnerable than usual.
Remember, you are there to assure your dog that everything will be alright, and to assist the vet in accomplishing the goals involved in the medical treatment.
Like all things, the skills involved in accepting medical treatment are perfected through practice, and incremental increases in difficulty. Be sure to never push your dog beyond their limits, or overwhelm them by moving on to the next step too quickly. Trust comes with you being able to read and respect your dog’s specific communications to you.
In order to maintain the trust you have built with your dog it is absolutely necessary that your veterinarian and the vet techs and other employees on sight are ALWAYS respectful of you, and your dog’s communication.
