Vet Care

“Real Life” Training

Dog Blog, FSJ Dog Training, GUIDE 5: DOG TRAINING, Real Life Training, Training, Vet Care

Jump to: [ Condition to Touch ] [Boundary Training ] [ Door Dashing ] [ Go to Place ]

A note on “corrections”: A “correction” is a way to teach a dog that what they’ve done is wrong and not the behavior your requested. A correction may mean different things to different people, based on your training methods. It may involve a training collar (e-collar, prong collar, check chain, etc) or it may involve a firm “NO” followed by showing the dog the correct behavior and giving them an opportunity to try again.

I often tell my clients to make sure they are practicing their training around the house in “real life” scenarios. When you’re eating breakfast, have your dog down/stay in their bed. When your brewing your coffee or tea take a couple of minutes to practice a few commands in the kitchen. When you are leaving the house have your dog sit and wait before going through the front door. When you head out to water your flowers or take your garbage out bring your dog with you and work with their boundary training and recall (make sure you work at their level of training; use a long line if you need to).

If you get creative, there are lots of ways to incorporate training into your day-to-day life with your dog. It doesn’t have to be an hour dedicated to training every day or even every week. 5-minute training sessions once or twice a day will have a huge impact on your dog.

How else is the dog supposed to learn how to act under these conditions? In order to perform how I want her to under regular every-day conditions I need her to learn it in those conditions.

Here are a few examples of every day life training situations. This is not a step-by-step how-to post, but rather a detailed explanation of the type of training I’m talking about. If you’re looking for step-by-step instructions please feel free to send me a message and set up a consultation for a training session.

Condition Them to Touch

All dogs should be conditioned to touch so that they are not overwhelmed by it for basic care such as grooming and vet care. You can do this when you’re sitting at home watching TV. Put your dog in front of you and condition them to hands touching all over their body. Focus on touching their ears, mouth, paws, legs and tail. You can make a positive association by making a relaxing time of it and rewarding with treats.

If your dog will need to be on a grooming table, prop them up on a table at home and make positive associations for your dog in this scary situation. Some dogs feel really uneasy their first time up on a table. Make them feel more comfortable by getting them used to it through multiple exposures and associating something positive (like treats) with being on the table. For more about grooming your dog, check out my post Grooming and Care.

While conditioning your dog to touch, keep in mind the kind of touch that may be required for their basic grooming and vet care. This may involve picking the feet right up, holding it firmly and maybe even splaying the toes apart to be able to trim each nail. This will be uncomfortable and weird for your dog, so approach each type of touch separately. You will need a lot of patience and to condition your dog slowly in baby steps over the course of time. If you’re worried about giving your dog too many treats, you can hand-feed them using their kibble as a reward for accepting your touch. As long as you remember to use a meal rather than adding extra food, and as long as your dog actually likes their food, they will still make a positive association.

Boundary Train

Boundary training is by far one of the most important real life training. Teach your dog what spaces they’re allowed to be in and under what circumstances. Use cue words to let your dog know whether they can exit the property and establish a boundary that is easy for your dog to understand (such as the edge of the lawn). Take your dog out on a long line any time you are outside. You can practice it when you’re out gardening, enjoying the sunshine, shoveling snow etc. Let the long line drag behind your dog but keep an eye on them. As soon as they cross the boundary you’d like to establish correct your dog and put them back within the boundary. Work on this every time they’re outside with you and work on it often. Eventually your dog will learn where the boundary is and not to cross it.

You can also use this as an opportunity to work on your dogs recall. When your dog is away from you and distracted with just being a dog then use this as a chance to call them. Call your dog to you sporadically at random times when they’re in different places within the boundary. If they don’t come when called, you can use the long line to correct and/or guide your dog back to you.

Door Dashing

Teach your dog not to dash out of an open door. This should be a rule applied to when you’re leaving the house and in the case of a door left open. Teach your dog these techniques for the doors to your house and any gates that could be potentially left open and your dog escape. For example, one day when I was sick in bed, my husband was mowing the lawn and he left the gate open. My dog Zelda was inside, but the door was open with the screen closed and the cats like to open the screen door to let themselves out. If the screen is open enough for her to get her muzzle through then Zelda will push the screen door open too. Within 15 minutes she escaped and was long gone. We were able to track her down through posting on the community Facebook page and tracking sightings of her. After that I decided to teach her she was not allowed out of the gate unless one of us gave her the go ahead.

Likewise, your dog should learn not to dash out of any open doors. We have a split-level entry which makes getting in and out of our house crowded and annoying to begin with. Add an excited, uncontrolled dog into the mix and it’s a recipe for someone falling down the stairs. For this reason, I’ve taught Zelda not to dash down the stairs or out the front door.

Every time you open the door, have your dog sit and wait (on leash). If the dog dashes out the door correct them and put them back in the same spot or further back from the door. Every time you leave with your dog make them wait until you give a cue (‘lets go’, etc). The dog should not be allowed to leave the house through that door without the cue word.

Go To Place

Teach your dog to have a place that is just his to go lay down on. Teach a command to send your dog to his bed to keep him out from under foot, while you’re eating or when you have company over. “Go to bed” is a good cue to use. Teaching your dog to go to place will be a lot easier if they already know how to lay down and stay on command.

Going to place is a very handy “real world” command for your dog to know. Tell your dog to go to place when you’re eating meals, when you have guests over or whenever you just don’t want your dog under foot.

It’s very important that your dogs place (whether it’s a bed, blanket, crate or rug) is used by only the dog. Don’t allow children to play on it or other pets to lay on it. This is your dog’s safe space to relax.

If you’d like more information or help training any of the above “real world commands” please don’t hesitate to contact me to schedule a consultation and training session.

Zelda Went to the Vets

Dog Blog, Vet Care, Zelda

I’m a bit delayed in writing this post, I wanted to write about it the day after it happened, but life kind of got in the way. As always, I am going to keep names in this anonymous (other than mine and my dogs, since you all already know that), and I won’t be naming the vet clinic. I’ve vetted my pets with them for probably close to 20 years now and I still stand by them as a very good vet clinic.

Zelda has had an ear problem for months. I tried to take care of it myself, trying to save us on money and the hassle of booking with the vet, but I was unable to treat her. I’ve had dogs for many years and have had several pop up with different kinds of ear problems over the years. They’ve almost always needed vet care because you can never really tell what you’re looking at until you look at it under a microscope (or rather, a trained professional does). But it didn’t seem THAT bad and I thought I could take care of it myself. I tried several times and I struggled to just look in her ear, never mind actually clean it out. She is part husky and I believe this contributes to her dramatic response. That, and, well… I learned during the K9 first aid training that I really dropped the ball on conditioning Zelda to touch. I hug on her and play with her, I’ve always groomed her myself, but I didn’t do everything I should have to make for a dog who will allow people to poke around at them when they’re not feeling well. I got Zelda when my first daughter was 2 and 4 years later my second daughter is almost 2. I’ve had my hands full. I don’t think that’s the best excuse, but it’s the truth. To properly condition a dog you need to spend time daily followed by weekly just sitting down and poking at your dog. Well, don’t poke your dog, but get your dog used to touch. This should be done from the time they’re a puppy, if possible. Touch their toes, praise and reward (use treats, especially to start). Touch their ears, praise and reward. Touch their mouths, praise and reward. Touch their tails, praise and reward. Get them used to physical handling of all kinds. I failed to do this with Zelda and as a result she is a handful in these situations.

I muzzled her and had my husband hold her while I tried and it was still a struggle. Finally, I caved and e-mailed my vet clinic to book an appointment (side note: I absolutely love that my vet will book via email). It was a 3 week wait, and in that time I tried one more time unsuccessfully to look at/clean her ear.

Since I injured my foot back in June, I haven’t been able to really drive myself. I just recently started driving again, and can only manage short trips. Since all vet clinics are located outside of our town, I had to drive a ways to get Zelda to the vet. This meant getting a ride. My husband worked all morning but got home just in time for me to leave. I asked my dad to drive us, since my husband would have to be home for our toddler and pick up our eldest from school. My dad told me he was just happy to have the chance to help me out. What are dads for, huh? He drove me and my very hairy dog (who left white hair all over the back of his car) to the vet clinic.

When I got to the vets I learned that I wasn’t allowed in with Zelda. They would come out and get her and then bring her back out when she was done. They’ve been doing it this way since COVID (2020), they said. They told me it was just easier to do it this way. I didn’t see how? Wouldn’t they need to talk to me? Usually they ask questions while they examine my animal. I had also warned them that she would be very dramatic and may need muzzling. My vet, let’s call her Dr Green, has known me a very long time and she has seen many of my crazy dogs in her clinic. I’ve had a lot of aggressive dogs over the years and when I got Zelda I had made the decision to get a puppy and raise it exactly how I wanted. I was tired of “second hand dogs” that had problems. Disclaimer: I have absolutely nothing against rescues or rescuing older dogs. I am very pro rescue and Zelda is also a rescue dog. I am just a bleeding heart who always takes home the worst case I can, because “who else will?”. I focused a lot in off leash training and socialization with Zelda. She’s always been in good shape and I haven’t brought her to the vet since she was a puppy, and back then Dr Green didn’t even see her it was a different vet in her practice who administered shots. Just wait, it’s important that you understand that the last time Dr Green saw me I had one after another aggressive dog, or “problem” dogs.

I reluctantly handed Zelda over when they came out to us to get her (we had to wait in our car in the rain). Zelda looked back at me, hesitant to go but I told her it was okay and like a good girl she followed the lady into the clinic, didn’t even pull on the leash.

We waited an hour… I was really worrying at this point. Wondering what the heck was going on and why hadn’t we heard anything from them yet. It was routine exam, vaccines and ear exam. It shouldn’t take this long. We waited some time after an hour went by and then I had to pee. I decided to go in and ask if I could use their bathroom. The bathroom is located a bit within the clinic so you kind of have to see back there to get to it. When I walked in I heard Dr Green telling Zelda “NO, DON’T BITE ME”. I had to pee really bad so I told her to muzzle Zelda and I went into the bathroom. After I was done relieving myself I came out to the clinic and saw it was just Dr Green trying to hold Zelda and administer the ear cleaning at the same time. I was a bit taken aback by this and kind of thought “no wonder it’s taking so long”. Half of the reason I booked an appointment was because I knew I needed trained professionals to both hold and look in her ear. We needed multiple people who knew what they’re doing. So I asked “can I help you hold her?” she said sure. Dr Green asked me “are you completely at your wits end with this dog?” As soon as Zelda saw it was me her little tiny ears perked up and she had this look on her face that can’t be explained as anything except relief. It lasted a split second and then it was gone when she realized I wasn’t there to rescue her I was there to hold her through the torment. At one point Zelda reached her nose to my cheek and I looked at her and asked “what are you doing?”. Dr Green asked me “will she bite you?” I said “well, I don’t know. I mean, she’s a dog. She could, but I don’t think she will”.

Dr Green did muzzle Zelda, and with my help she was able to quickly clean out Zelda’s ears. She had already done her vaccines and swabbed the ear but had not looked at it under the microscope yet. She had made a comment to me that she’d seen dogs come in with RAGING ear infections that acted better than Zelda did when they tried to handle her. I was honestly pretty embarrassed about it. I apologized and admitted I hadn’t conditioned her as well as I should have. I kept thinking about what Dr Green had first said about being at my wits end with Zelda. I wasn’t even close to that. I adore Zelda and she’s honestly the best dog I’ve ever had (dare I say?). She is extremely well trained and behaves like a dream with my family (even the toddler who tries to step on her when she’s laying in her way). She is very faithful and an extremely sweet dog. She has her quirks and I believe that her litter wasn’t properly socialized during the first fear impact stage. I explained all of this to Dr Green. I tried to stress that Zelda is not a “bad dog”. I said she’s not aggressive, she’s just in pain and a bit on the dramatic side as well.

Dr Green looked at the ear contents under a microscope while I put Zelda’s usual leash back on her and gave her some well deserved treats and pets. She kept panting and panting. It was the most stressed out I have ever seen her. When Dr Green came back in the room I asked her for some water for Zelda. “I mean, we can try,” she said, “but most dog’s won’t drink here.” she put the water bowl down and Zelda lapped up nearly the whole bowl. In that moment I knew this whole experience didn’t sit right with me. I know my dog. I know she would have done better with me there holding her. She wouldn’t have been perfect, she wouldn’t have even been calm, but she wouldn’t have been as traumatized as she was.

The microscope didn’t really tell us much. Dr Green said there is mostly inflammation that’s the problem which could either be allergies or it could be something stuck in her ear. She prescribed Zelda steroids to help the swelling go down. She said she wasn’t even going to try to send me home with an ear solution because I wouldn’t be able to get it in there. Hopefully we could bring the inflammation down and it will sort itself out from there. If not, she has to come back to the clinic for a scope. Dr Green warned me she would need to be there a while because they’d need to sedate her. It’s a rigid scope and they can’t risk her thrashing about with it in her ear.

I asked for de-wormer for my cats, and Dr Green responded with a sigh and said, “if I can get someone to get it. Everyone’s busy with appointments.” to which I thought, I’m an appointment too.

I brought Zelda out to the car and told Dad I still needed to pay, but wanted to get Zelda out of there. When I open the lift gate on the car she is usually cautious and waits for me to tell her ‘allons-y!” (I’m sure any Doctor Who fans reading this will appreciate that). This time the gate was hardly halfway up and Zelda was already in there, ready to go. I went back inside and waited, and waited, and waited. By the time we got out of there, we had been 2 hours longer than I expected to be.

When I went home the whole thing just didn’t sit right with me. I looked at Zelda who slept the whole way home and then some, and I felt like I failed her. I failed to condition her to this sort of treatment but also I failed to advocate for her. I should have said something, I should have tried harder to go with her instead of just handing the leash over. I should have advocated for her. I lost sleep thinking about it all night. The next morning I sent my vet an email and explained all of these thoughts and feelings in the most respectful way I could manage. I told them I was disappointed and didn’t feel Zelda got the kind, patient treatment that I expected from them. All because of some left-over COVID rule. I explained it a lot nicer than that, I promise, but this was how I felt.

I was surprised when Dr Green phoned me back right away. I missed her call, I am terrible for not answering my phone as it’s always on silent and I was busy getting my eldest ready for school. Dr Green left a message and explained that she read my e-mail and she was disappointed to read it but glad I brought my concerns forward. She explained about her comment with the cat de-wormer and the reason I couldn’t go in with Zelda from the start was because they are absolutely so overwhelmed (which I made sure to mention in my e-mail that I understand that’s part of the problem). Too many people want to chat and visit while they’re there and it makes appointments go longer. She said since COVID their caseload has increased by 300%. She said the main reason they don’t let owners in is because people want to chat and visit and it just takes too long and they can’t get through all the patients if they do. Fair enough, I totally understand this. But I think Zelda ending up with just one person handling her while also administering the ear cleaner made the process a lot slower as well. If I was there sooner to help hold her, I truly feel it would have gone faster. As I said in my e-mail, admittedly, I didn’t know what happened before I walked in. Maybe they were all holding her for all I know, but I know what I saw when I came in. It wasn’t proper technique for a dog reacting the way she was. She needed it to be over as quickly as possible. Dr Green also explained that right before Zelda was a really flighty cat that was also a nightmare to deal with. She said once she understood the history I gave her she said she thinks Zelda actually did quite well, all things considered. This is also another point I have, with the owner there you can learn these things sooner. She was treating Zelda like she was a snarky aggressive dog. That’s just not Zelda, and I could have explained that from the start.

I totally get that Canadian vets are completely overworked now. This is a multi-tier problem. It is contributed by an increase in pets after 2020, but mainly it’s due to a lot of older vets retiring (baby boomers are all retiring now) and there’s not enough new vets taking their place. Vets in BC are now required to travel to vet livestock and this takes up a lot of time. There is also not a lot of options for vet schools in Canada and it’s a long, slow process for education. We are waiting for more vets to graduate. Vets are stretched thin and there’s just not enough of them to go around. I know this and I feel for them, but I also feel like it’s all the more reason to let me in with my dog. I don’t think every single vet case requires this, but the ones that do and say ahead of time “my dog/cat is dramatic and will require a muzzle or may be harder to handle” should be considered. Another pair of hands never hurts in these cases and you have the owner there to answer questions. I don’t expect to be involved in any complex procedures and I certainly don’t expect special treatment. I want all animals who require a little more handling to have this option. Tell the owners upfront that this isn’t a social call. I get it, I wanted to chat with Dr Green too, it’d been a long time since I’d seen her. But if they told me they don’t have time to chat, I’d respect that.

I tried to phone Dr Green back that morning she left a message, but she was already in surgery by then. I sent another email and said I understand their side, I just want to be able to come in with my animals when they need it, in the future. I hope we can reach a middle ground that benefits everyone, especially the animals.

I also told Dr Green that I’d work on conditioning Zelda, and that next time I need something extra I’ll try to make sure I ask them for it before the appointment.

I feel like with the right dialogue back and forth, we should be able to come to some sort of middle ground where everyone gets their needs met. It’s important to have these kinds of discussions. Too much these days people run to Facebook or other social media outlets to complain about businesses and a mob mentality grows. I don’t want that, which is why I’m not even going to name the vet clinic. I respect my vet, but I don’t respect policy that is blindly followed when it doesn’t fit all scenarios.