To get to work with a dog and family who are actually invested in each other. I picked up a new client this week, and wow, what a nice dog. Nice people. Just an all around lovely experience. Young male Rhodesian Ridgeback, not a breed I’d generally expect to be sweet, but this dog is a doll. He needs a little work on his boundaries, but he knows he is loved, and any little quirks he has are simply little blips in communication that need to be ironed out.
It’s amazing how refreshing it is to meet a dog who has been well socialized, likes people, isn’t afraid, enjoys other dogs, and is eager to work with you to learn new things. So here are some things we are working on that may help you too. After a particularly bad ear infection, he hates to have his ears touched, would probably rather be boiled in oil than have meds put in his ears. So, working very slowly with lots of treats, we are working on desensitizing him to having his ears, and just for fun, his feet handled.
First, pick a marker word like “yes” or teach your dog what a clicker is. We’ve chosen to go with “yes” in this instance simply from a mechanical standpoint – it’s just hard to touch an ear, click, find a treat, etc. Start on the outside of the ear flaps, just a simple, quick touch, the word “yes” for tolerating it, and a treat. We will work a little bit each day, going slowly from a touch on the outside of the ear, picking up the ear, a finger touch on the inside of the ear, and then work towards being able to gently touch a q-tip inside his ear. From there we will pair the “yes” and treat with him holding still, and tolerating someone holding his ear and looking in, messing around a bit. This may take weeks, patience is the key when a dog had been traumatized by something like this. Before long though, he will be looking forward to his daily session of “ear work” because he’ll be getting lots of treats and praise instead of daily medication. In any dog, it is important that they be comfortable with medical procedures and you handling and touching them all over. It just makes life so much easier.
We will do the same routines with his feet – one touch, yes and treat, pick up a toe, yes and treat, touch a nail with your hand, yes and treat, eventually touch his feet with nail trimmers – just touch – yes and treat. Work towards being able to clip just one nail – yes and treat – big party if this was managed without a fuss – AND THEN BE DONE! As humans we always want to push it a little too far, and the dog ends up uncomfortable and hating the whole process. Just get one good response, and quit for the day. Work a little bit each day, just two or three minutes, and you can change how your dog feels about having their ears, feet, or any other “touchy” part handled. It’s worth it to put the work in now rather than waiting until your dog has a hurt foot or an ear infection to work on this stuff. Because then, it hurts, and all the training in the world is not going to make it fun.
Teach your dog to enjoy, or at least tolerate, being touched all over, handled, and lightly restrained, BEFORE you need them to put up with it.
I feel that teaching a dog to tolerate any sort of handling is just as important as teaching obedience. Rarely have I met a dog that has never needed any medical care. If a dog is accustomed to being restrained, holding still, and being up on tables and such – it really takes the stress level at the vet’s office way down. My dogs are all familiar with strangers handling them, being held for exams, and just generally being poked and prodded at – this means that for them, going to the doctor is pretty easy and stress free. Don’t you owe it to your dog to do that for them?
Posted on March 10th, 2008 by michelle
Filed under: Not my dogs, Training
Huray for the people who want to help their RR work through this. RR’s as a rule hate their feet touched so desensitizing them to this is very important if you ever want to clip their nails:) It’s best to start early, but when we have an older dog it must be done slowly. I’ve had RR:s for 26 years and currently have 2 RR’s adotped as adults. I’ve never had much luck with the conventional nail clippers as RR”s nails are so thick and it actually seems to hurt them. I like using a Dremel. Yikes! I started very slowly. First showing them the tool, treat. Laying the tool next to their food bowl when they ate. Turn it on, treat. Touch one nail, treat. This went on for a week. Then I moved on to turn in on, treat, very lightly touch one nail, treat, big praise. Over a 2 week period we did this 3 times a day. Eventually we worked up to doing all nails. When I am done their nails, they get a Kong with Peanut Butter in it. It has been a year now and they both get excited when I bring the Dremel out., They actually race to be the first one to get their nails done since they know what is coming at the end. I am able to do all their nailes in 10 minutes with both of then just calmly laying their. After each nail, a soft belly rub is given. Patience pays off and go very slowly. Don’t rush into doing them all. One a day at first. It pays off.
As for the ears, the treats and praise will work the same way. Going slowly is the key. If you rush the process they will balk. Eventually, they will realize that it doesn’t hurt and actually feels good. My female likes nothing better than a finger in her ear and a nice massage.
RR’s are very smart and get bored easily so any training or desensitizing sessions need to be short and broken up over a few times a day. If you try to train for too long of a period, they get bored. Keep them short with lots of praise and they will learn anything.