Cooperative care for puppies - where do I start?
As time passes by and we learn more about dogs and their cognitive abilities, we are seeing practices start to shift. As a result, we are starting to see the “get it done” mentality being questioned (and abandoned), being replaced by “cooperative care” practices instead.
Cooperative care is where the animal is given a choice as to whether or not they want to participate in the handling or procedure being done to them. The idea is that, when we give our dogs agency, they are more comfortable and secure with the care and we are able to reduce the fear, stress, and anxiety that might previously have been associated with it. You can learn more about cooperative care in this post.
Why is cooperative care important?
A common pushback I get is that “if it ain’t broke, why fix it?” We’ve been making our dogs tolerate veterinary care for years and years, why bother giving them a choice now?
The problem with this system is that it is broken, and it does need fixing.
Stripping our dogs of freewill and expecting them to “deal with” things that scare them is no longer necessary, nor is it the best way to accomplish proper medical care. Dogs are sentient beings, and it is not appropriate to sacrifice their mental well-being for the sake of their physical heath.
It is important to find a way to not only meet our dog’s physical health needs, but do so in a way that they feel safe, comfortable, and secure throughout. That’s where cooperative care training comes into play. Through gradual training, we can teach our dogs to be comfortable with routine handling, examinations, and procedures, including painful ones like injections.
When we offer our dog agency over their body, we are observing less fear, stress, and anxiety overall, and experiencing animals who more willingly volunteer for medical procedures, thus making it easier and quicker to accomplish their health care.
When should I start cooperative care training?
When it comes to preventative training, the sooner the better. I encourage new puppy guardians to incorporate body handlings and veterinary victory visits into their early socialization efforts, and would go as far as prioritizing this over basic obedience training (you can teach your dog “sit” at any age.)
Training should be started at a level where your puppy is comfortable with, and you should only progress when they are eager and appear ready for more. This might mean that your initial training steps are “hands off” until your puppy is ready for physical contact; that’s OK! Pushing a puppy to tolerate more than they are ready for can create negative association with the handling you are doing, and can teach your dog to be wary or even frightened of your hands or equipment.
In our puppy preschool classes (we have an online version too), we go over gradual training plans to help your puppy learn to be comfortable with handling and to create positive associations with various veterinary and grooming tools, to make future vet visits a breeze.
Where do I start?
With any new training, I always recommend starting your training in the comfort of your own home. This is somewhere your puppy likely feels secure and safe, which will set up the environment best to support their learning.
In conjunction with your training at home, vet victory visits are a great way to teach your puppy that the vet clinic (and everything in it) is safe, and enjoyable. Having a dog who is eager to go into the vet clinic, onto the scale, and into the examination room, will make veterinary visits that much smoother moving forward.
When your puppy is happy to be handled, examined and with various equipment at home, you can start to take this cooperative care show at the road by transitioning your training to the vet clinic.
Thanks to your victory visits, your puppy should be quite comfortable in this location, so we’re just teaching them that the skills learned at home apply to this location as well.
When we move training from home to a new environment, we’re going to scale back to the early training steps to ensure our dog is successful and comfortable with the environmental distractions and stressors that are present.
Again, we are working at our puppy’s pace and letting them guide the progression of the training plan.
What if my puppy doesn’t like husbandry care?
If you are noticing signs of fear or discomfort with body handling, at the vet clinic, or with any equipment (the nail clippers, for example), stop your training and seek the advice of a qualified dog trainer. It will be important to determine what the puppy is worried about, rule out any health issues (if your puppy is not feeling good or experience pain this can be responsible for avoiding handling), and to curate a training plan that works to build your puppy’s confidence.
Continuing to use a tool or perform handling exercises that your dog is clearly unhappy about is not going to teach your puppy to “get used” to these activities, but it can teach your puppy that body handling is scary, and can even erode your puppy’s trust in you.
Don’t wait to seek help if you are noticing signs of fear or aggression during husbandry training or at the vet clinic. These are issues that rarely ever resolve on their own, but can become exponentially worse, making veterinary care challenging and stressful for all parties involved. Early, positive intervention can help your dog overcome their fears, and learn to be comfortable and accepting of husbandry care moving forward.
Veterinary care is going to be part of your dog’s life to some extent. Teaching your dog to be comfortable and cooperative during vet examinations will not only reduce your dog’s fear, anxiety, and stress, but will make visits easier and less stressful for you as well. Early preventative training is vitally important to ensure your dog does not develop aversions or fear of husbandry care or the vet clinic.
Stay awesome.
Vanessa
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Vanessa Charbonneau, is the author of Dog Care for Puppies: A guide to Feeding, Playing, Grooming and Behavior. She owns Sit Pretty Behavior & Training, employing force-free training techniques, and specializing in working with fearful, aggressive, and reactive dogs. Charbonneau lives in Prince George, BC with her husband, two daughters, and one dog.