What is cooperative care?
It’s common knowledge that dog guardianship comes with responsibility. We need to keep our dog feed, watered, exercised, and healthy, which will include routine veterinary visits and procedures. Unfortunately, it’s also quite common for dogs to find the vet, and everything involved with visits here, to be stressful and often downright frightening.
Previously, we’ve been taught to embrace a “get it done” attitude when it comes to animal health care. “My dog needs XYZ, so let’s just get it over with.”
While I appreciate that routine vet care in a timely fashion is important for our pets’, this approach comes at a cost; primarily due to the fact that this perspective is devoid of appreciation, empathy for our dog’s emotional well being, and fails to offer them any say in the matter.
Fortunately, the times are changing, and we are becoming more understanding of the fact that our dogs’ are sentient beings who have valid feelings and deserve agency as to what happens to them. As a result, many veterinary clinics and dog guardians are starting to embrace a more cooperative approach to veterinary and husbandry care.
What is cooperative care?
Cooperative care is where the dog is allowed to choose whether or not they want to participate in the handling or procedure being done to them. It involves training an animal not just to tolerate a variety of handling and husbandry procedures, but to be a willing party for them.
Most importantly, cooperative care always involve choice, consent, and two-way communication between the handler and the animal.
Cooperative care is a way for us to reduce the amount of restraint required to perform routine health care, and has proven to reduce the animal’s fear, stress, and anxiety during these necessary procedures, allowing us to more safely and efficiently provide our pets with health care.
Offering our dog’s a choice and control over what is happening to them is advantageous and empowering to them.
This is generally the part where folks will scoff and tell me “if I gave my dog a choice, nothing will ever get done.” I felt the same way too; until I gave this whole ‘cooperative’ approach a try.
When we give our dog a sense of control over what is happening to their body, this builds self-confidence. When our dog is confident, this is going to result in increased comfortability and more patience for handling. Our dog will go from simply tolerating procedures, to relaxing and even enjoying them.
Through cooperative care training, I went from physically restraining and muzzling my dog for his monthly joint injections, to a dog who will happily volunteer to receive this needle poke. You can see for yourself on my Instagram page!
What does cooperative care involve?
When introducing a novel training concept like this, I always recommend starting somewhere your dog is comfortable that contains minimal distractions. For most, this means staring training at home.
Some of the basic skills to cover during early cooperative care training are:
familiarizing your dog with common tools and objects involved in their care (nail clippers, ear cleaning supplies, veterinary tools such as stethoscopes, etc.)
teaching your dog a station and “start button” behavior that communicates when they are giving permission for you to start the handling.
teaching your dog how to “opt out” of care (this is going to be your cue to stop/withdraw handling.)
It’s important that the dog feels comfortable with the handling and tools involved in their care in order for them to choose to participate in it.
Cooperative care is going to be a multi-layered approach of building confidence with the procedure, teaching the behaviors and positions required for that care, and then teaching our dog how they can communicate when they are ready for that care to commence. We will not be able to successfully utilize cooperative care without each of these parts being involved.
Our main goal at all times during care is that the dog is comfortable and consenting - whether that be a basic physical examination or for an injection.
Ways to utilize cooperative care at home:
Cooperative care is not just useful in the veterinary clinic setting; it can be used regularly at home in preventative husbandry care including:
nail trimming
brushing/grooming
checking your dog for wounds or injuries
stretching, physical therapy, and fitness training
putting on your dog’s harness, leash, muzzle, or other equipment
teeth brushing
eye and ear care and/or medicating
Having a dog who is trained to participate in the above listed procedures will make it easier to complete these tasks and, let’s be honest, if we can trim our dog’s nails without it feeling like we are taking part in a WWE match, we are going to be more likely to do so on a regular basis.
When at the vet, we can utilize cooperative care to reduce the time required to complete a thorough physical examination, and for routine treatments such as deworming, vaccinations, radiographs, and more.
Routine husbandry and veterinary care is going to be involved in your dog’s life, so why not take the stress and hassle out of this care through proactive, humane training.
I cannot wait to share more “how to” tips on introducing and incorporating this training into your dog’s life to make their care smooth sailing!
Stay awesome,
Vanessa
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 to work with companion dogs and their owners. Charbonneau lives in Prince George, BC with her husband, two daughters, and one dog.