Why dogs hate vet visit?
Once in a while, we need to go to doctor's office. People can tell doctors how they feel, where it hurts, and we can describe about problems we have in detail. We can communicate with doctors well enough to get check out and get opinions about it.
When table is turned to dogs, they cannot describe how they feel,where it hurts etc with detail as much as we can about ourselves, and we speak to our vets on behalf of our beloved furry friends.
Imagine you are a dog, and your mom/dad brought you to unfamiliar place, and you will meet an unfamiliar people in white coat. Your nose might smell other dogs' fear, and other unfamiliar medicine smell, and you might detect nervousness from your mom/dad. Then, without much of interaction with people in white coat, this lady/guy would put you on the cold metal table and take your body temperature, examining your teeth,ears,eyes..and you might get blood drawn.. Since you do not know what is going on around you, you get nervous, and you might feel fear,and very uncomfortable. Far far away from fun pleasant experience in your mind.
Then, if you ride the car only to vet office, then, you would become allergic to car ride and try hard not to get on the car or already become nervous and drooling/vomiting in the car on the way to vet office.
Our stumpy little dog "Palette" enjoy car ride. As soon as she wears her doggy seat belt harness, she knows exactly what would happen next, and she would dash to the door to the garage and get so excited for the car ride. Once the door is opened, straight to the car door and wait for me to open the door for her. She is always be the first in line for the car ride.
I am ready for the ride,mom! -Palette
For Palette, car ride is not just to go to vet office. She sometimes comes to post office, pet supply stores, in laws-family's house etc.. and she gets very excited ,and she loves to hop out to go sniff around very quick and, she just cannot calm down.The car door opens, and she hops out very quickly and head to her favorite automatic door to the pet supply store and go see kitty first and then, go sniff kitty kibble aisle and she gets her tongue hanging out and brisk walk in the store.
We meet new dogs, new people and she enjoys that too and, she once was too busy to look where she was going, she hit her head onto Oops! station sign. For us, that place is her place and, I let her lead the way and we walk around every single ail and finally go knock the door of groomers place and get her paws fur trimmed etc. I think that taking her to many places are good for socialization and good idea to let her associate car with happy,fun thing not just not so fun vet visit only.
So, occasionally, when she find that she was brought to vet office, she might feel "Urgh-oh.." in mind, but she likes her current vet a lot. She gets a little whiny and seeks attention from us for petting when we are in the waiting room, but when vet comes into the room, our vet usually comes in with very happy voice and she never starts her routine check ups right away and always start with petting. She spend some time with just interaction with Palette, so I think that helps Palette calm down a little and not feeling so fearful about whole situation around her.
Previous vet was opposite to our current vet. He comes in, he might say "Hi" to Palette but he starts routine check ups right away without much of interaction with her and I could tell the difference between the previous vet and current one because Palette wanted to be away from the previous vet, and wanted to be so close to us, while with our current vet, she willingly trot to the current vet and sit around her and enjoy being pet when she hears her name is called in happy fun voice.
So, I personally feel that some dogs may fight so hard not to be touched/poked by vet, and many dog training TV program or training books suggests to touch paws, touch muzzle etc but before working on that small part, we should look at the big pictures.
For me, first thing to work on would be associating the car with happy fun places and never take your dogs for car ride only to the vet office. If they know car ride equal to unpleasant vet office, how cooperative they can be..
You can read on tips on getting dogs used to car ride in previous entry titled " Traveling with your dog "
Next thing I would work on would be to find the vet that takes time to interact with your dog before actual check ups. If I were a dog, and if I were put on cold metal table without much of greeting or getting to know the vet, I would be scared and would act out. When dogs get act out, often times, a couple of vet techs might join in and hold down the dog for vet to look at, or they might use muzzle. More unpleasant experience, more feeling allergic to the vet office if I were a dog. Dogs do not know vets are there to help them.
What I like about our current vet is that, not only she spends sometime petting her for first some minutes while she is listening to us what is going on with Palette, she talks to Palette and praise her in happy voice. And vet tech also pops in sometimes while we are waiting and pet her. I think that adds a lot to Palette's comfortable level around the vet or vet clinic.
Next thing would be getting your dogs used to be touched around their sensitive areas such as paws, mouth,ears etc.. When Palette was puppy, just like getting her used to be grooming routine,I worked hard on this a lot at home.
Many dogs love to be pet and, they feel relaxed when you are petting them.You too would feel calm, and relaxed when you are petting them. Whenever you are petting them, keep treats near you, and even if you had no reasons to exam / touch those sensitive areas, touch them short period of time (start with very very short second), praise them big, give them treats. Start with one touch one small lentil sized treats.
When I am petting her, I also pretended to look her teeth a second or two and praised her big and gave her treats. So, after 5 years living with me, she stays lie down on her side when I look her teeth, and she yawn, and careless about what I do. I do not look up her teeth as much as I used to, but I touch her muzzle occasionally. I brush Palette's teeth daily and she usually stay down position while I brush her teeth.
Just like letting your dogs get used to be handled their muzzle for brushing their teeth, I touched her paws a lot and praised her,gave her treats.
For paw, I just touched her paw a little and then,if she were okay,meaning if she did not pull her paw away from my approaching hand touch, I then started holding one paw one second and kept doing that over and over with lots of praise and lots of yummy treats.Then, one second hold were comfortable enough for Palette, I held her paw for a little longer and praised her and repeated over and over again.
As a puppy, I touched Palette's paws, muzzle, zillions of times.
Palette gets nervous if our vet try to look at wherever painful area if any, but other than that, she stays still and let our vet do her job and she is an easy dog to deal with.
Since our vet office is not within walking distance, I cannot do this but if our vet office was within walking distance, I would take Palette for walk and make sure to include the vet office building, and let the building be familiar place and I would give treats every time we would walk in front of the building.
Also, bringing your dogs' favorite treats to vet office would help, too. Palette spits out treats from pet supply store or vet office and we take our own to the vet office. Sometimes treats are good to distract your dogs while the vet is trying to check them.
What do you do for your dogs to get used to the vet office visit?
When table is turned to dogs, they cannot describe how they feel,where it hurts etc with detail as much as we can about ourselves, and we speak to our vets on behalf of our beloved furry friends.
Imagine you are a dog, and your mom/dad brought you to unfamiliar place, and you will meet an unfamiliar people in white coat. Your nose might smell other dogs' fear, and other unfamiliar medicine smell, and you might detect nervousness from your mom/dad. Then, without much of interaction with people in white coat, this lady/guy would put you on the cold metal table and take your body temperature, examining your teeth,ears,eyes..and you might get blood drawn.. Since you do not know what is going on around you, you get nervous, and you might feel fear,and very uncomfortable. Far far away from fun pleasant experience in your mind.
Then, if you ride the car only to vet office, then, you would become allergic to car ride and try hard not to get on the car or already become nervous and drooling/vomiting in the car on the way to vet office.
Our stumpy little dog "Palette" enjoy car ride. As soon as she wears her doggy seat belt harness, she knows exactly what would happen next, and she would dash to the door to the garage and get so excited for the car ride. Once the door is opened, straight to the car door and wait for me to open the door for her. She is always be the first in line for the car ride.
I am ready for the ride,mom! -Palette
For Palette, car ride is not just to go to vet office. She sometimes comes to post office, pet supply stores, in laws-family's house etc.. and she gets very excited ,and she loves to hop out to go sniff around very quick and, she just cannot calm down.The car door opens, and she hops out very quickly and head to her favorite automatic door to the pet supply store and go see kitty first and then, go sniff kitty kibble aisle and she gets her tongue hanging out and brisk walk in the store.
We meet new dogs, new people and she enjoys that too and, she once was too busy to look where she was going, she hit her head onto Oops! station sign. For us, that place is her place and, I let her lead the way and we walk around every single ail and finally go knock the door of groomers place and get her paws fur trimmed etc. I think that taking her to many places are good for socialization and good idea to let her associate car with happy,fun thing not just not so fun vet visit only.
So, occasionally, when she find that she was brought to vet office, she might feel "Urgh-oh.." in mind, but she likes her current vet a lot. She gets a little whiny and seeks attention from us for petting when we are in the waiting room, but when vet comes into the room, our vet usually comes in with very happy voice and she never starts her routine check ups right away and always start with petting. She spend some time with just interaction with Palette, so I think that helps Palette calm down a little and not feeling so fearful about whole situation around her.
Previous vet was opposite to our current vet. He comes in, he might say "Hi" to Palette but he starts routine check ups right away without much of interaction with her and I could tell the difference between the previous vet and current one because Palette wanted to be away from the previous vet, and wanted to be so close to us, while with our current vet, she willingly trot to the current vet and sit around her and enjoy being pet when she hears her name is called in happy fun voice.
So, I personally feel that some dogs may fight so hard not to be touched/poked by vet, and many dog training TV program or training books suggests to touch paws, touch muzzle etc but before working on that small part, we should look at the big pictures.
For me, first thing to work on would be associating the car with happy fun places and never take your dogs for car ride only to the vet office. If they know car ride equal to unpleasant vet office, how cooperative they can be..
You can read on tips on getting dogs used to car ride in previous entry titled " Traveling with your dog "
Next thing I would work on would be to find the vet that takes time to interact with your dog before actual check ups. If I were a dog, and if I were put on cold metal table without much of greeting or getting to know the vet, I would be scared and would act out. When dogs get act out, often times, a couple of vet techs might join in and hold down the dog for vet to look at, or they might use muzzle. More unpleasant experience, more feeling allergic to the vet office if I were a dog. Dogs do not know vets are there to help them.
What I like about our current vet is that, not only she spends sometime petting her for first some minutes while she is listening to us what is going on with Palette, she talks to Palette and praise her in happy voice. And vet tech also pops in sometimes while we are waiting and pet her. I think that adds a lot to Palette's comfortable level around the vet or vet clinic.
Next thing would be getting your dogs used to be touched around their sensitive areas such as paws, mouth,ears etc.. When Palette was puppy, just like getting her used to be grooming routine,I worked hard on this a lot at home.
Many dogs love to be pet and, they feel relaxed when you are petting them.You too would feel calm, and relaxed when you are petting them. Whenever you are petting them, keep treats near you, and even if you had no reasons to exam / touch those sensitive areas, touch them short period of time (start with very very short second), praise them big, give them treats. Start with one touch one small lentil sized treats.
When I am petting her, I also pretended to look her teeth a second or two and praised her big and gave her treats. So, after 5 years living with me, she stays lie down on her side when I look her teeth, and she yawn, and careless about what I do. I do not look up her teeth as much as I used to, but I touch her muzzle occasionally. I brush Palette's teeth daily and she usually stay down position while I brush her teeth.
Just like letting your dogs get used to be handled their muzzle for brushing their teeth, I touched her paws a lot and praised her,gave her treats.
For paw, I just touched her paw a little and then,if she were okay,meaning if she did not pull her paw away from my approaching hand touch, I then started holding one paw one second and kept doing that over and over with lots of praise and lots of yummy treats.Then, one second hold were comfortable enough for Palette, I held her paw for a little longer and praised her and repeated over and over again.
As a puppy, I touched Palette's paws, muzzle, zillions of times.
Palette gets nervous if our vet try to look at wherever painful area if any, but other than that, she stays still and let our vet do her job and she is an easy dog to deal with.
Since our vet office is not within walking distance, I cannot do this but if our vet office was within walking distance, I would take Palette for walk and make sure to include the vet office building, and let the building be familiar place and I would give treats every time we would walk in front of the building.
Also, bringing your dogs' favorite treats to vet office would help, too. Palette spits out treats from pet supply store or vet office and we take our own to the vet office. Sometimes treats are good to distract your dogs while the vet is trying to check them.
What do you do for your dogs to get used to the vet office visit?
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