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Care with consent/cooperative care
I am really interested in learning this practice. I read the book Cooperative Care but it still left me with many questions. Does anyone have any good free online resources for understanding how to train this concept? Or just to help me understand this process better? Thank you!
Anna
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19 Replies
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Hi Anna!
What questions do you have? Let’s see if we can help you sort this out, right here in DD.
Caring for out dogs should be easy and fun for them. We have a Health and Handling channel and have done series’ on Chin Rest and Nail Trims, so that may be a good place to start. If you have specific questions for implementing these techniques with your dogs, let’s hear them!
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Hi @AnnaBee ,
I’m not exactly sure where you have questions, but thought I’d post a video (sorry it’s a link, but DD wasn’t letting me load the video in here directly for some reason) of some early work I did with my own dog, Bond. He had lots of body handling issues, enough to make vet care difficult — no biting, but squirming so hard that even simple tasks couldn’t be accomplished.
His cooperative care training took quite a bit of time, but he was amazing at his last vet visit, so all the effort of incrementally exposing him to more intense handling was so worthwhile.
When I share training advice on handling with clients, the biggest roadblock to success is when they make the steps too big and the dog is not actually relaxing.
The video clip can be viewed here.
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I love the video, @virginiad . It is really cool how Bond stays “opted in”. You’ve done amazing work with him! I know you’re a long-time trainer, but positive reinforcement is still good for you to hear, right?! ????. Very inspirational, especially hearing how he used to have severe handling issues.
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Thank you for your kind words, @bernerlabreclectus ! ☺
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I read a really good book on Cooperative Care- its called Cooperative Care Seven Steps to Stress Free Husbandry by Deborah Jones. Hope that can help a bit:)
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Thank you all so much! I’m gonna check out all these resources and get back to you. I think despite reading Deborah Jones’ book, I was a bit confused on the process. I started experimenting w my dog 2 nights ago and I think we are getting the hang of it. I was mostly confused-do I reward when they “opt out” too? From further research it seems like people have different approaches to that. What do you all do?
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To me, the ‘opt-out’ is a reward in itself, i.e., there’s a relief from pressure.
Rather than rewarding/treating for an opt-out, I would lean towards breaking down my training steps a bit smaller so the dog doesn’t feel the need to opt out. ????-
@virginiad Oh I love how you said that- The reward is the Opt out!!
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I’m sure the proponents of rewarding the opt-out in more concrete ways have very good reasons for doing so. I’m just not up to speed on that option.
Would be interesting if you could try each way with a dog(s) and see which idea you prefer in the end.
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It’s fun to noodle this…
I wonder if the reward-the-opt-out is similar to Treat-Retreat?
In any case, you can’t go wrong with rewarding both the opt-in and the opt-out, in my opinion. Yes, there’s an intrinsic (escape) reward for the opt-out, but one could argue that a dog might be lured in by the food (opt in) and not be fully game about the whole idea. Whereas if they’re getting paid for both at some level, even discriminately higher for opt-in, but still some food for opt-out… well, I don’t know! haha. But it’s fun to noodle.
I’d have to get my hands on some dogs and give both a whirl to really form an opinion.
shyandfearfuldogs.com
How To Help a Shy and Fearful Dog Choose To Move Closer To You
The goal of Treat and Retreat is to get the dog to become comfortable enough to VOLUNTARILY move closer to you, at her own pace. It may take one session for your dog to want to get close enough to … Continue reading
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Ooooh, good thought about risking that the dog is being lured (without full enthusiasm) in to the cooperative care in anticipation of the treat.
It’s a good idea to video your handling sessions with your dog as it may reveal some hesitancy or shift in tail height or other body language signals that indicate the dog is conflicted about the handling — stuff you might not pick up when working live with the dog.
I think, if the training steps are properly small enough for the dog, you’ll see him surging eagerly back into the handling game after the last treat. If he’s not doing that, the step may be a bit too big.
But, as I noodle more (love that use of the word @catherine ) if a dog has a mighty time even getting started on a teeny step, then perhaps rewarding for opting out may help to get a fun rhythm going.
When I was training Bond, he didn’t opt out much. If he did it a couple of times I’d immediately adjust the training step so he didn’t feel that conflict.
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100% agree with videoing sessions!! It’s really the best way to assess what’s happening. We simply can’t see it all in real time.
Good boy Bond, and great training, @virginiad Lucky boy.
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@AnnaBee , I just thought of something else. When you’re working on handling, don’t work in a strictly linear fashion, i.e., from easy to harder to harder. Regularly sprinkle in “easy wins” (doing handling the dog is perfectly fine with) to lighten things up.
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Thank you everyone!!! Really helpful feedback. It’s been fun to work on w my guys:)
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“Sprinkling in easy wins” – love this concept @virginiad !
Alexandra Kurland (reknowned clicker trainer) calls it “Loopy Training” – do the hard thing, get to do the easy thing, which is a little bit “Premack” as well, amiright?
The more we chat about this stuff, the more we can see these concepts coming up in different ways.
Essentially, all learners like success, and it’s our job as teachers to make sure they have a lot of it.
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Deb Jones also has a web site with lots of free resources. I can’t remember the name…
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I just wanted to give you all an update that the cooperative care training is going great! Baby bear enjoy this training so much that he has actually generalized his opt in behavior (a chin rest) and now does it at other times on other surfaces when he wants to be pet ???????? it’s rediculously cute
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Oh my goodness, @AnnaBee , what a fabulous update and such a great job you’ve done!
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What an amazing update! Good work! I think it is so sweet that he is now using it for pets:)
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