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Update: Cooperative Care Great Pyrenees Edition!
I wanted to share my pal Bigbee’s continued success with his cooperative care training! Here he is meeting his new vet for the first time. Luckily, she’s a friend of mine, so we had the luxury of bringing her along to an in-home training session for a meet and greet! Bigbee has a history of very painful ear infections and would run away from his owners (and especially the vet) when they tried to even look at his ears. He is now letting his mom give full ear cleanings at home, and when he met Dr. Sam (pictured) he allowed us to look at his ears, mime giving shots, listen to his heart, and do an overall exam! GOOD BOY, BIGBEE!
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17 Replies
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Way to go Bigbee! What an accomplishment for you all!! This makes my heart happy!!
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This is phenomenal! ???? Did I miss a post about your steps for this? Can you link it here… or share some more details? How did you get to this? Would love to know the rest of the story if you have the time…
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Hi Catherine! We started by getting him used to a mat specific to veterinary care training. We built value for the mat; he only got marked and rewarded when lying down on the mat. When he left the mat, no rewards. Then we started adding in his allowing touch while he relaxed on the mat and getting him to move body parts toward us to solicit touch. Either of those options got a click and a treat. If Bigs was uncomfortable with something, he’d leave the mat and we’d agree to stop. Once he came back, big rewards and restart touch at his pace. We got him comfortable with different tools like stethoscopes, otoscope, nail trimmers, gauze, ear swabs, capped needles…all while on the mat. Slowly added interaction with the items for a click/treat. We added in a chin rest behavior to make it less intimidating to have his ears examined because we noticed that the act of moving all around his head was unsettling for him. So when his head is on a lap or his tiny pillow, we can examine his ears. Again, if at any point he becomes nervous and leaves the mat, we agree to stop what we are doing. His mom is now able to clean his ears fully with standard over the counter cleaner- this used to send him climbing over the furniture! We are now in the stage where we are counter conditioning his response to the smell of his medicated ear cleaner (just the sight of the bottle or smell of the liquid on a cloth would send him running in the past). He’s doing great. Mom sent me this photo of him investigating the bottle last night ❤️
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This is so inspiring! Thank you for sharing these details… It would be not only difficult to “restrain” a huge boy like that, but by giving him autonomy and CHOICE, you have empowered him to participate in his own care and improved the relationships between him and his caregivers. So lovely. Keep up the great work, and please share his progress… if you can snatch some video, I’m sure it would really help people see how small steps can add up to big progress!
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I will absolutely share video when I can! You are right – restraining him was not an option. He apparently used to toss his previous vet all over the room out of fear, and it only got worse when all the techs piled on top of him to hold him in place. Giving animals choice is so important and close to my heart due to my experience as a vet tech. I am thinking I might make cooperative care my training specialty. ❤
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100% agree this is a needed specialty and you will attract THE BEST clients! LOVE IT!
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@LisaOMy : WTG!!! Proud of your accomplishments as a trainer/coach for this lovely big guy!!! As a former owner of a male Berner, you are not kidding that the sight of smell of the bottle of cleaner can send them running! Brava, Lisa! Bravissimo to Biggsby!
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He is lovely indeed! Such a handsome gentle giant 🙂
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What a fantastic success story, @LisaOMy !! ????
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Amazing story!
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@pawsup @catherine @bernerlabreclectus @virginiad – thank you all for your kind words and encouragement! I love how supportive everyone here is and how we all “get” how exciting these stories of training progress are. I also wanted to mention that a HUGE part of Bigbee’s success is his “pawrents”. They are so incredibly dedicated and take his and his sister Pearl’s well-being very seriously. They follow through on sessions and continue practicing like rock stars! ????
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Aww yay! Congratulations @LisaOMy and Bigbee! ????
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I totally agree with all the comments! I really love your approach with the mat and him choosing what he would like to do. There are so many other grooming/ handling applications this could be applied to. Loved the story and am so excited for the big guy????❤️
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Thank you so much! We had an ear scratchies session after training today ❤️
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Okay – this wins all the things. Well done. Love those happy smiles on both of you!
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Look at that smile ????❤️
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Love that he still loves his ears scratched, even with all the attention to cleaning them. Biggsby sounds like the best boy. Kudos to the owners being so proactive to having you coach them through this difficult, yet necessary training situation. Hooray for you, @LisaOMy ! Gotta be a great feeling.
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