The focus of cooperative care is to help dogs tolerate physical manipulations and procedures more comfortably. It takes a holistic approach that is becoming more common in grooming and veterinary care.
Methods and techniques are based on positive reinforcement and the underlying philosophy that cooperation is MUCH better than coercion. We want our dogs to be willing partners in the care process. Cooperative care involves training an animal to not only tolerate handling and husbandry procedures, but to be an active, willing participant in these experiences.
Imagine being abducted by aliens (No, I’m not quite off my rocker….yet). You can’t understand what they are vocalizing, nor can they understand what you are saying. You are on a table, restrained, being prodded, probed and well, whatever you imagine. How do you feel – frightened, right? And how do you respond? Do you struggle? Do you start yelling?
Now imagine you are going to donate blood. You have an understanding of the process – as a child, you went with your Dad when he donated blood, so you saw everything that happened, and got orange juice and coffee cake with your Dad when it was done. You’ve been to the doctor’s office, and they gave you shots, and even had to draw blood from you for a test. They had “pretended” to draw blood from your teddy bear beforehand, so you weren’t very scared. It pinched a little when they put the needle in, but it wasn’t bad at all. And you got a cool hot pink bandage, and a Snickerdoodle when it was all done. Now when you go to donate blood, how do you feel – Like a hero, right !
Having that understanding and experience beforehand can be a huge help when it comes to that moment when a procedure needs to be done. Everyone deserves to feel safe, and if you don’t know what is happening when you are hurt and in pain already, you may feel terribly unsafe.
Tolerance of handling of all sorts is one goal. But we want to not only address current problems but avoid future ones by training in advance, practicing the procedures and routines commonly encountered beforehand. This allows the dog to have a better understanding of what is happening when the need arises, before they are in pain, anxious and there is a chaotic feel to what is going on around them.
Here's a little real life story to illustrate how important cooperative care is:
I started my Cooperative Care journey several years ago. One of the things I trained all four of my dogs for in advance was putting in eye drops. My youngest Shiloh has uveitis, and initially had to get eye drops six times a day. You can see in the attached video, he is thrilled to get his eye drops. Can you imagine if I had to hold him, hold his head, and fight to get the eyedrops in 6 times a day? He has had 3 eye exams so far, and they do everything from putting eye drops to stain the cornea, come in REAL close with a bright light to look into the eye, put papers under his eyelids to measure tear production, and my goodness, put a tonometer right ON HIS EYEBALL to measure pressure. If he wasn’t cooperative for this – we would have a really tough time with the exam, and diagnosis. And the vet would be in prime position to get bit. (https://youtu.be/2iSuhs9hMBY)
Training in advance may include use of preventative muzzling, putting in eye drops, brushing, trimming nails, brushing teeth, giving injections, taking temperatures and listening to heart/lungs, cleaning ears, taking blood, being handled and restrained by strangers, use of a ramp or stairs to get in and out of car. If you can think of a situation that might arise, then you can train in advance for it.
One of the concepts used is “Consent”, to allow the dog to perform a predetermined signal that they are comfortable proceeding, and then honoring that pact when the consent is withdrawn. For my dogs, it is usually a chin rest (chin resting in the palm of my hand). If they raise their head off my hand, that signals discomfort, and I stop doing whatever it is they are uncomfortable with.
Would you be interested in attending my Cooperative Care Class?
Here are some other places to help get you started.
Book ($14.95) Cooperative Care: 7 steps to stress free husbandry by Deb Jones
Cooperative Care with Deb Jones (FB page)
Fenzi online class (Runs in October):
Muzzle up project: https://muzzleupproject.com/
Nail maintenance for dogs:https://www.facebook.com/groups/nail.maintenance.for.dogs/
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