Taking a photo to the vet

Tiddlywinks

pawsies wrote: »

Please quote some current research in future.

Are you denying dogs are pack animals?

Are you disputing that dogs should see their owners as the pack leaders?

I think your angst is making it appear worse to your dog - you are probably sending out vibes (remember the smell of fear?) that are making the dog nervous from the off.

I think you need to go to a dog behaviour expert that will work with both your dog and yourselves as well... this whole thread has shown how emotional and arrested from taking action you were when your dog needed you to be decisive and firm.

krlyr

The pack theory was based on incorrect studies on wolves in an artificial environment. David Mech, the biologist who did these studies himselves, later corrected his views.
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/why-wont-dominance-die

A dog is scared because something is making it scared. To insinuate it's becauses of the owner is like saying a child is scared of monsters under the bed because their parents aren't authoritive enough.

Dealing with the cause of a dog's fear, as OP is doing by gradually desensitizing their dog to the vet, is far better than flooding them with the trigger for their fear and expecting them to just 'get over it'. You wouldn't put someone with arachnophobia in a room full of tarantulas and expect them to come out cured, or make someone with a fear of heights stand at the top of the Eiffel Tower until they were no longer scared.

Changing a dog's emotional response by exposing them to the stimulus below threshold, on a repeated basis, is far more effective. Like giving someone a bar of chocolate or a fiver every time they saw a spider on the other side of the room, then ten pounds if it was a metre nearer, and so on. Soon, that person will start hoping there's a spider - because they want their chocolate/money! Ditto with the dogs, if the V-E-T predicts F-O-O-D, their emotional response gradually becomes one of hope and excitement, rather than fear.

Yes, unfortunately life gets in the way and a dog gets sick before it's completely conditioned to liking the vet, but IMO this is where sedation or other options should be explored. It's not just a little bit of stress for some dogs - mine are OK with vets but one, for example, has such a severe fear of dogs that he's literally had a meltdown and collapsed behind me when faced with a Jack Russell. He's a 40kg German Shepherd, well capable of taking out said dog with a munch if he wanted, but his fear is so crippling when exposed to another dog at that level (Jack Russell was off-lead and owners failing to grab him as he ran circles around us) he couldn't even manage his usual coping strategy of gobbing off to try to look scary. Think phobia, not fear, because for many dogs it is more extreme than being a bit unhappy at the vets.


OP, there are certainly some more cooperative and considerate vets around, I would begin searching now in the hopes that you'll locate one before you actually need to use them. It may mean a bit more travelling - but as you have two locally you could use in an emergency, you may be happy to travel a bit further for the slightly more routine stuff, and work on her fear of vets. Like I said before, dog forums, Facebook groups, personal recommendations, contacting behaviourists and trainers, etc. may all be worthwhile - perhaps try some local groomers too as they may know their fair share of hand-shy dogs and be able to ask clients for recommendations

paddypaws101

Sorry to hear that you are no further on in solving the issue for the dog despite your best efforts.
I would recommend this stuff
http://colloidalsilveruk.com/
You could soak a cotton wool pad and then use it wipe and sooth the area as much as you can reach it. It is effective and also safe if the dog ingests it....in fact I would be adding it to the water bowl as well!

pawsies

Tiddlywinks wrote: »

Are you denying dogs are pack animals?

Are you disputing that dogs should see their owners as the pack leaders?

I think your angst is making it appear worse to your dog - you are probably sending out vibes (remember the smell of fear?) that are making the dog nervous from the off.

I think you need to go to a dog behaviour expert that will work with both your dog and yourselves as well... this whole thread has shown how emotional and arrested from taking action you were when your dog needed you to be decisive and firm.

All I can say is I am glad my dog is not with someone that believes in this tripe. Scientific evidence has disputed this theory and it is no longer advised. It would be so much more damaging to my dog.

pawsies

paddypaws101 wrote: »

Sorry to hear that you are no further on in solving the issue for the dog despite your best efforts.
I would recommend this stuff
http://colloidalsilveruk.com/
You could soak a cotton wool pad and then use it wipe and sooth the area as much as you can reach it. It is effective and also safe if the dog ingests it....in fact I would be adding it to the water bowl as well!

Thanks, I've not seen that before but I will stick to what the vet advised first. Hopefully calamine lotion should do something and we will continue to wipe her after every wee. That should reduce the inflammation and hopefully we won't need to see the vet for a while

Gold_Dust_2

Aww, poor doggy! And poor you guys, having to wipe her everytime...yeeuch!

Hopefully all of your work trying to get her to adjust to the vet hasn't been in vain, and she'll associate her bad experience with the other practice.

pawsies

I think it's the smell of the disinfectant that sets her off. She reacts the same in every place even if we've not been there before.

She is running away from me today because she knows I will wipe her and that obviously hurts. Unfortunately there's not much I can do, she refuses to eat her kong, knows that biscuits = pain coming or that she gets one after and is attempting to stay far away.

I would love to choose a good vet somewhere but that means taking her in the car and she hates that too. She shows the same behaviours as she does in the vets.

Life is not dull at the moment.

lostinrates

pawsies wrote: »

I think it's the smell of the disinfectant that sets her off. She reacts the same in every place even if we've not been there before.

She is running away from me today because she knows I will wipe her and that obviously hurts. Unfortunately there's not much I can do, she refuses to eat her kong, knows that biscuits = pain coming or that she gets one after and is attempting to stay far away.

I would love to choose a good vet somewhere but that means taking her in the car and she hates that too. She shows the same behaviours as she does in the vets.

Life is not dull at the moment.

When big dog first arrived with me she HATED the car. Became a nervous wreck.

This was a problem as taking her anywhere depended on the car.

So......I fed her in the car. Every meal till she was running out and hopping in and stamping for her food. And happy with going round the block.


Then for a while she got a treat every journey (she is the only one of my dogs who is very food orientated, and she is also very responsive to DAP I have since found).


Now she just loves the car. The only problem I have is as a very space defensive dog anyway, and food pocessive, she has to have the boot to herself, that works fine for us, no one else would fit in there with her, but we chose a car that that configuration works best with, instead of putting the seats down and guarding of the area for them all as a whole.

GBNI

Botanica is brilliant at clearing up sore patches on skin, it's all natural as well. Try googling it.

krlyr

Then I would make your more immediate goal getting her happy in the car - there will be videos on Youtube that may help, but if she has several issues it may be worth getting a behaviourist to work with you.

Another thing, though difficult given the circumstances, is I would run a full MOT and blood panel to rule out a medical condition contributing to these behaviours. One of mine, for example, suffers anxiety as a side effect of her hypothyroidism, and as her thyroid got worse (prior to diagnosis), this anxiety began to spread - separation anxiety was the main issue but then she started to become reactive to dogs, then reactive to things like buggies, and so on - all things she'd previously been fine with. So a medical condition can have a big effect on behaviour, and without treating the condition you may have an uphill struggle fixing the behaviour.