Given the amount of stuff I've had to get off Grey's fur this last few weeks an article by Kathy Sdao jumped out at me while I was looking through her site last week. It's nothing that I shouldn't really ought to have been doing or that other people haven't said to me. But sometimes it takes a prod to remind you to do the more boring things. But actually these things aren't boring, they can literally save you a load of stress for you and your dog. You need to be able to do things when you need to do them.
Kathy's approach comes from training zoo animals to assist in their general everyday care. Given Grey's problems with his teeth and his hairy muzzle that acts like a magnet to spikey sticky buds, it's a good idea to work on these things every day. She recommends leaving out nail clippers etc so that you are reminded to integrate them into your daily training sessions every single day. Jean Donaldson refers to a similar protocol in her excellent book called 'Mine!' on guarding (body, location, food etc).
Grey had become increasingly nervous the last few weeks around his muzzle because of the seed issue. I had a few incidents where I'd tried to take him somewhere where there aren't the bloody things and still he found them. I worked a few days of getting him to look at the nail scissors and work up to him targetting them with his nose. Got him used to the sound of them opening and closing. Eventually he was better around them. In the meantime I stopped pushing on the issue and left him covered in the stuff while they dried up a bit and I could gently comb through.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment