What's the best trick you can teach your dog?

Have had to start thinking again about improving Grey's grooming and handling stress. He recently had a flare up of the skin infection on his tummy and this then was coupled, as last time, with problems with his anal glands. So the tell tale fishy smell and him twisting round to smell his own bum and then either a sit down or a run away from himself, both with a worried look on his face. Since this started flaring up last summer, he's become a lot more stressed at the vets. So he now won't let the vet touch his back side. This has also meant him being stressed about the vets in general and procedures that he was previously fine about, like vaccinations, he now isn't.

I've started a programme of home training on general husbandry. It's something I wish I'd done a lot more of when he was little. But seeing as I can't turn the clock back, I'll start from where we are now and move forwards. These simple things will make a positive impact on our life and possibly could save it in the future. I've posted about this before, citing the US trainer, Kathy Sadao, with her experiences from working in a zoo environment. Most of the training they do in zoos on a day to day basis is husbandry. She asks why do many people use coercive methods (restraints and force) to groom their dogs. The answer quite simply is because they can. But this simply wouldn't work for a killer whale or elephant. So training plans have to be thought out.

I'm notoriously bad at finishing things that I start. This is the reason that Grey doesn't have a range of tricks he knows. But no matter. What does matter is that he won't keep still to be examined, won't let his anal glands be emptied and won't let his nails be clipped.

So yesterday, we started training on the anal gland task and the front paw handling.

Day 1:

I got the duvet out and we both sat on it. We had a session where he was lying across my legs and relaxing and he would let me touch him all over, including his bum and under the tail. I can touch his legs and take hold of his paws.

Day 2:

I got out a vet bed mat which is a cue for training and for him to sit or lie on it. He was in a sit and I'm in front of him sitting cross legged. I worked being able to hold his front legs and down to his paw. Take his paw and gently squeeze the pads. Developed into him presenting his paw into my hand and then with the addition of a pad squeeze.