Is there ever a place for punishment?

Something growing in popularity at the moment, is Fear Free Pets - which sees vet practices certified as having staff trained to minimise fear responses in pets: https://fearfreepets.com

I think it's great and hope more vets will get on board.

 

Well, she was using the example of nail clipping (not at all painful) and said that the option of nail clipping, engagement with the human, and treats should be better than just treats. I sort of sigh at that, and think *yes, in theory*. But my life, and vet visits, and so on, aren't in theory, are they?

I think she was also making the point that if you show a drug addict (a ball addict) drugs (a ball) and tell him is has to walk over hot coals to get it, he might very well do so. That doesn't make it a good thing to have done.

But that aside, like I say, I settled for getting a dog through two cruciate operations with horrible complications, being calm and still (apart from when he was under anaesthetic of course!), with his head on a towel looking at a bucket of sardines. And he still loves going to the vet's.

So I count myself up on the game....

 

Tomorrow, we will see how good Cooper's memory is. Tilly needs to see the Vet, and we will take Cooper and just weigh her, (If we can get her to go through the door). The kind of odd thing, is that Cooper is generally a bold confident dog, but she has a definite aversion to "tools" being used on her. She never minded being weighed, and was actually very good sitting quietly on the scale, so hopefully we can get her to walk into the clinic. We never had a problem at the vets, until they had to do a blood draw and she did not like the whole experience.