Hi All,

Now I know this may seems like a 'health' question, but it's more the behaviour part of it that I need advice on.

I took pupster to the vets last night to get his skin checked and whilst I was there I also asked them to check his ears as he's been scratching and shaking his head. I feared he had ear mites again. Which he does :-(

Whilst the vet was checking his ears he was a little fretful and wriggly, but nothing too major. For some reason the vet (not seen this one before) insisted on me 'having a look' and called in a nurse to hold Boomer while I had a look. Well this was all too much for my little man. He then started to get very upset and tried to bite the vet's nurse. Not in a 'bite to hurt' kind of way, more in a play biting style, but he wasn't playing he was protesting about having this thing stuck in his ear AGAIN!! Then the vet put a muzzle on him and insisted on continuing to look in his ears until he calmed down to make sure Boomer knew that he was not going to win this battle. He eventually calmed down and the vet cleaned his ears and put the drops in. After a lot of blood, sweat and tears from all of us the job was done.

I was a little cross as the vet should have just got on with it and got the cleaning over and done with, as then there wouldn't have been so much fuss.

Anyway, I now face the issue of cleaning his ears for the next 3-5 days and administering the drops. I have cleaned his ears before, and he's wriggled a bit but it was fine. But what worries me is, after last night he is not going to let me anywhere near his ears and I'm not going to be able to clean them properly. Putting the drops in is no big deal as that can be done very quickly whilst he's being distracted, but the cleaning needs to be more thorough and I need him fairly still so I can do it properly and without hurting him.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best handle this? Is there a clever way of getting a 6 month old puppy to lie still whilst having his ears cleaned?

I have my Son to help, but to be honest he's not a great assistant and can't really hold him still enough. I did think of doing it the other way around me holding onto Boomer whilst he does the cleaning, but then I'm worried it won't get done properly and may compound the ear mite problem.

Help!!

(oh the pink patches on his skin are nothing to worry about by the way, vet says they'll clear up on their own when he stops moulting).

I should wait untill he is sleepy and them just fuss him and smooth him and gradually try, give him a little treat as wel, maybe hold it in front of his nose to keep his attention on the treat as you gently clean round his ears. Maybe your son can distract him with the treat while you do the ears, little by little even if it takes all day in small doses to get them cleaned properly.
When Pepsi was young she had to have eye drops for something and she hated it with a passion...even now if I appear with a bottle of eye drops she legs it to the office and hides!!! but it had to be done and she will now let me do anything even if she hates it she knows it will get done and usully puts up with it with bad grace!!!
Softly softly catchee monkey!!!
Aileen

>> I have my Son to help, but to be honest he's not a great assistant and can't really hold him still enough.

Don't hold pup still with force, it will make him frightened & even defensive as well as breaking his trust in you and therfore making the situation worse the next time you need to check/clean/treat his ear.

The trick is positive association. Ideally this should be started as soon as you get pup, so they become accostomed to having thier ears/teeth/eyes/paws/body checked, but it is something lots of people don't think about doing.

With Buster I would sit him down calmly, then gently touch his outer ear & say 'looking' (this is my 'command' for any examinations, LOL) & give a treat straight away. I would then make the touch last longer, if he was getting bored/not enjoying it I would also say 'wait' (he knows a treat follows 'wait' if he waits nicely :) ). I gradually built up from there, so now I can look in his ears, put cleaner in them etc., all with the commands 'looking', because he knows I am not going to hurt him, or force him and he will get a treat (a few treats inbetween if I am spanding a while checking his ears out).

If pup is really keen to please for specific things, eg. at meal times (Buster will do ANYTHING to get his bowl put down!!), you can use that to your advantage while working on the positive association.

If your pup didn't just have to go through the ordeal with his ears at the vets, then it would be an idea to get him to lay down and try when he was relaxed and ready for sleep, but as the vet has just physically forced him to have his ears checked, you pup may feel threatened laying down. It could be worth starting with pup standing, so he has the option of walking away if he is frightened. If he does walk away, don't force him back, encourage him and if that doesn't work, leave him a little while and try again later.
The more often you practice working on the positive association & the better you timing for praise & rewrd is (you also need to be calm & nice, not forcefull), the quicker pup will learn. You can do this several times a day, but keep sessions short and alsways aim to finish while pup is happy, son't push it untill he is getting fed up/frightened.

All in all, there is no magic quick fix.

> Softly softly catchee monkey - Brilliant!!

Thanks so much for the advice. I was planning on waiting until quite late tonight when he's sleepy and also when it has cooled down so I can take him for a walk first, or maybe afterwards as a treat for being good.

A teaspoon of peanut butter may do the trick as a treat/distraction all rolled into one as he will still extremely still for that.

I think I was just worried after lasts nights trials and tribulations.

No I didn't want to force him at all, that's not something I've ever had to do previously. Even at the vets. The other two I see are so good with him, they just have the nack of keeping him calm and still so I just have to be there to make sure he doesn't fall off the table! But this time round was a whole different ball game.

My Son would not feel comfortable forcing him at all, and I don't think he could even if he wanted to... I should have called him Houdini.

I played with him loads at lunch time and touched his ears gently, just stroking them and he was fine. I'll try your suggestions of rewarding him for allowing me to touch his ears and try and get them cleaned in stages.

I cleaned his ears when he was tiny with no problems at all, he would just lie on my lap. He's a little too big for that now and if I'm honest I haven't cleaned them regularly enough and therefore he has forgotten that it's actually a nice experience. My mistake... learnt my lesson now.

Good idea about using a command word, that works with him really well for everything else. He learns pretty quick, so hopefully I can reverse the effects of last night. Although when I played with him at lunch time I touched and stroked his ears and he seemed fine.

I think the biggest problem is that I have to get the ear cleaner and squirt it in his ear, then massage it in and then clean it out again!! A little difficult if he keeps running off!! I may end up with ear cleaner all over my walls and carpets but we'll get there in the end ;-)

Thanks so much for all your advice.

> A little difficult if he keeps running off!! I may end up with ear cleaner all over my walls and carpets but we'll get there in the end ;-)
>

LOL, yes it does shoot back out if you don't massage it in quick enough.
My last dog was a rescue, he HATED his ears ebing touched (so much so, he would bite us, when we first had him :( ), he also suffered with ear infections :( He learnt to tollerate the ear cleaning stuff being squitred in, and he LOVED it being massaged in afterwards, but I had to be very quick, or he'd shake his head & it''d all come back out!

I didn't mean to imply that you were intending to force your pup to stay still, just thought I'd point out it's best not to, because forcing them is very temping when you have to treat them but they keep running off!

> Although when I played with him at lunch time I touched and stroked his ears and he seemed fine.

Thats' great :) With any luck, he may not actually associate you cleaning his ears at home, with the ordeal at the vets - fingers crossed!

> LOL, yes it does shoot back out if you don't massage it in quick enough

I think we may both need a shower by time I've finished tonight!!! Wish me luck!! ;-)

> didn't mean to imply that you were intending to force your pup to stay still, just thought I'd point out it's best not to

Gosh, no I didn't think you did imply that at all. I know it's tempting as I do worry about getting these damned mites out for good, but I don't want to traumatise him and create any mis-trust between us. He's such a sweetheart and I think the fuss at the vets was because of all the 'forcing' involved!! Bless him. He loves going to the vets too, I hope that hasn't changed! I don't think it would have though as he proceeded to lick the vet to death once he was done!! All for a biscuit you understand!! Cupboard love, you gotta hand it to 'em, they know how to get what they want!!! :-D

Then the vet put a muzzle on him and insisted on continuing to look in his ears until he calmed down to make sure Boomer knew that he was not going to win this battle

Does this vet hero worship ceaser milan by any chance????????? I'm surprised by his actions and more so his statement, to do this to a puppy I'm very upset for you!

There aren't actually too many dogs that do enjoy and happily tolerate having their ears probed, it takes a lot of TTouch from an early age for a dog to be cool about it, your dog is not going to enjoy a trip to the vets again is he, once a dog has had a frightening experience it puts them off, he's never going to be calm about a vet in particular touching his ears again? The best way to get a dog to do anything is reward based, not to bully and dominate, fear may well cause aggression or a puddle on the veterinary table in the future, poor little man.

Good luck with all the suggestions, I would suggest you getting a book on TTouch to continue with after the treatment has finished and hopefully build his confidence back up again.

> Does this vet hero worship ceaser milan by any chance?

Crikey, I hope not.

I think the next time I have to take him to the vets I'll specifically ask for the other two that he's seen before as they were amazing with him, and just managed to keep him still and calm purely with kindness and the tone in their voices. They are very good. It was just a shame that this time round he got someone who felt the need to be 'assertive'.

Boomer was absolutely fine with him afterwards though, so I'm hoping it hasn't put him off going as the vets really was one of his favourite places to be. I might pop him in there for a visit next week just to say hi. They are always more than happy to see him.

I cleaned his ears (to a degree) last night and he wasn't particularly happy about it, but I got a little done and he got lots of treats and fuss. He didn't mind the drops going in at all which is the important thing. Hopefully tonight will be a little better.

I'll have a look at the TTouch method, it looks quite interesting.

Thanks