Veterinary Skills Training

We offer training to help make vet visits less stressful for your dog. Some dogs learn to dislike the vet because it is often a place they go when they are not feeling well or to get vaccines. We work on building fun skills that help your dog have a stress free vet visit for everyone. We also offer behavior modification for dogs who are extremely uncomfortable at the vet and resorted to negative behaviors there. We will work on ways to manage your dog and make visits as stress free as possible as well as resolving their fear utilizing systematic desensitization.

Our Veterinary Skills Training Program Includes:

  • Teaching high reinforcement behaviors and games to play during wait periods in the exam room to destress your dog.

  • Injection training

  • Blood draw training

  • Physical exam desensitization

  • Muzzle training (If needed)

  • Systematic desensitization to veterinary procedures (if needed)

  • Fun high reward visits to your vet (not for procedures but to get them into the lobby and get heavily rewarded then leave)

What is Systematic Desensitization?

Systematic desensitization refers to the practice of reducing stimulus strength and using incremental steps of exposure to increase an animal's tolerance of a frightening or aversive stimulus in an approximated and non-aversive manner.

What does this mean for me?

This means we take note of the things your dog fears and break it down into smaller steps and expose them slowly over time to what was once a fearful stimulus.

Example:

Your dog is scared of injections and tries to bite the vet. Using systematic desensitization we break down all the details/steps for injection training separately so that your dog is comfortable with each. Then we chain those small steps together after learning is shown so that the dog can tolerate what used to be a stressful event and learn it’s no longer scary.

Want to make vet visits less stressful for your dog? Contact us!

vannuilcanine@gmail.com

616-218-3737