I've got a new project to look forward to!
As a few people may know, Gaci has ongoing issues with her vulva. She was diagnosed with a juvenile vulva, and about six months ago had an episioplasty (vulvar surgery) to correct it. The problem has been vastly improved, but not eliminated. Because of her issues she excessively licks herself, to the point sometimes when it becomes raw. Her vulva on a good day is hyperpigmented - it looks basically black because of the licking. On a less-than good day (when she licks it), it is raw and looks quite painful, even though it doesn't seem to slow her down.
She does not tolerate e-collars (elizabethan) well. Because of her anxious personality, and the fact that it limits her sight, she finds them very aversive and becomes anxious when wearing one. She was not a happy camper when she had to wear it after her surgery, combined with the 50 stitches in her butt in a half-moon shape (if anyone wants to see pictures of what the surgery entailed, I will share privately...but they can be graphic since they are close-up of dogbutt!).
So we're going to condition Gaci to wearing a new type of collar when issues arise, with the same properties as an e-collar in that it prevents her from licking when she feels the need to lick, but it doesn't limit vision, she won't run into things as it won't impact her depth of field, it won't affect her running around or jumping on things like the e-collars do, so it should be less aversive all around. I'm going to use a shaping procedure a la clicker to get her to voluntarily put it on, and then shape for wearing it for longer periods of time, so that it becomes something fun rather than something nasty.
The Pro-Collar looks like this:
http://www.jbpet.com/bmz_cache/7/70f99b17f59823c6101f30fc208c8b00.image.100x100.jpg
(albeit, for a 14 lb dog)
So here's to a new teaching challenge, I have high hopes for this collar in assisting with our ongoing vulva issues! I'm picking up the collar on Thursday, so we'll likely start then.