Taking an aggressive dog to the vet

Seriously, being at the vet is nothing like the exercise the dogs go through to pass the CGC test. My Am Staffs have passed their CGC's and Markie's Rally titled but he still doesn't "enjoy" going to the vet to be poked, proded or manipulted for health testing and routine visits. Just like us going to the Dr. when we are sick. We anticipate the worst. The dogs only know from experience what has happened there..it isn't a play date!

The CGC isn't going to be revoked because of behavior at the vet, maybe for social destruction but heck...that happens here!

Sometimes it's really hard to trust someone else with your pet, especially when they are upset or afriad or hurt and don't do well in stressful situations. I had to relinquish my pet hare to the vets for an overnight stay when he broke his leg. He is an animal that certainly has the capacity to get so stressed he could have a heart attack just from too much attention. It has happened with hares and similar animals. So I made sure my vet understood. He made a house call to work out if Kit needed to go in or not, and when Kit did go in, he was kept sedated and in a dark room on his own the whole time he was there. It was horrifying for me and there wasn't a second he was there that I wasn't worried about him and how he was going to cope. Nonetheless, the vet and the vet techs handled it all fabulously, went out of their way to meet all his special needs, and when he went back to get his cast removed he was very relaxed and I think they even did it without sedating him at all. He even let the girls say hi to him without flipping out, and he wasn't out of his mind in pain like the first time.

So yeah, it's hard, but you've gotta remember that these people are generally in the business because they love animals. I've always said I have no interest in being a vet tech or a vet because they see animals at their worst. I like to see happy, safe, well animals. And I don't know what happens over there, but over here vets handle wild animals all the time. They know what they are doing with a frightened animal that can hurt them.

Both my dogs dislike the vets, and Penny is especially unhappy there. She was muzzled once last year when they had to aspirate a lump she had to check what it was made of. She coped with it fine and she'd never had a muzzle on before in her whole life (and she's 13).  I reckon you just tell the staff what special treatment your animal needs and leave them to do their job. It worked for me and my hare, and he needs some serious special treatment.

espencer

Oh well, then a CGC dog is not as great as i thought it was

What did you think it was?

Here's the page describing it in detail: http://www.akc.org/events/cgc/training_testing.cfm

 well as usual Bugsy is a little um 'different' LOL

 The CGC overall is harder for him than going to the vet.  The beast loves the vet and is nothing but happy to meet all the dogs and people there.  He could care less who does what to him and has been known to kiss the tech drawing blood out of his jugular

He has his CGC in fact has passed it twice.  However he is still too excited by other dogs - excited in a playful way but too excited nevertheless. He is a reluctant 'heeler' and thinks that when I leave it is a game of hide and seek. 

He passes because we work hard and once he focuses we are fine.

Oh and I understand a bit why someone wouldn't want to hand their dog over to the techs etc.  Many of the young girls ( all I ever see as techs) clearly get anxious when they see B and more than one has aggressively grabbed his lead, yanking his collar very tight as if they are readying for a fight.  That is not something I want him to experience and potentially begin to associate being handed over with a mauling.  The ones that know him sure but if I see the nerves go - uh uh not going to do it. 

glenmar

I'm going to go a tad further off topic.....Chuffy??  Who is that beautiful horse in your avatar???  Stunning.

For you, and for anyone else who is interested, there is a thread with a few pics of him in the NDR section

I have nothing further to add to the original topic, so I am going to bow out now.

Rebecca, did you go to the vet and if so how'd things go?

Just replying in general. Liesje had some great posts explaining the difference between a CGC test and a vet visit. I, too, had wondered why a CGC dog would need a muzzle at the vet but the explanation makes sense, to me. It is a different scenario and dogs don't always generalize in the way that we would like them to generalize.

I don't often have time to go to the vet as often as I would like for desensitzation and I have failed in getting used to a muzzle. I have used it once when Shadow had a grass burr near his eye.

About the only time we go to the vet is to get the vacc's updated. And it is a struggle. A few have mentioned how the dog behaved better without the owner in the room, making me think that the "aggressive" behavior is actually in defense of the owner. With Shadow's shots, we often have to do it outside, where he has a greater sense of room. And even the last time, last August, we still had to use the logger's hitch. The vet has a soft cloth strip. A slip knot loop goes behind the ears and the remaining is single-looped around his muzzle and pulled slightly taut to hold it in place. The harder he pulls away, the tighter the loop gets, hence a logger's hitch. This is only for the approach of the vet. Once the vet has the needle in, he immediately settles down. But there is that fear at the approach of the vet.

It's not fun, I'm not proud of it, there's nothing macho or alpha about it. I wish things could be different and I would like to work on that but I would have really loved to have had him as a small puppy being manhandled and fed by the vets so that it was no different than getting rubs from me.

 But now I wonder if it might go easier if I wasn't the one holding the leash.

But in the examining room, you can forget it. I think it's too small a space.

I too feel that I don't want my dog out of my sight. I trust my vet and the people that work for her...but I don't..   Until Bubblegum I have never had a dog taken from me while at the vet unless it was surgery. When I got Bubby and took her for the first time to a vet that I have never seen...I was kind of suprised they took her "in the back!" I did not like it...I think I threatened ( in my head ) to never go back.   I think they were checking her ears and shes not good about people messing with her ear.

That said.  I work for a vet now.  We take many dogs to the back for anal glands and things like that. We have a rule...that if a dog has shown aggresion they are not to be held by their owner.  We have had more than one dog bite their owner in their fear.   Now...my first though is " I would rather my dog bite me than them" but I have come to realize....most likely when that dog is taken from the owner...he is much less likely to bite.  We see it often at our hosptial.  Now.............. after Gibby not letting us give him a toe nail trim....... I tried taking him to the groomer to get it done.  I walk totally out of the room and we stand where he can't see us....and he does so much better.