Cooperative care

What is cooperative care

Have you ever thought to yourself: ugh I wish my dog was easy to brush, groom, clean ears, cut nails, etc? If yes, you are in the right place! Cooperative care is the answer to most of your problems. 

Dogs generally do not like to be constrained, especially if it is done by someone else (vet, groomer…), not you - a trusted adult. Through cooperative care training you can teach your dog (or any animal) to not just tolerate being handled and/or groomed but be a willing participant in the procedure. 

How would you feel if you were forced into a dr’s office and given a shot without knowing what is going on and your consent? How would it feel if someone forced medication down your throat while holding your mouth wide open? And that is why most dogs avoid walking past the vet clinic or the grooming salon they’ve been forced into. But we can start changing it by introducing them to cooperative care aka saying no.

I am not going to lie by saying that this is a quick overnight process, but the earlier you start, the better the results would be. It is very difficult to change the established history of negative associations and that is why we love practicing it all with very young puppies to make it into a fun game. But even with adult dogs with the history of reinforcements we can still get amazing results!

It is amazing how the ability to say NO decreases the anxiety and with training you could see that most all the animals actually choose to say YES because they develop trust that nothing bad is going to happen to them. 

If you want to learn more about our virtual cooperative training packages, please reach out to us!