[Karlyn]

I get to see many handlers and their pets, from service, show, sport, and pet, at work and get to know all of them very well. We work in a joint building with a pediatrician as well so the area is busy with children and dogs and everything runs very smoothly with good handling. Even when pigs arrive!

One client in particular has very solid handling and control with her four dogs. Two are brought in on leash and two off leash all at the same time with strong verbal control. I get to observe them loading and unloading from their car every time and all are told to lay down and wait by the vehicle until farther instruction. They are then instructed into a heel position and brought into the building and told to “platz” again. I give them a second to position, greet the owner, and I guide them to their room where they then get to be greeted by me. I do this routinely- I greet dogs in the treatment room instead of when first entering the building to respect all handling by the owner and encourage pups to leave their excited hellos until we are in the treatment room. Some handlers prefer to have their pets ignored entirely while in training and that is respected as well.

We have a one way flow to our office, meaning all patients enter one door and exit our back door to prevent interactions in the hallway. We also take a lot of caution when exiting a treatment room to assure no one else is in the hallway, using verbal cues between humans to both let the owner know what we’re doing and so another staff member can hear our intentions. Clients appreciate this dedication greatly. We had one slip up recently where two reactive dogs briefly saw each other and both staff members arched around the dogs to split and redirect lines of sight. Our pig clients appreciate more space and routine, so their owner guides them to a regular room each time and we then come in after they have settled. This all examples good awareness of space, personalities, and positioning with various species for both comfort or quick needs of redirection.

My own 14 year old basset mix is our office dog. Going deaf, she has both some physical contact cues and visual cues to direct her into positions or around the space. When she’s in the way in our tight office, twirling a finger one direction or another tells her which way to spin to relocate. She’s also very good at accepting any treatment handling laying on her side, which to get her there involves both slight down and backward pressure behind her shoulders, and then sideways pressure on the side of her chest to roll over. She gets her nails trimmed in this position, which she isn’t a fan of, but I’ve found as long as she doesn’t have to use any muscles whatsoever and gets to relax completely she will settle- for her this means being on her side as well as having a towel between her legs to prop a foot up for me to care for

I’ll go ahead and rat my own family member out. Not as keen with handling skills, their basset and dachshunds bark and lunge at other dogs in the parking area. I’d personally try handling this by arching in front of the dog and redirecting sight lines and using positive reinforcement to look at me. They instead pull back on the leashes which often only encourages the continued lunging and barking by opposition reflex

[Karlyn]

I’ll reflect on some approach and handling tips we use at work during Thermal Imaging of our patients. This is a series of 25-30 images taken around the pets entire body and they are primarily asked to stand still. This isn’t the simplest task for some of our patients! Some pets are nervous and many are used to being asked to sit and become confused.

I typically always start with a side profile of the pet (mostly dogs) as it’s a more comfortable positioning between us. I usually end with either the anterior-posterior or posterior-anterior images as they’re often more nervous with me being behind them or the camera facing directly at them. I let nervous pets sniff the camera before I begin. We also do Thermal Imaging either after a consult or regular gait analysis, which allows new patients time to explore the room and meet me and gives current patients a simpler task they’re use to first (walking down our pressure sensing walkway). We also have a rug available to aide the pets who struggle with tile floors

For dogs that are wanting to sit instead of stand we need to utilize some handling tricks. We have a platform they can stand on which helps give them a better sense of the boundary they’re meant to be in. For food motivated pups, we spread a lickable treat on a spatula- this helps the owner guide the dog into position, helps distract from wanting to sit, and often I find using the target to lower the head raises the butt (if they’re already standing). And if necessary, we will use a set of slip leads with one around just in front of their back legs to encourage them to stand. Front body imaging they can sit for, so for those that really want to sit we will do all front body images first then use the slip leads afterwards to image rear body, giving them the more comfortable option first

<font size=”3″>Some tricks that have been shared with clients to consider teaching to aide imaging are chin resting, “look” (hold eye contact), target training, and stand.</font>