Thursday, July 21, 2011

Medication Meltdown

Having a rescue dog is quite a journey, you never know how they will react to certain situations.  Last week I applied Fi's flea and tick medicine, which consisted of squeezing a tube of liquid down her spine.  She reacted by slinking around with her tail between her legs for the next 12 hours, and not letting me come near her.  Ah, yet another training opportunity.  These are the steps I will take to hopefully make the next experience better.

1. Make taking the tube of medicine out an exciting event.  Show her the tube and give her a treat. Repeat.
2. Touch the tube to her back
3. Move the applicator an inch up her back
4. Increase length of movement
5. Use an eye-dropper or similar applicator to add wetness to the process (go back to step 2 with the added wetness)

The video below is probably the 8th session of a few minutes each.  We have progressed to step 4.

2 comments:

  1. Great plan! I hope it is going well!! :) Fi reminds me so much of my struggles with my border collie. You are doing an amazing job with her! She is so lucky to have such a wonderful human to take care of her! :)

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  2. Yesterday I applied her flea medication with absolutely NO reaction!! Yay for one small success!!

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