Do any of you guys have dogs that are scared of the vet (or just in general, people?)?
Simi is very freaked out by people. Most of the time, she handles it by just staying away from them and watching from afar. Which is fine by me. She will sometimes go up to a person if they let her do it on her own terms, but she is usually happy to just hang back.
That said, if they're carrying something strange, or are reaching for her/me, she will often react with fear aggression. So as you can guess, vet visits aren't exactly a good time for us. We don't have one specific vet, but 3 or 4 different ones in one office, so Simi has seen probably 3 different vets since I've had her. She was fine as a small small puppy, no issues, but about 8 months old she started to get iffy about them and didn't like them reaching for her/touching her unless she asked for it.
Today she went to the vet and we muzzled her, just to be safe. She happily greeted the vet, sniffed her, let the vet pat her, and even let the vet get very close to listen to her heart and look her all over. Came time to look at her ears, I reached down to unfold them (she was VERY stressed and had them laid back) and when I had it open, and the vet reached forward, she snapped. When I took a step back and let the vet try alone, she was fine. She freaked out a little when the vet picked her paws up to look at them (she hates it when *I* pick her paws up). But besides that did pretty well. I did warn all techs and vets to not reach for her.. muzzle helps a lot from stopping common pet owners from trying!
Anyway. I was just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this, and what they did? I took her to petsmart a while ago and she did so good with people, until one lady stuck her hand right in her face (as I was holding her back, trying to avoid the lady and her kids (the kids asked to pet all dogs, lady just tried to pat Simi!)) and Simi made grumpy faces but didn't snap... I had her at her breeders a few weeks back and she was fine with her until she raised her voice to tell her own dogs to stop barking, and then Simi was kinda freaked out, but breeder just calming scooted up beside me and took Simi's leash and took her to walk away from me until Simi calmed down, after that they were friends... Wondering what anyone thinks?
Just tips and suggestions and sympathies if maybe your dog is the same way?
Simi is very freaked out by people. Most of the time, she handles it by just staying away from them and watching from afar. Which is fine by me. She will sometimes go up to a person if they let her do it on her own terms, but she is usually happy to just hang back.
That said, if they're carrying something strange, or are reaching for her/me, she will often react with fear aggression. So as you can guess, vet visits aren't exactly a good time for us. We don't have one specific vet, but 3 or 4 different ones in one office, so Simi has seen probably 3 different vets since I've had her. She was fine as a small small puppy, no issues, but about 8 months old she started to get iffy about them and didn't like them reaching for her/touching her unless she asked for it.
Today she went to the vet and we muzzled her, just to be safe. She happily greeted the vet, sniffed her, let the vet pat her, and even let the vet get very close to listen to her heart and look her all over. Came time to look at her ears, I reached down to unfold them (she was VERY stressed and had them laid back) and when I had it open, and the vet reached forward, she snapped. When I took a step back and let the vet try alone, she was fine. She freaked out a little when the vet picked her paws up to look at them (she hates it when *I* pick her paws up). But besides that did pretty well. I did warn all techs and vets to not reach for her.. muzzle helps a lot from stopping common pet owners from trying!
Anyway. I was just wondering if anyone else has had any experience with this, and what they did? I took her to petsmart a while ago and she did so good with people, until one lady stuck her hand right in her face (as I was holding her back, trying to avoid the lady and her kids (the kids asked to pet all dogs, lady just tried to pat Simi!)) and Simi made grumpy faces but didn't snap... I had her at her breeders a few weeks back and she was fine with her until she raised her voice to tell her own dogs to stop barking, and then Simi was kinda freaked out, but breeder just calming scooted up beside me and took Simi's leash and took her to walk away from me until Simi calmed down, after that they were friends... Wondering what anyone thinks?
Just tips and suggestions and sympathies if maybe your dog is the same way?