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Targeting: How to Make This Skill Work for You

Rachel Lees
Pet owners teach their animals a variety of cued behaviors that can be helpful for veterinary professionals in the exam room. “Sit” can help keep a patient stationary during an examination. When a patient knows the cue “High Five” or “Paw,” this may aid in assessing interdigital infections or performing nail trims.

One such skill that can be helpful for the veterinary team is targeting: teaching the dog to touch the nose to an object or hand. This behavior can be helpful in a few different ways.

Getting Patients from Point A to Point B

Many patients are uncomfortable with moving onto a lift table, scale, or even moving down the hallway. Instead of forcing the pet, we can use a hand target to move patients who have limited FAS. If this behavior is strong enough, most patients will be more excited about the opportunity to nose-target a hand to gain reinforcement and be less concerned about the “scary” object they need to step on. Using a hand target also gives us the option to keep our hands off of patients if they are concerned or conflicted with being touched by an unfamiliar person.

Instrumental Persuasion

Many patients are fearful of the veterinary instruments used during examination. With targeting, we can change the way they feel about the tools while allowing them to control the interaction. This can be done by presenting an exam tool and allowing the patient to interact with it on their own and then giving reinforcement.

In short, repeated training sessions, the patient learns that when the object is near, amazing things happen when they interact with it. Instead of a fear-related response, we can create a positive response toward presentation of these tools.

Teaching This Skill to Patients

Start this skill during preventive exams with pets who have a low FAS score. Puppies and kittens may be the best patients to start working with because they don’t have any preconceived notions.  Patients with a high FAS score may need more therapy, and using this technique may cause additional FAS. Wait to add it until after Victory Visits show that the patient’s FAS is reduced in the veterinary hospital.

If you are a Fear Free Professional, using treats in the exam rooms should be old hat to you. As you teach this skill, use treats to reinforce any interaction with exam tools, the patient stepping onto the table, or interacting with the veterinary team (hand target).

Using a word (Good!) or a tongue “click” may be helpful as an event marker. An event marker gives the patient information about the behavior goal and can capture the desired behavior. In the case of teaching a patient to target, the goal or “wanted” behavior would be to use the event marker when the patient interacts (noses, touches, licks, or sniffs) the object or hand we are using as the target. Always follow the event marker immediately with a treat.

When teaching this behavior, offer the object one to two inches from the pet’s nose. When the patient interacts with the object, use the event marker and reward the patient with a treat. If the patient shows concern regarding the object or FAS increases, move the object farther away until the patient is more comfortable. You may need to break down the behavior into smaller steps to get the patient to interact with the object. These small approximations may include capturing the behaviors of looking at the object, moving toward the object, touching the object with paw or nose.

Example: Presenting a Stethoscope

With an FAS 0 to 1 patient, present the bell of the stethoscope a few inches from the patient’s nose

Observe for any nose touching or interacting with the stethoscope

Say the word “Treat” when the patient’s nose touches the stethoscope

Move the bell of the stethoscope away and give a treat

Repeat if the patient is loose, relaxed, and eating during this training session. If the FAS score increases, discontinue and reassess with the veterinary team.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Rachel Lees, a Level 3 Fear Free Certified Professional, is a veterinary technician specialist in behavior, a KPA certified training partner, and lead veterinary behavior technician at The Behavior Clinic in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. She loves helping people create and maintain a strong human-animal bond.

 

Kitten Socialization: Do Kittens Need Kindergarten?

Kitten Socialization: Do Kittens Need Kindergarten?

Getting kittens off to a good start lays the foundation for an adulthood free of fear, anxiety, and stress. But just what does a “good start” mean? What exactly is kitten socialization? What role does genetics play, and what should we be doing for our kitten patients? In this webinar, Dr. Krista Sirois answers these questions and discuss the benefits of establishing a Kitty Kindergarten program in your clinic for your patients, pet parents, and your team.

Understanding Medical Conditions and Pain

Course Overview

Although animal trainers can typically recognize the external signs of an animal in serious pain or distress, they are not necessarily aware of what’s going on inside the animal’s body and how it can affect their behavior. This module will discuss common conditions as well as take an in-depth look at pain management strategies and the effects of pain and stress on an animal.

This module has been approved for 1 RACE CEU and 1 CEU from CCPDT, IAABC and KPA.

This module is divided into three lessons.

  • Lesson One: Medical Conditions and Special Considerations When Training
  • Lesson Two: Understanding Pain: Effects, Signs, and Treatments
  • Lesson Three: Stress and Its Impact on Body and Welfare

What Current Science Tells Us About Cat Play

Linda Lombardi
For a long time, the behavior of pet cats and dogs was of little interest to science. Times have certainly changed, but one area that’s somewhat neglected is the question of how and why cats play.

A recent review of the literature published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science sums up the findings and points to directions for future research. While there’s much we still don’t know, there are a number of results we can put into practice to give cats more enriched lives.

Play With Toys

Research into cat play with toys confirms a common observation: it is a lot like hunting. “The patterns of behavior are similar, and the things that entice cats to hunt also get them excited about toys,” says coauthor Mikel Delgado. “What we see from research is that the more similar to realistic prey the toy is, the more of a response the cat shows.”

There’s always going to be the individual cat who likes to play with a ball. But for the most part, the more a toy looks, feels, smells, and moves like prey, the better cats like it. They do have preferences, so it’s best to offer choices: toys that resemble different kinds of prey like mice, birds, bugs, and snakes.

Movement is important as well. After about 21 weeks of age, kittens start to lose interest in things that don’t move. Sure, you can bat a ball with your paw, but it’s not the same.

“They can’t really get lost in the hunting experience like they can when someone else is moving the toy,” says Delgado.

Novelty also matters: cats get bored quickly. In one study, cats presented with the same toy three times became progressively less interested, then showed more response to a new, clean toy that was identical except for color.

The practical takeaway: leaving a bunch of toys lying on the floor all the time isn’t enrichment, because they don’t move, and they don’t change. Owners need to play with their cats: move the toys and remember that they get bored with the same object before they’re bored with play itself.

Why Play?

Although cat play resembles hunting, research doesn’t really support the idea that play is a kind of practice; it doesn’t seem to help cats be better hunters later. “What seems to be most effective for hunting later is exposure to prey. Hunting experience helps you be a better hunter,” says Delgado.

Play does seem to be important to social development, however, which makes it all the more important to understand, given that most of us want sociable cats more than we want mousers.

It’s a common misconception that cats aren’t sociable. “Even cats that are living outside of human homes, free-roaming cats, live socially in colonies together,” say Krystin Vitale of Oregon State University. “They live both socially and solitarily. We see a lot of flexibility.”

Kittens learn to get along with other cats by playing. The first type of play seen in kittens is social, and research shows that kittens who don’t have playmates have difficulty with other cats later. Singleton kittens tend to direct play at their mothers, even though their mothers find this behavior irritating.

“As a cat behavior consultant, I get so many calls from people who can’t understand why the kitten is attacking their legs and hands,” says Delgado. “Kittens who don’t have littermates will direct that behavior toward other beings: their mother, their human, or the poor 12-year-old cat who the person adopted the kitten to be a companion to.”

The takeaway: encourage people to adopt more than one kitten at a time. “When we allow kittens to get adopted without littermates, we’re not recognizing that we’re tearing apart families,” she says. “Social play is very important for kittens and a lack of outlets for social play can be very problematic. Toys don’t fulfill that social need.”

What We Don’t Know

Research into cat behavior lags behind the recent explosion of studies about dogs, partly because they’re harder to study in the lab. “Dogs are used to being in new environments. But a cat that is friendly and playful in a home environment, if you take them to a strange place, they’re going to be terrified,” says Delgado. “So their behavior is not valid beyond that context; it doesn’t tell you anything about how they normally behave.”

Now that we have better technology that lets us study cats in their homes, research is increasing, but many questions remain. For instance, little research has been done on play between adult cats, so right now, science can’t tell you whether your cats are getting along. From her observations, Vitale suggests concentrating on what happens before and after the interaction to distinguish rough play from aggression.

“Before, was there aggressive vocalization? Was their fur already standing on end and were their eyes dilated and were they baring teeth? After, what did they do? Often when it’s play, you’ll see that afterwards they’ll plop down and lay together and start grooming each other. If you see one run off and try to get away that might be more of an indication that it was aggression.”

Social play with humans also hasn’t been well studied, but it may be important to cats. In one study, Vitale tested how cats reacted to a moving toy controlled by a human who was in the room, or one controlled remotely from outside the room. Cats preferred the person moving the toy to be visible, which suggests that kind of play may have a social component.

Delgado also wants to see more research into the process of object play. Prior studies have focused on actual contact with the toy, but for cats, watching and stalking seem important. This makes sense given their natural hunting style. “The way cats hunt is not highly cardiovascular. It’s very cognitive,” she says. “When they play with cats, people tend to concentrate on the cardiovascular aspects and expect backflips and running around, but that’s not really cats’ hunting style.”

Play and Welfare

Delgado says there’s an assumption that play must have a survival benefit. We don’t know for sure if it does, and in fact, research has shown that cats spend a fairly small proportion of the time playing and that it’s not very energetically costly.

But we’re not just concerned about what helps animals survive. We also want to know what helps them thrive.

“I think that one big thing that’s come out of studies about cat play and that this paper shows is that it’s really important for cats to engage in play in order for them to engage in healthy normal behaviors,” says Vitale. “If you’re giving your cat an under-enriched environment with low stimulation, potentially aggression can come out of that, and stereotyped behaviors like overgrooming, that they’re doing because they don’t have anything to engage with.”

One measure of an animal’s welfare is whether they have the opportunity to engage in species-specific behaviors. Owners need to understand what those behaviors are and how to provide the right toys and social situations to “allow cats to behave in the ways that make them cats,” she says. “They need something for all those motor patterns and biologically relevant behaviors to be directed towards.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Linda Lombardi writes about the animals who share our planet and our homes for magazines including The Bark, websites including National Geographic and Mongabay.com, and for the Associated Press. Her most recent book, co-authored with Deirdre Franklin, is The Pit Bull Life: A Dog Lover’s Companion.

 

Time, Training Help Pet Pig Overcome Fears

Mikkel Becker

The fear of visiting the veterinarian and the anxiety of riding in the car isn’t limited to dogs or cats. Other animals experience these anxieties as well, including pigs. I know, because I was part of a major effort to help one adorably sweet and sizably grand pet pig, Dee Dee, to overcome her fear of car trips and veterinary visits.

Dee Dee’s fears were anything but mild when I met her. At one time she enjoyed riding in the car and veterinary care was a non-issue. But that changed after a spay surgery with a previous veterinarian when she was received third-degree burns from a heating pad during the procedure. The extreme pain and distress of the experience changed her behavior any time she rode in the car or was taken to the veterinary clinic. Any indication that she was going to be placed in the car sent all 250 pounds of Dee Dee into a flailing, fighting fury to flee to safety. She seemingly paired the car ride and traveling to new places with the distress and pain of the one experience.

From Chaos to Calm

Just getting Dee Dee into the car involved recruiting neighbors and the strength of many large men to push, pull, and pick her up into the car while other people blocked her movements and view using cardboard boxes. Dee Dee squealed in panic the entire trip and in her distress peeing and pooping all over the inside of the SUV in which she rode.

By the time I met Dee Dee, not only was she in distress, so was her owner, Olive. She was overwhelmed by the impossibility of getting her pig the care she needed, including hoof trims, a long overdue necessity. Olive was trapped between the duty of caring for her pig’s health and the guilt of not wanting to put Dee Dee through any more terror to get the care she needed. Thankfully, with the right Fear Free partnerships and training, Dee Dee was able to get the physical care she needed without losing her emotional wellbeing in the process.

As a trainer who is Fear Free certified, I was able to incorporate aspects of reward-based training that I commonly use with dogs into my training with Dee Dee. In addition to training, an essential step was to find a Fear Free-certified exotic animal veterinarian. We came across Dr. Alicia McLaughlin from the Center for Bird and Exotic Animal Medicine near Seattle, Washington, who was equally committed to reducing Dee Dee’s fear, anxiety, and stress.

We taught Dee Dee to touch and follow a target, in her case a plastic serving spoon. This became her go-to way to say hi to new people. Targeting was also an excellent way to encourage her to willingly follow toward, away, onto, or off certain spaces to better guide her movements. This was useful both for getting her to willingly approach the car and walk up the ramp, as well as to move onto spaces such as the scale or into the exam room.  

Dee Dee also had an impressive array of other fun tricks we capitalized on as relationship builders for her care, including sit, down, and Zen down, during which she would lie on her side. Such behaviors were vital to earn her participation during care, for keeping her in a stationary position, and for getting a better view of her hooves and belly.

Training for Travel

To get Dee Dee ready, an essential step was to replace her car ramp with a far sturdier version. Dee Dee was petrified of her previous ramp and avoided it at all costs. This time we took ramp training slowly by introducing it on a flat surface and teaching her to walk across it following a treat trail and her target spoon.

After successful ramp crossings on the flat surface, she graduated to higher spaces, including the curb and couch. Dee Dee liked this training so much she often opted to walk across the ramp and lie down atop it in her free time.

Separately, we desensitized Dee Dee to being around the car, including opening car doors or turning on the car while she did tricks, without actually getting in or going anywhere. We incorporated “go to your space” by training her to move to her blanket, which was useful as a portable safe space during trips in the car and at the vet.

In preparation for the visit to the hospital, Dr. McLaughlin prescribed pre-visit medications to help keep Dee Dee calm and reduce her panic.

Edible and Physical Treats

For training treats, we chose small, healthy snacks, including measured portions of her regular food, a cut-up apple or banana, and Cheerios. Our go-to treats were veggies cut into bite-size bits, including red, green, and yellow peppers, and her favorite, cherry tomatoes (reserved for the most challenging behaviors). Dee Dee’s previously expanding waistline began to shrink.

Dee Dee also liked back scratches and “getting forked”: a massage-like action with gentle poking of a fork that sent her into a euphoric trance. We used this to encourage her to relax as well as a reinforcer for performing certain behaviors. In getting Dee Dee up the ramp and into the car on the actual day of her veterinary trip, a human to scratch her back helped to keep her settled.

Challenging Setback

Unfortunately, our gradual acclimation timeline was thrown off because of a hoof injury that required veterinary care sooner than we had planned in our training timeline. We had to adapt the foundation we did have to help Dee Dee into the car, despite not having the full timeframe to practice with the ramp. This big jump was undeniably going to be too much for Dee Dee, so we coupled our training efforts with Dr. McLaughlin to provide pre-visit sedation that would keep her calm while still alert and mobile.

The first attempt at sedation wasn’t enough to take off the edge. Rather than forcing the issue, we settled on stopping with her moving partway up the ramp for treats and then taking a break when we noticed that past that point she was showing increased signs of FAS. The dose was adjusted, as was the angle of the ramp, so that it had a more gradual incline. Dee Dee then loaded calmly and was on her way, this time with less distress and visibly less mess.

Dee Dee’s list of known tricks was used when she arrived at the vet to increase her familiarity and cooperation with the staff and to pair the positives of trick training alongside care. The team also created a relaxed ambiance by dimming the lights and playing calming classical music. Then, by giving her pre-sedation medication of oral Valium hidden within food treats, she became sleepy and calm to the point that a sedation mask was easily placed over her nose. The care for Dee Dee’s hooves was then able to be performed without fear, anxiety, and stress being associated with the experience.

Continuing Education

After her visit, Dee Dee’s instruction continued, along with desensitization to hoof care at home. She has also learned to give in to pressure rather than to fight against it to help both with her walks and with tolerating minor restraint or guidance. Dee Dee has also been working on informational cues that teach her to turn when asked, even learning to differentiate left from right turns when asked; yet another sign of the brilliance of pigs.

The future for Dee Dee is full of hope with the help she was provided through Fear Free care. Despite a less than ideal start, she’s on track to become the healthiest and happiest pig she can be.

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Mikkel Becker, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, KPA CTP, CDBC, CTC, is lead animal trainer for Fear Free Pets. She is a certified behavior consultant and trainer who specializes in reward-based training that’s partnered closely with the pet’s veterinary team. Mikkel is coauthor of six books, including From Fearful to Fear Free.
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Establishing & Strengthening Trainer Relationships with Veterinary Practices

Establishing & Strengthening Trainer Relationships With Veterinary Practices

Establishing a relationship with a trainer is a great way to set your current and future clients up for success, increase revenues, and help to eliminate pet relinquishment and euthanasia. While it may be simple to find a trainer in your area, finding one who fits with your style, needs, and scheduling can become difficult. Dr. Marty Becker, founder of Fear Free, and Mikkel Becker, Lead Animal Trainer for Fear Free, team up to walk you through the process of finding a trainer who fits your practice needs.

Infectious Conditions: What Trainers Need to Know

Course Overview

In this module, we will review the signs and risk factors associated with infectious diseases in dogs and cats. We will cover how to minimize disease risk when training pets as well as how to properly disinfect and manage the training environment.

This module has been approved for 1.5 RACE CEU and 1 CEU from CCPDT, IAABC and KPA.

The one-hour course is only for trainers with renewal credits and costs 1 credit.

Lesson One: Common infectious diseases of dogs and cats

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Recognize possible signs for various types of infectious diseases in dogs and cats
  • List common modes of transmission

Lesson Two: Minimizing disease risk when training

At the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Identify ways of minimizing the spread of disease in the training setting
  • Recognize the components of a clean environment and how to achieve it
  • Identify when to liaise with veterinary professionals over preventative health concerns

For Good Cat-Dog Relationships, Focus on the Cat, Study Suggests

By Linda Lombardi
Do clients have questions about how their cats and dogs get along – or if they can get along? Information from a recent study may help you advise them.

We use the phrase “fighting like cats and dogs” as if it’s a law of nature, but many households include both species and they get along fine – or at least tolerate one another. Still, cats and dogs have very different communication styles and social structures, so harmony isn’t a given. A recent study analyzed a survey of 748 owners mostly in the United Kingdom and the United States to see what factors contribute to having an amicable multi-species family.

What Makes a Good Relationship?

Overall, most owners reported that their pets seemed to get along well. On a scale of 1 to 10 where 1 was “can’t stand each other” and 10 was “close companions,” few ratings of 4 and below were found. Most relationships fell in the middle although there were a few “best buddy” scores of 9 or 10. Pets with the best relationships were reported to sometimes play together or groom one another, and some even shared food, toys, and beds.

The details suggest that if harmony is the goal, owners should pay special attention to the feline side of the relationship. While owners only rarely perceived their pets as seeming uncomfortable with one another, when they were, it was far more often the cat who was uneasy. Although pets were rarely reported to have injured each other, scuffles more often involved the cat threatening the dog than vice versa.

Age and Environment are Important

When researchers looked at factors found to correlate with better relationships, what was most important was the cat’s comfort level with the dog. The best relationships were those that reported a low frequency of incidents in which the cat appeared uncomfortable. Frequency of the dog’s discomfort was less crucial. Of the demographic factors, the most important was that the cat had been introduced to the dog at a young age – the dog’s age was less important.

Cats who lived indoors full time had better relationships (letting cats go outdoors is still common in the UK compared to the US). This suggests that the more time cats spend with others in the household, the more likely they are to eventually develop good relationships.

Dealing with Conflict

It’s important to note that the study was based on owner observations, not those of trained behavior experts.

“It would be a good follow-up study to see whether behaviorists’ views of how well they’re getting on match up with owners’ views,” says Zazie Todd, Ph.D., author of the website Companion Animal Psychology and the Psychology Today blog Fellow Creatures. “Some signs of stress, like avoiding being in the same room, people might be a bit more likely to miss, but we haven’t assessed that directly so we can’t be sure.”

Since people may not notice subtle signs of conflict and discomfort, dealing with the more obvious ones is important, even if they aren’t ending in bloodshed. Dogs chasing cats is sometimes seen as inevitable, so you may need to explain to clients that it is possible to train a dog not to pester a cat using positive methods.

Appropriate expectations are also important. “It does sometimes happen that a cat and a dog become good friends, but I think one of the striking things from the study is that the relationships mostly weren’t that close,” says Todd. Owners should see lack of conflict as a success, even if the pets don’t seem to be best buddies.

Along with training the dog, though, it’s important to give the cat some control. Make sure owners are providing high places and secluded spots where the dog can’t follow and feeding the cat in an area inaccessible to the dog. Try to see things from the feline point of view – what can be done to help the cat avoid conflict in the first place? Says Todd, “You have to think about helping the cat not to be stressed and to feel safe, as well as training the dog how to behave.”

This article was reviewed/edited by board-certified veterinary behaviorist Dr. Kenneth Martin and/or veterinary technician specialist in behavior Debbie Martin, LVT.

Animal Trainer Proactive and Preventive Training

Course Overview

In this course, you will learn ways in which the Fear Free Animal Trainer can partner in Fear Free efforts to keep animals calm during veterinary care, procedures, and even on the day of surgery. This includes teaching animals the concept of a Treat-Ment station, training them to accept passive restraint, and acclimating them to sounds and equipment used during common diagnostic procedures.

While it’s impossible to train for every possible scenario, general training strategies can be practiced, such as training a dog to lie on his side while being handled, preparing him for an injection, or teaching him to indicate his willing consent for handling or care.

Through several in-hospital and at-home video tutorials, you will learn step-by-step how to proactively prepare animals for procedures such as ECGs, radiographs, ultrasounds, surgery, and more.

This module has been approved for 1.5 CEUs from CCPDT, IAABC, and KPA as well as 1 RACE approved CE hour.

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