OMG! My cat/dog has a medical issue and needs to take medicine daily! What to do? I’ve never given him medications and pills.
Teach Your Pet About Medications and Pills Now!
There are so many things that your pet needs to learn! You begin as soon as you bring your new pet home; in fact, you already began the moment you made contact with the animal that will become yours. Your new pet needs to learn about you, her new home, and the experiences that will be part of her life for the next umpteen years.
Some people believe that animals should simply “put up with” being examined by vets, being groomed, getting picked up and carried, whether they enjoy it or not. Nope. This should be part of the socialization process. Many people are familiar with the term “socialization” for young puppies and kittens, but they may not fully understand what it means. It does not mean socializing with other animals of their own species; that tends to first occur naturally within their litter. Socializing with other dogs is important, but not so much during that crucial “socialization period.”
What is “Socialization”?
“Socialization” is meant to describe preparing young animals for their future lives. In species as varied as horses and birds, the process is called “imprinting,” which is a little more descriptive. Animals need to have a chance to “imprint on” or learn about all the things in the human-centered world in which they will live. These include the humans themselves along with all the stuff that surrounds us. It might work to call this process “getting used to stuff” but we humans sometimes get lazy about our own roles in the process and forget to make sure these new things don’t provoke fear.
Puppies are open for exposure to new experiences without fear until the age of about four months. After that, new objects and events are likely to come with a fear response requiring effort to overcome. Socialization is the process of carefully exposing young animals to the things that are likely to be part of their lives, including humans, fire hydrants, the vet’s office, household noises, car rides, and so much more, in a way that allows an animal to be curious and not make a negative association.
What is “Cooperative Care”?
When taken on deliberately and with commitment to help a puppy develop to his best level, socialization includes cooperative care. Cooperative care refers to teaching animals what to expect during handling, medical care, and grooming. It means giving them the opportunity to choose to participate rather than forcibly holding them down and expecting them to tolerate it.
Better Late Than Never!
If you get a pet who has already left puppyhood or kittenhood behind, you can and should take on “Remedial Socialization” to condition him to the human world. Cooperative care is an important part. “Pill Taking 101” is simple and helpful to start on at any time. You never know when a bad-tasting pill might need to go down the hatch!
Medications and Pills Begin with Mouth Handling
Start by conditioning your dog or cat to have his mouth touched. Touch in a way that helps his mouth relax and can lead to him voluntarily opening his mouth. Each tiny touch should be followed by a treat, in order to employ Pavlovian or Classical conditioning to create a reflex. As with all training, never keep pushing to the point of failure. Stop and reinforce with a treat while the behavior is going well. Take your time and watch the behavior develop, easily and simply, with minimal effort.
The key is not to push for results, but to work with your dog to recognize the subtle indications that she is feeling more or less comfortable with the process of conditioning. You have to work with her at her level; with the behaviors she presents. If she’s more worried, move more slowly; less so, forge ahead!
Keep Training Sessions Short
Extend the amount of time you’re touching the lips; include pushing the lip up a little as you progress. Use a lot of treats! One good way to keep training sessions short is to set out 10 treats, follow the touch/treat procedure at the pet’s current level, and stop the session when you’ve given the last treat. You can do another short session later.
Watch the Mouth Start to Relax!
It’s likely you’ll see the pet’s mouth begin to open a little bit as you progress, because the mouth will relax through this process if you’re doing it well. When this happens, you can start pushing your finger into the pet’s mouth as it starts to open, encouraging it to open a little further. Do this only when the mouth is relaxed and the pet is ready to cooperate, volunteering to offer you his open mouth. From this point, you’ll be working on having the mouth open just a little wider and for just a little longer. The procedure is simply: Open mouth – offer treat.
Choose a Location
At this point, I like to be practicing this process in a particular spot. Have the pet come to a place where it’s easy for you to see and comfortable for both of you. For a cat, you might want to have him up on a bar stool. For a large dog, sitting on a mat can be helpful. This position and location will become associated with the process of pill-taking if you ever need to give pills. This is one application for “mat training” – getting on the mat, or assigned location, gets the pet a treat. Volunteering to have his mouth handled also gets a treat. Opening the mouth does, too! Now you’re adding to the procedure: Sit in the location – offer treat – open mouth – offer treat. You can start each session with simple mouth handling to work your way into mouth opening.
Open Mouth, Insert Treat
The next step is to place a treat into the mouth when you open it. You don’t want to destroy the behavior you’ve built by giving a pill at this point! You can also start to introduce a syringe with yummy bone broth or baby food in it. Make sure a drop is at the end of the syringe as you place it on the pet’s tongue so she tastes it immediately. This procedure is: Go to location – offer treat – open mouth – put treat or drop of yummy liquid on tongue.
Tell Your Pet You’re Starting, or Let Him Tell You!
I like to introduce a touch signal or a hand signal at this point, to indicate to the pet that we’re about to start the “pill-giving procedure.” For my cat, Peanut, I would touch his chin lightly. He would immediately relax his mouth, ready to open it. The procedure has now grown into: Go to location – offer treat – touch chin to signal – touch lip to gently open mouth – put treat or liquid on tongue.
The signal for my dog, Albert, is holding my hand up for him to touch with the side of his muzzle. Rather than touching him, I “ask” him to touch my hand with his face. It’s a target behavior, just like when he touches my hand or a target stick with the front of his muzzle. We practiced this one separately from the pill-taking procedure and then integrated it with opening the mouth. Now the procedure is: Go to location – offer treat – give hand signal – he places the side of his muzzle in my hand – I touch his lip and gently open his mouth – put treat or liquid on tongue.
A Helpful Device for Medications and Pills
Now you’re ready to introduce the piller device, or to push a pill down the pet’s throat. A piller ensures the pill goes far enough down the esophagus that the animal doesn’t spit it out. It may even be safer because it eliminates the risk of scratching the throat with your fingernail. For cats, with their tiny throats, a piller really makes the process easy. But you can certainly use a finger to push a pill down if necessary. Here’s an example of a piller you can purchase; I highly recommend it!
Introduce the piller as you did the syringe. In fact, you can get the piller early on and introduce it as you would a syringe, using it to place drops of tasty liquid on the pet’s tongue. You can also practice offering a solid treat from the piller, just as you’d offer it from your fingers. Let your pet lick the treat out of the device. When you’re both ready, use the piller to drop the treat onto the tongue. Graduate to putting the treat down the pet’s throat with the piller, followed by another treat. You can see that the main idea is to give the pet a chance to learn about each individual step before asking her to go through the whole procedure. By doing this, she can feel confident and literally volunteer for each step.
The final set of behaviors looks like this: Go to location – offer treat – signal pill-poking process – give the pill – offer treat – release the pet to go about her business.
“Sandwich Medications and Pills Between Treats”
You can see inside this process the often-recommended “treat – pill – treat” routine, but it’s broken down to effectively show the pet what is about to happen and what he should do as your cooperative partner. You’ll prevent fears from brewing and encourage continuing cooperation throughout the pet’s life. Practicing this early will help you during the pet’s later years, when she is more likely to need medications for pain or chronic health issues.
How Do You Know Your Pet is Ready?
Remember that we are training voluntary cooperation with a procedure that is not inherently fun. As with any set of behaviors, we teach each tiny bit of the process separately, using treats to set up great associations for the pet with each part. Doing it the exact same way each time, in the same place, helps pets learn what to expect and feel confident in choosing the behaviors they use to help you give them pills. Read the body language of softness and relaxation to tell when the pet is ready to move forward.
You’ll See Results Right Away – But Keep Training!
As with all positive training, using classical and operant conditioning, just doing a few sessions will help. Of course, I recommend following through to your goal of having your pet look forward to taking a pill and help you get it done! But every session will help your pet get better and offer benefits for both of you. Play the game and enjoy the benefits!
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