Howie Needs Your Help

Now I need your advice for us.

I was trying to get a picture of his pretty new Wonder Walker

In addition to his double ear infection, Howie had two very bad teeth. Last Wednesday, he had dental surgery to remove them. The good news was that his ears looked good (no more drops) and there weren’t any problems with the surgery. He came out of anesthesia just fine.

However, he was sensitive (really sensitive) when we went to remove the wrap from where his IV had been. And he remained sensitive about moving his collar around, no matter where he was on the pain pill cycle.

I was out of town this weekend and C and J managed to get his harness on him, because that ended up being the safest way to get a leash on him to get out. (He was snapping at people when they tried to move his collar to attach the leash.)

He didn’t like having the harness on 24/7 though, so I went ahead and decided to take it off this morning. I was able to unclip it, but he snapped at me when I tried to touch his foot to get it out from the loop. So I left the harness loose until the strap slipped out, and we didn’t have to touch his feet. He was still snapping at me when I simply tried to reach for the harness to pull it off over his head.

Here’s the thing- we don’t think he’s actually in pain anymore. While he was sitting and relaxed, I kept his attention focused on me, and C slipped the harness off over his head from behind him. No reaction whatsoever- not even when C tucked his tags under the collar of the harness.

He’ll also sit with his leg pressed right up against me when he wants attention.

So, it appears to us that he’s snapping in anticipation of pain, not real pain. And our question is- how do we get him to realize that it doesn’t hurt anymore without one of us actually getting bitten? Or hurting him because he’s tensed up so much?

This was the best picture of it for a while, as he kept running away from me while I had the camera

Now, I did buy him his own Wonder Walker today because they go on and come off so much more easily. It’s been put on, taken off, and put on, taken off, and put on again with only one little snap when we were trying to adjust it. But for the most part, he doesn’t seem to mind it, and he doesn’t have the association with it of hurt, so we’ve got that.

But, I’d like to be able to pet him and accidentally brush his front leg, or scritch his ears, or touch his collar, without having to sneak up on him or getting snapped at.

So any thoughts? How do we help him understand that it doesn’t hurt anymore? (He is still on pain pills and antibiotics, so it’s possible that at times it does hurt, but we usually don’t try to mess with anything that might hurt unless it’s 1-3 hours after taking an 8-12 hour pain pill.)

I have no issues with him remaining unadoptable for health reasons, but I don’t want him to be unadoptable for behavior reasons. He didn’t snap when he came to us. How do we get him to stop?

But he finally settled in a way where I could get a good picture

Jodi Stone says:

September 11, 2012 at 8:59 am

Does he know to offer you his paw? If so that might be one option. Ask him to offer paw and give him a treat, that would be my thoughts.

ErinShanendoah says:

September 12, 2012 at 8:04 am

We haven't worked extensively on hand signals with him, so at this point I would say he doesn't know to give us a paw, but we could easily work on teaching him hand signals and to give us the paw he's not sensitive about and then see if we can translate that into the paw that he is.

bringingupbella says:

September 11, 2012 at 10:42 am

Oh poor Howie. 🙁 This is actually something we've dealt with in Bella as well – sometimes she reacts to the fear that something will hurt more than any actual pain. I don't suppose you have him trained to accept a muzzle, do you? I have been working with Bella to acclimate her to one for a little while now. Because even if we can teach her something doesn't hurt right now, we can't guarantee how she'll react in the future if at some point she does hurt herself. So we want her to be comfortable with a muzzle.

The only thing I can think of to teach Howie it's not going to hurt to touch him is to touch him without hurting him. You have to prove it to him. In order to that and be safe, though, he should be muzzled. Even if it's just for 30 seconds at a time.

I have to admit though, I'd recommend getting a professional to help you with this one.

ErinShanendoah says:

September 12, 2012 at 8:07 am

We haven't trained him with a muzzle. Prior to the ear infection/teeth getting really bad, it never occurred to us that we would need to. He has such a sweet disposition overall. (And even when he snaps, his reaction ofter is immidiate apology- he doesn't want to snap.) He did pretty well when the vet put a muzzle on to check his ears at the start, so we might end up going that route.

He did seem better yesterday, and today is just one week since the surgery, so we're going to give him until his two week follow up with the vet to see if he can get past this on his own before we try to force the issue with a muzzle.
1. Leslie says:
  
  September 12, 2012 at 12:35 pm
  
  Believe me, I can commiserate. We never thought we'd need it for Bella either but when pain is involved, everything change. I'm glad he's doing better already. It may indeed just take some time. Good luck!

2 Punk Dogs says:

September 12, 2012 at 5:58 pm

I agree with Jodi on using treat training to desensitize him if he's food motivated.