Ear infection treatments have ruined trust and recall

[KIM HOLLOWAY]

I've been with my 4 month old poodle for one month. I had him for nearly 1 week, prior to his first vet visit with me. He had reasonably good recall but since I had to administer ear medication twice a day for 2 weeks he now doesn't trust me and completely ingnores "come". He has gotten better with me handling his ears (still takes a long time with lots of treats if I need to put anything in his ears) but if I ask him to "come" he will sheepishly walk away and lay on his bed or anywhere away from me. Treats or "come" will not lure him away from wherever he has planted himself. The moment I ignore him and walk away, he follows. Appreciate your help. Thanks, Kim

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there,

Welcome to the forums!

I am sorry to hear that this ear infection and its associated treatment has put a dent into your training and your pup has developed trust issues. This is a tough situation because treatment is important and our pups don't understand it's for their own good. 

To better understand the situation, I have a few questions:

-Have you been calling your pup when you have to give the ear drops?

-Is the ear infection gone now, or do you still have to administer ear drops?

-Does he act distrustful/wary of you in other contexts other than when you call him?

Like is he wary of you moving towards him or petting him?

When you have to feed him, does he come rushing to you?

When you have a toy to give him will he readily approach?

Will he readily chase you if you run away?

Does he go on walks with you?

Does he play with you?

Are you the only one involved in the ear treatment or are other family members involved?

Thanks!

[KIM HOLLOWAY]

Hi Adrienne

Thank you for your response! 🙂 I really appreciate your time. I've put responses to your questions below:

-Have you been calling your pup when you have to give the ear drops? Yes, I was using 'come' and he would come readily (until he caught on that he was getting ear drops)

-Is the ear infection gone now, or do you still have to administer ear drops? I no longer have to use drops but I still have to clean his ears twice a day with a solution. I've started squeezing solution into his ears and massaging it in. He much prefers this.

-Does he act distrustful/wary of you in other contexts other than when you call him? No

Like is he wary of you moving towards him or petting him? No

When you have to feed him, does he come rushing to you? Yes

When you have a toy to give him will he readily approach? Yes

Will he readily chase you if you run away? Yes

Does he go on walks with you? Yes - twice a day. Big walk in the morning followed by a sniff walk for him around the block in the evening

Does he play with you? Yes

Are you the only one involved in the ear treatment or are other family members involved? Hubby sometimes helps but he's generally more responsive to me as I'm with him 98% of the time.

BUT, good news (I think) - the other day I got a high commodity treat then put him outside. I would then go out, let him sniff my hand, move back then call come. If he didn't come I would ignore him and go back inside. I repeated this until he started to come to me. It took me about an hour but he slowly started to come. It's also working inside. I believe this is a step in the right direction but is there something better I should try? He's such a good boy and we're both really enjoying your online training so again, thank you very much 🙂 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi Kim, thank you so much for the extra details! They are very helpful.

So in this case, we are dealing with what is known in technical terms as a 'poisoned cue.'

Basically, if day after day, you call your dog when you need to apply ear drops, and your dog dreads this activity, you may notice your dog will start walking towards you very, very slowly and tentatively or may decide to avoid coming to you altogether. Worse case scenario: the dog will be hiding somewhere or missing in action.

To remedy the situation, you will have to 1) train a new recall that you will use exclusively for pleasant things, 2) find alternate ways to calling when you need to carry out the unpleasant task 3) make your ultimate goal making the task more pleasant. 

Let's delve a little bit deeper on this:

-Find An Alternate to Calling

When you need to clean your dog's ears, you will have to get quite creative so to find a way to get ahold of your dog without using an cues. You need to be vary careful because dogs have the uncanny ability to associate one event with another. 

For example, if you show a bag a treats and your dog comes rushing towards you, eats the treat and then as he's eating, you air lift him on your lap to have his ears treated, chances are high next time you open that bag of treats, he'll be reluctant to come to you. 

It may therefore help to break the associations between one event and another, however, this should be only short-term as the ultimate goal is to make the ear treatment less dreadful to the dog (we will see how in the next section).

-Break the Chain of Events

How can you break the associations between one event and another? By avoiding predictability and changing the events leading to the treatment. 

- For example, you may one day grab the leash, clip it to your dog's collar and right by the door treat his ear (trying to make it as pleasant as possible) praise and immediately going on a walk. 

-The next day, you may have guests over, and as he's greeting, you may quickly treat his ear and then return him to greeting the guests. 

-The following day, you may take him on a car ride, and before he goes meet his friends at the dog park, you may treat his ears. 

Remember: the ultimate goal is creating positive associations with the ear treatment which is discussed below 

-Create Positive Associations

Since you are forced to treat your dog's ears, you might as well do everything possible to make the treatment the least aversive as possible to your dog. 

You can accomplish this by taking some time in creating positive associations with the whole treatment plan. 

For example, you can start by presenting the ear drop bottle and feeding your dog a treat for looking at it. Rinse and repeat several times. 

Next, raise criteria and give a treat when your dog sniffs the bottle. 

Next, start touching the edge of your dog's ear, and feed a treat. Touch-treat, touch-treat, touch-treat several times. 

Next, touch your dog's ear a little more. Touch-treat, touch-treat, touch-treat several times.

Next, pretend to touch your dog's ear as if about to put the drops, but without doing so. Touch-treat, touch-treat, touch-treat several times.

Next, start touching the edge of your dog's ear with the closed bottle, and feed a treat. Touch-treat, touch-treat, touch-treat several times. 

Next, pretend to touch your dog's ear as if about to put the drops with the bottle, but without doing so. Touch-treat, touch-treat, touch-treat several times.

Next, instill a drop into the canal and massage the ear as you happily praise and drop several treats to the ground(jackpot!) always praising your dog lavishly like if he's the done the best thing ever and he's the best doggy in the world. 

It's very important that you watch your dog closely for signs of stress https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/signs-fear-stress-dogs/

and work at your dog's level of comfort and watch for signs of him going over threshold:

 https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

Remember to break the task down into smaller parts as needed and to progress very gradually, always working at a level that causes the less stress to your dog using a desensitization approach:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/desensitization/

Aim to creative lots of positive associations using counterconditioning:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/counterconditioning/

See if you can eventually get a positive conditioned emotional response:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/conditioned-emotional-response-cer/

I worked with a Pomeranian who dreaded being brushed, and by using these methods after a couple of weeks, as soon as she saw the brush, she would leap on the couch for being groomed (and all the associated tasty treats). I made this "our special time," and made it extra salient by initially not giving her much of this special attention at other times. 

-Inform Your Dog What's About to Happen

Once your dog appears calmer with the whole treatment plan and starts showing signs of tolerating the procedure or even enjoying some parts of it, you may add a cue word that informs your dog what is about to happen. 

You can say something that exudes something happy is about to happen such as "cuddle times" or "treat party!" 

However, this many not be necessarily needed as there may be other cues at play (such as getting the ear drop bottle and sitting in a particular spot), as it happened with the Pom I worked with where just seeing the brush informed her of what was happening next, but it can turn helpful for us in remembering to create lots of positive vibes.

*Use this cue only once your dog is giving clear signs of doing better, if you use it when your dog seems to still struggle, this can become poisoned too just as the recall. 

-Act Calm and Confident

Dogs are masters in detecting our emotions when we are nervous about something. It is therefore important that we stay calm and confident when administering those ear drops to your dog. Your dog will likely pick up these positive emotions and should feel more at ease and comfortable. 

-Train a New Recall Cue 

Since your former recall has been "poisoned" it's important to introduce a new cue so that you can start from fresh. Train it from scratch starting in a quiet, low-distraction environment and make it extra fun, praising and giving treats when he rushes to you.

Take advantage of your poodle loving his food and toys, by calling him when you need to feed him or give him a new toy. Then start calling him as you hold the food bowl or toy behind your back and surprise him with once he rushes towards you. 

You recall exercise seems good, but I would aim to set him for success so to lower as much as possible the chances of him ignoring you. Every time we are ignored, we risk weakening our recall a bit. 

Outside may be a little too distracting, but if you have always given the ear drops indoors, it can be the best option for now, although I would suggest starting in a neutral indoor room where ear drops were never applied (I like to use the hallway).

Having a helper hold him gently can help build some anticipation as you call him happily kneeling down at the opposite end. If your pup doesn't seem too motivated, you can try running to the opposite end so that you can time your recall with when your pup starts showing signs of wanting to rush towards you.

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/recall/

This is the method I generally use, but of course, use whatever works best for you to get your pup rushing to you.

Every pup is different, so we need to consider here several individual factors, such as whether your husband holding him can make your pup think he's being restrained for ear treatment? If so, we would need to work more on restrain (collar grabs) and handling exercises:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/exercises-to-teach-puppies-to-tolerate-touch/

So stick to what seems to work best in getting your pup rushing to you and protect this new recall cue, by using it only and exclusively for pleasant things. 

If you need your pup's immediately attention and you're not sure if he'll come, rather than risk your recall going to deaf ears, try running away and once your pup reaches you, praise and give treats.

Playing hide and seek can also be a great bonding game for when he's getting good at his recall again. Since your pup is young and likely hasn't mastered a strong stay yet, have a helper hold him as you hide starting in very easy places. 

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/university/hide-and-seek/

What if I need to call my dog for an unpleasant task? Use your alternative options to calling for when you need to do the unpleasant task for the time being, but again, your ultimate goal is creating positive associations with the the ear treatment/unpleasant task.

-Look for a fear-free vet clinic

Once you have worked so hard to create positive associations with the ear treatment, make sure you protect all your hard work by taking him to vets and groomers who adhere to the "fear-free movement" and take steps to make vet visits and grooming sessions more pleasant for dogs.

All our hard work can be easily undone if a vet or groomer handles our pups roughly and just one incident can be enough (it's called single-event learning).

I hope this helps with your poodle and that you can soon restore your wonderful relationship! Keep us posted on how things go. 

Happy training!

Best,

Adrienne 

[KIM HOLLOWAY]

Hi Adrienne

Amazing! Thanks for such a thorough breakdown. That makes complete sense and something I will start working on with Charlie right away 🙂 I'll be sure to not make any more cues poisonous! I will keep you posted on how we're going.

Thanks

Kim

 

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You are very welcome! Charlie is in great hands, he is so lucky to have such a dedicated and concerned owner as you. You recognized the issue early and he's so young, so he should bounce back as you keep on making all those positive things happens. 

Have fun with him!

Best,

Adrienne