my dog hates the vet

dntd

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My 3 year old bichon almost ate the vet today! She really went for him. She has never bit anyone since she was a puppy. This vet when she was younger held her muzzle and turned her over as a way of dominating her. he now claimes she has fear agressions! she hasn't been to the vet often just for needles but geez you would have thought by the reactions my dogs had that I was going to ut them down! Ifeel like a crappy owner, not to mention I didn't give my dog heart worm meds last year, hopefully she's negative!
 
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Find a new vet. You don't flip a fearful dog over. That's a good way to cause fear agression and biting. Your vet has caused a behavior problem in your dog that could be dangerous. I'd fire him and make sure everyone I talked to within 100miles of him knew about it.

Step 2 work on bite inhibition and positive vet trips. Bite inhibition teaches the dog how hard they need to bite and when. Majority of it comes from their handling as a puppy but adults can be improved. Games that encourage biting of objects or gentle mouthing of arms with a release when you say so will help teach them how hard to grab and when to stop. Positive trips to the vet will help teach them that it's unnecessary to get defensive and bite in that situation. Find a good vet that will allow you to just drop by every so often and have them feed the dog treats and play with it. Then when you have an appointment start with some play, make sure the dog is not too wound up, and smoothly move in to the actual reason for the visit. With my defensive akita who had a bad vet experience (not the fault of the vet but of complications from spay surgery) we frequently drop by just to put her on the scale, give her a treat, and let everyone talk to her before going to the dog park. She's still bruised the vet twice but she hates being touched by people in the first place so being poked with needles in a place that bad things happened is plenty of reason for her to react. However because she has good bite inhibition, the vet has commented on it, she will not actually bite. She just taps arms or hands enough to leave a little red mark or pinched skin resulting in a bruise. She knows how and when to give warning without flying out of control because it's been taught to her every time we went anywhere and every game we played from the time she was a puppy. She also knows I will not force her back in to a bad situation like repeatedly seeing a bad vet.
 
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Vets are some of the very worst people to get dog training advice from. I have often heard the very worst tips from Vets. The issue is they **THINK** they know what they are talking about, and they, more often than not, have not a clue.

Your dog is afraid of her Vet Im sure. After being alpha rolled for so-called biting issue as a frickin puppy!!!!!!
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Not cool. I wonder how many times a day this Vet gets bitten just because this Doctor is a moron.
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Anyway what Akane said is solid advice. But I wouldn't allow any biting soft or no from your dog. Change Vets and reteach her that they are ok and not a menace. Good luck with it!
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Akane's advice is sound.

With ANY animal, positive experiences are best. Ask around for other vets, even if you have to drive a little further. Let vet talk to and pet dog for a bit before working on her.
 
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Ditto.

Believe me, I've been to about a hundred vets with my Chow mix .....but we did find one that she likes!!!!!!!!!!! Chows are anti-strangers, but even she can click with the right person!
 
My dog adores my vet.... when we pull into the parking lot he is in my lap wanting to get out to go in the clinic (he weighs over 100lbs!). Why? because from the time I got him at 9 weeks we made weekly trips to the vet... weight, treats, stethoscopes, tables.
You can do the same thing for an adult dog, but the first move will be to find a vet who is in the business because they love animals.
Once you find a new vet (which I strongly agree with) , take your dog just to the parking lot - treat, brag, play and leave. FOr the first visit plan to just have her weighed,e tc. then treat brag play and leave.

Dogs know people better than we do, I think she had a very valid and open opinion.

(and put her on heartworm preventative
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She's going on the preventitive in june as that's when the season starts, thats why ahe needed to be tested though to treat them you can use the proventive for 30 months, she's too small for the one time treatment.
 
Yep, trust the dogs instincts and find a different vet.
What an idiot.
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