# A problem at the vet



## Loki.777 (Aug 25, 2020)

So my shepherd is 14 months and just went to the vet for his annual checkup. It was a bit of a disaster to say the least.

We were waiting by the car due to covid restrictions. A female vet comes charging out full of energy , starts baby talking towards Finn , reaching out to touch to him and make a big fuss it him.

This triggered Finn to get super excited (I don't normally allow him it interact with people that deliberately try to excite him but this was the only vet working and he needed to see her).

Her super high energy charge at him excited him big time and he jumped up on her! She backs off. Then he starts excitingly barking at her.

The vet becomes visible scared of him at this point. His excitement increases because he can't physically get to her at this point. So I have to temporarily remove him from the situation. Stick a muzzle on him and approach the vet again.

She super wary of him this time. She's no longer excitable, so Finn is no longer excited by her. He gets his booster ,she examines a cyst on his head. 

The muzzle gets taken of and he literally completely ignores her. She's calmly petting him after the examination, Finn is at this point acting like she doesn't exist. 

He has a trigger . Extremely over the top excited people set him off . Obviously I don't want him around these people anyways but sometimes you will encounter them in real life. So it's something I need to deal with occasionaly.

We are begginers in schutzhund and he's amazing in club. We are always getting complement about how well we are progressing. He's good on and off leash. Has great obedience at club,. Constantly working around other dogs and people. 

He's actually really calm and good with people UNLESS I encounter someone like the vet today and he loses his cool.

I'm hoping when we progress in schutzhund and really get into doing obedience in protection I'd develop a lot more control in this drive.

Im also wondering would it be possible to change his emotional response to people who seem to purposely want to amp him up?


I literally encountered a similar women yesterday. She briskly walked at us shouting "puppy" in baby voice with an outreach hand ready to pet him. 

I this situation I could tell her "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" and keep him heeling and focusing on me and ignore her/carry on with our walk. The situation allowed us to avoid her invaded our space.

I'd say 90% of the time I can stop interactions like this but sometimes today I have to deal with it ? Opinions?


I don't want it to keep happening or it to become a habit. Don't want it screwing up his BH . If it was this vets job to scan him we would have been instantly disqualified!


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## ChickiefromTN (Jun 16, 2020)

I don't have any suggestions for you, I know exactly what you mean though. I've never heard as much high pitched baby talking in my life as there is at my vet's office. My husband can't even stand to go in there. I wish I could find an all male vet's office, lol!

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## Loki.777 (Aug 25, 2020)

ChickiefromTN said:


> I don't have any suggestions for you, I know exactly what you mean though. I've never heard as much high pitched baby talking in my life as there is at my vet's office. My husband can't even stand to go in there. I wish I could find an all male vet's office, lol!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


How does your dog respond to excited people like that ?

I would love to get to the point mine becomes indifferent.


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## davewis (Jan 7, 2020)

As a pup, I socialized Ole to be able to cope with these situations by going to the local university Quad and hanging out around noon.

At a university, there is no end to unusual-looking people doing unexpected things. This one time some people were playing frisbee and didn't even invite Ole to join. Weird


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## Loki.777 (Aug 25, 2020)

davewis said:


> As a pup, I socialized Ole to be able to cope with these situations by going to the local university Quad and hanging out around noon.
> 
> At a university, there is no end to unusual-looking people doing unexpected things. This one time some people were playing frisbee and didn't even invite Ole to join. Weird


I've done loads of things like this too. With Finn I can take him anywhere. He deals with different environments well and will ignore people, dogs , or whatever. 

Until I encounter someone tries to get up in his face.


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## Pytheis (Sep 23, 2016)

Did you tell the vet that her behavior was completely stupid and she should have known better? If she started that with my dog, I would have very firmly told her to knock it off because his behavior was a direct result of hers. I wouldn’t have allowed him to interact with her until he calmed down and she was behaving better. Sheesh.

As far as teaching him to be under control when people do that, find a friend or family member you can practice this with. Have them act like a fool at a distance he can tolerate by still paying attention to you, then slowly have them move closer. His obedience needs to be rock solid, so even if someone is being a dummy, he will ignore them and work with you.


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## WNGD (Jan 15, 2005)

ChickiefromTN said:


> I don't have any suggestions for you, I know exactly what you mean though. I've never heard as much high pitched baby talking in my life as there is at my vet's office. My husband can't even stand to go in there. I wish I could find an all male vet's office, lol!
> 
> Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk


For most dogs, the baby talk or friendly pitch puts them at ease and let's them know the vet is no threat. I hate it but vets wouldn't be doing it if it didn't work for the vast majority of dogs. I'm lucky my (female) vet has a GSD herself and works very well with mine. That being said, I won't go back until I can go in with them and they're due for rabies shots this year.


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## Biscuit (Mar 24, 2020)

I agree with WNGD above, don't blame the vet. It's probably a tactic that works with lots of dogs and makes them feel at ease to be walking away from the owner with a strange person. Next time before your appointment just remind them with a quick phone call that your dog works best with calm and neutral environments.


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## berno von der seeweise (Mar 8, 2020)

OR look for a rural vet that is familiar/comfortable with drivey working dogs

a vet with some "horsesense," if you will


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## davewis (Jan 7, 2020)

The vet's office was a challenge for us as well. I'll bet my local vet's office only sees a handful of GSDs a year. The normal tricks they learn to relax other dogs annoy dogs like Ole.

Prior to Covid, we made many trips to the vet's office to get the hang of it. Both for Ole to get used to the surroundings and for the staff to get used to Ole. Once everyone got used to the routine it goes pretty well. Most problems, at least for us, happen when I or the other person are in a hurry and don't listen to Ole's signals.

I taught Ole to jump up on the rickety stainless steel exam table on command. It helps him feel like he is not being pushed around and it helps that staff know that with calm commands I can control my dog so they can focus on the medicine.


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## Bearshandler (Aug 29, 2019)

For Cion it comes down to impulse control exercises. He gets rewarded fir not breaking and corrected for breaking. As he got use to passing and being around people without interacting it became less of a problem. As for the vet, I would call and have them make a note of how you want them to handle your dog. I have to be careful of Cion with them because he doesn’t respect them and so they can struggle controlling him. If he had a prong on he would come up the leash though.


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## kr16 (Apr 30, 2011)

I have the vet come to my house. Sooo much better. See if that is available by you. It is getting popular and lots of vets are now doing this


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## Loki.777 (Aug 25, 2020)

Biscuit said:


> I agree with WNGD above, don't blame the vet. It's probably a tactic that works with lots of dogs and makes them feel at ease to be walking away from the owner with a strange person. Next time before your appointment just remind them with a quick phone call that your dog works best with calm and neutral environments.



You're probably right. It just caught me off guard..

It was his first trip to the vet since he was a really young puppy getting his inntial injections. 

The vet I usually see with my older dog is actually really calm and he doesn't really acknowledge the dog. So I suppose I was just expecting that approach. 

I think the lesson learned is to speak to the 
vet prior and ask for the vet there who's approach I know would definitely would work with Finn and mention to keep the interaction calm and non excitable. 


I suppose they can't instantly read every dog and just do what they normally have success with.


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## Honey Maid (Dec 25, 2020)

Strange that a Vet would behave like that. I would hope a Vet would be mature enough to know to talk, and behave, calmly for *ALL *her patients. Getting the patients excited from the get go is not good practice.


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## ChickiefromTN (Jun 16, 2020)

Mine don't like any stranger getting in their face, especially baby talking. They do much better with just a down to business exam or shots with the vet and I talking. When my oldest girl was 6 months old, I had to almost physically stop one of the vet techs from putting her face right in my girls face to keep her from getting bit. Why you would ever swiftly put your face in the face of any strange dog is beyond me. 

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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

While I would not tell the vet that her behavior was stupid, I would tell her how to behave around my dog. Indeed I tell them not to sweet talk or coo at my dogs. It makes me dogs nuts and it makes me nuts. So - next time, I would say when you call to tell them you have arrived - please remember to have a calm approach to us. And if that might fail, have the dog in the vehicle and you outside to walk to the car with the vet. There ARE work arounds and using your voice is one. There's no need to disrespect someone who made a mistake. They know they made a mistake. Just tell them how to do it differently in the future.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

Do you have fear free vets available? Part of the fear free environment is a calm confident vet. I never let anyone outside my family take the leash except our trainer, so I was nervous dropping him off in the parking lot for his annual exam. I gave them a muzzle, but the tech came out to get him and said We are old friends. Maybe it was the mask, but I didn’t recognize her. I warned her if he gets excited, he will not behave for her. The vets and the techs are all extremely calm and treat animals with respect. He ended up having an excellent exam, due to their handling methods and many prior visits to the office to get to know the staff going back to when he was a puppy.


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## GSD07 (Feb 23, 2007)

It depends on the dog. Baby talking absolutely worked for one of my dogs, he just liked it. “Oh, show me your little paw, oh, what a good boy” worked very well and made the visits easy and happy. Our vet always took time for all this sweet talk, she knew that she had to earn and ask for his cooperation every time. 

My current dog is still very young and like yours will absolutely jump up if someone baby talks but he has zero problems with handling, and our vet is experienced with working dogs. She would just laugh and say “ok, enough with this” and grab his paw or looks in his mouth whatever. Find a vet that is good with your dogs.


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