Preparing Fearful Dogs for Vaccinations with Cooperative Care

Abstract

Abstract Cooperative care is connected to consent in many ways and is used to empower dogs and improve their emotional wellness. It allows our dogs to have control over handling that is often forceful and invasive. Cooperative care utilizes a two-way communication system. (1) We provide information to our dogs by teaching them how consent behaviour works and how they can use it to consent or withdraw their consent at any given time. We also teach them the sequence of events that will follow by using predictive cues that provide our dogs with information to make educated decisions. (2) It also gives humans a clear way to understand, beyond the sometimes-subtle body language dogs use to communicate, if the dog is consenting or not. In this article, the patient, Juno, demonstrates that cooperative care not only improves the emotional wellness of dogs, but it builds a relationship based on trust, and it reduces the chances of human-directed aggressive behaviours. Information © The Author 2023