Ear Work

Every time I bring out the ear medication bottle (even before I touch or look at the bottle), Boogie KNOWS what is going to happen. He can read me like a book. He makes himself very small, like a turtle, and creeps very low to the ground, slinking away under a chair or into his crate.

I have tried counter conditioning with treats. Things went well (the bottle ceased to be ‘scary’) up until the moment that he realized that liquid dripped inside his ear… and then he stopped wanting food and would back off as soon as he knew what would eventually happen. So I always ended up administering ear drops “by force”, while Boogie endured the ordeal. And then off he would go, escaping to shake off, before returning for the consolation treat.

I have started watching Lori Stevens’s Tellington TTouch For Dogs DVD,  and yesterday I decided to try something new.

Of course,as always, Boogie predicted the worst  so he pulled his ears back really tight as soon as I touched them. I didn’t pick up the ear meds. First I did some touches on his head and around the outside ear area with the back of my hand (Chimp TTouch). Then I used my whole hand on top of his head to move the base of his ears around, before doing direct  ear strokes… and soon I could feel his ears and his whole body relaxing.

(By the way, I had already done these same TTouches the night before, and I knew Boogie enjoyed them, so it wasn’t like a completely foreign experience).

When he seemed sufficiently relaxed, I added the ear drops into his infected ear, massaged this in, and waited for him to escape.

Miraculously, Boogie did not move. He just stayed where he was and looked at me,  so I continued doing slides on both his ears and massaging the base of his ears. When I removed my hands to see if he had had enough,  he turned around to look at me again: “Why are you stopping?”  

It was pretty cool.

I was ready to gloat but then things did not go so well this morning. I went through the same steps as yesterday. I did Noah’s March along his back and some Chimp TTouches around his face and ears… I stroked his ears until his head was resting on the couch and to me, he looked perfectly calm and relaxed. I stopped from time to time to make sure he was still fine… he was.

Then as soon as I unscrewed the ear drops bottle cap, Boogie jumped off the couch and ran away into the bedroom.

I went to get him and slowly he returned to the couch, with not his usual sad-faced ears-pinned-back look that was usually associated with ear medications. Boogie’s ears were up and his eyes were bright. He looked at me, looked at the ear drops bottle on the table, looked at me…

“Really, mom?“

THIS DOG IS NO FOOL.