Empowered dogs: Cooperative husbandry training

Vi skal delta på onlinekurset “Empowered dogs: Cooperative husbandry training” via Tromplo med Iris Castaing.

05/01/2019
From €80.00

Empowered dogs: Cooperative husbandry training

Empowering our dogs in their own care.

  • You struggle to groom your dog without having him mouth the brush?
  • You can’t cut his nails?
  • Your dog is running away as soon as you pronounce “shower”?
  • Your dog stresses out so much at the clinic or at the groomer that he trembles, shuts down or tries to escape?
  • You have to care for your dog and it’s complicated to do it alone at home ?Your dog doesn’t like to put the collar, harness, muzzle or cone?
  • You want your dog to be stressfree and cooperate with him in all sorts of care procedures?
  • You want to improve the communication with your dog, develop a trusting relationship and give him more choice opportunities and control on his life?

If you see yourself in one of this situations, this class is made for you!

Cooperative husbandry training aims to teach animal to assist in their own care.

It’s an ethical and pratical choice. It is used in most of zoological parcs to care for wild animals avoiding restrain, anesthesia and reducing stress. Husbandry training is part of daily enrichment programs. Through this training we give the animal the skills and the opportunities to give his consent. Giving them choice and control over their environnement improves their general welfare.

If we can draw blood from a girafe or an orca without using force…why not do the same with our pets?

Empowering our dogs in their own care not only make it easier, but also enrich our life together.

Some of the topics covered in this course :

  • Understanding and using science basics in husbandry training.
  • Teaching consent positions.
  • Empowerment : Understanding importance of choice and control.
  • Behavior, consequences and functions : how to use them to converse with animals.
  • Teaching your dog the consent concept.
  • How to train your dog through various daily procedures such as handling, grooming, bathing, nails care, ears and eyes care, teeth brushing, muzzle training…
  • What to do when our dog is not ready and you have to do it.
  • Consequences.
  • A second level course will be focusing on training the dog to third party care such as the vet, the groomer, the osteopath.null

Cooperative Husbandry training : Why and how?

An ethical and pratical approach.

Cooperative husbandry training is commonly used in zoological park.

Kilde: Tromplo.com

Restraining physicaly big animals is quite difficult. Anesthesia is always risky and we want to avoid it as much as possible. And if we used force it would provoque stress (and its consequences on health, behavior, reproduction…) and consequently it would give rise to ethical issue.

We can’t use force to hold a killer whale for a blood sample or open the mouth of an hippopothamus with our arms as we often do with our dogs.

So in zoological park, the staff train their wild animals to cooperate in their own care. They are teaching them behaviors which make procedures easier (present body part to examination, open mouth, stationning behaviors…). They make training sessions attractive for the animals so they tolerate and assist with their care. Cooperative husbandry training give more choice and control to the animal and improve his general welfare.These proactive exercices are part of the enrichment program and help animals to a better tolerate captivity.

What about our dogs ?

Some dogs are pretty comfortable with procedure without actually taking an active part in it, and without choice. Others suffer from panic attack, display agression behavior or shut down.

It becomes more and more difficult to care for them. The procedures can cause real trauma. Relationships between us and our dogs, between our dogs and veterinary staff, their confidence in human are damaged.

Our dogs are often more resilient than wild animals and human are more powerful than a lot of them. Eventhough it is possible to use force does it mean we should use it?

If you join us in this class, I know you already have the answer 😉

Cooperative husbandry training is an ethical and pratical approach.

Let’s resume some of the advantages:

  • Limits use of anesthésia
  • Makes care easier for everyone
  • Giving choice and control to the animal improve his general welfare
  • Develops resilience
  • Deepens relashionship between the dog and his human
  • Teaches a new way to communicate with our dog
  • Reduces fear, anxiety, stress and their side effects
  • Can be use as enrichment / mental and physical stimulation
  • Improves your training skills (shaping / use of counter-conditionning / desensitization …).

How do we work in husbandry training ?

It’s the whole subject of this course ! There are several approaches. Mine is inspired from Chirag Patel’s “Bucket Game” and “I’m ready” signals. We will teach your dog behaviors that he can use to give his consent to husbandry procedure.

  • If the dog goes in position = “Im ready”, we can begin procedure.
  • If the dog breaks the position = “I want it to stop”, we stop procedure.
  • It’s a two ways communication.
  • The dog should be able to choose at any time to leave the position and put an end to the training session.
  • Giving our dog the ability to control events, reduces stress. He feels more secure and has more confidence in us.
  • We will teach different behaviors and positions, more or less convenient depending on the care procedure.
  • Then, we’ll give this positions the function “I’m ready” / “I need it to stop”.
  • Finaly, we will introduce the care procedures.

You can introduce yourself and your dog in the comments below and tell me about your history in husbandry procedures, about your needs attending this course.

Kilde: Tromplo / Iris Castaing.

Auditor

  • course lasts 6 weeks
  • lectures
  • access to other Premium member’s threads
  • video tutorials
  • certificate of attendance
  • 24 hours, 7 days per week access to course materials
  • access to Tromplo: students group on Facebook
  • access to materials after the course is finished

Iris Castaing

Founder of Ludicanis, I’m a french dog trainer and a Certified Behavior Adjustement Training Instructor.

Choice giving, communication and kindness for all learners lead me to be passionate about cooperative husbandry training for clinic and daily care. My goal is to expand the empowerment concept to other areas of our lives with animals.

I teach private lessons and classes in the Alps as well as seminars in husbandry training and agility in France.

I’m keen on canine sports in general and I’m training, coaching and competing in agility (member of the French Team at World Agility Championships IFCS in 2017, 2018 and 2019).

As a behavior geek I’m keep on learning through international education. Learning never stops !

Fear Free Certified.

Kilde: Tromplo.com/Iris-Castaing

2 thoughts on “Empowered dogs: Cooperative husbandry training”

  1. Hei. Arrangerer dere et nytt kurs i dette?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *