Restraint and collar holds

Welcome back, you are my number one fan!

So this post is to teach your pet to be restrained.

Restraining and collar or halter grabs can be fraught with emotional conflict for your pet, if we don't teach them the concept and pair the experience with positive rewards.

Why would I need to teach my pet to be restrained, Katie? Can't I just grab them when I need to?

Well yes, that's the whole point, but we owe it to our companions to be mindful of how we do things to them! Being able to swiftly get your pet out of a situation or temporarily be restrained for an emergency context and not evoking fear is part of good husbandry (daily care and welfare of animals, just in case you thought it was about training husbands...that's another topic for another day...). In an ideal world, our pets wouldn't mind what we do to them or how we do it, but the reality is they are sentient, with emotional lives and thoughts of their own. I have witnessed time and again the aftermath of animal freaking out because they've been roughly grabbed, ridden or forcibly restrained, sometimes for no apparent reason than because the person felt they should be able to, yet it can take months (sometimes years) of remedial work to set it right after such a negative experience for the animal.

It's their body, and their right to have a say in what happens to it. So I like to teach my clients how to restrain their pets to help their pet understand they are safe when restrained or held, that our intent is not to harm but simply to give them a positive experience and when practised well, enables you, the owner to take hold of collars, or head collars, harnesses, leads,  lunge lines, Adaptil or Feliway collars and so on, without your pet panicking. There will be a separate blog on husbandry coming soon (eeek I'm excited for that one, are you?).

How do I teach them then Katie?

Glad you asked! Wait for a nice sunny day, when the moon is in ascension and the stars are aligned...kidding! With puppies, kittens, and youngsters of species who have no prior learning experience, you can gently hold their collar, feed a treat while holding then release. Ditto for physical restraint, ensuring they can escape without injury. For older animal who may have prior learning history that may not be a positive association, safest bet is to contact a qualified professional who can help you and your pet on a more personal basis before you do anything to them! If you absolutely have to or you are 100% certain your pet won't freak out if you touch them, ensure you pair the experience of collar, halter, harness holds with calm praise, soothing voice, relaxed body language and no direct eye contact or leaning over or into the animal, touch slowly using the back of your hand if possible IF you have to touch them at all and try not to use food which can cause conflict in the beginning stages. And please watch them for signs of worry or anxiety in their body language (more of this in an upcoming post) when you do this and stop if you see it!

Kikopup has a nice video on teaching this with dogs, but I would only use food if I knew my pet was going to be totally OK with this in the beginning stages of training:

 

Look out for the husbandry blog post and I am more than happy to be hired to help if you need or want it.

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