Sit For Success

This is Zoe, I wanted to share her win with you. She gets so nervous, during grooms that she will become aggressive. One of the problems she’s had is biting hands and the scissors as they come towards her face.

What makes this video extra special, is not just that she is allowing me to being the scissors near her face, but that she is actually CHOOSING for me to start moving the scissors towards her!!

Zoe is demonstrating a beautiful Start Button behavior. Every time she looks up at my face, she causes me to start the process of the scary thing (bringing scissors close to her face), then followed by a reward. If Zoe does not want the scissors to come near her, all she has to do is not look at my face and I will wait.

We often think of human problems when we think of need for bodily autonomy, but in grooming as well as vet care, often the scariest part for the pets is that they don’t have any control over what is happening to them. This is really cool because it puts Zoe in the drivers seat. It also means she doesn’t need to bite the scissors to make them stop when she needs it!