Grooming a Fearful Dog
When we first adopted our Lhasa Apso-Shih Tzu mix Kousa, I didn’t know very much about dog body language or behavior. He would snap and bite when we tried to brush him or trim the hair over his eyes, and I thought he was being stubborn and trying to “win.” I wasn’t really sure what there was to win, or what I would be winning really, if he let me groom him. I took something I didn’t really understand and tried to make sense of it with the information I had, which up to that point was dominance-based “training.”
Grooming was only one of many issues, but it was a big one. The shelter staff told me a story of one time, when they had picked Kousa up and placed him on the grooming table for a trim. Very quickly into the process he bit the manager’s boob and hung from it, not letting go. I’m still friends with the manager (who now manages a different shelter) and she laughs about it now, but it’s definitely a terrifying story that paints a good picture of what Kousa was like.
A few weeks into the adoption, it became clear that he desperately needed to be shaved down. His fur was long and starting to mat, and that made his aggressive behavior worse. So I took him back to the shelter and the incredible staff (now close friends of mine) did what they knew to be best - strapped TWO muzzles on him and shaved him down. They weren’t able to shave his face area since the muzzles covered it, but what they did bought me some time.
I started training him right after that day. We had recently learned of the incredible Dr. Sophia Yin and her Low Stress Handling techniques. We bought her treat dispenser, the “Treat-N-Train”, which became invaluable because Kousa would bite our hands when we offered him treats. Having a machine dispense treats instead took out most of the scariness during training. We followed every step in the little handbook that came with the machine because we couldn’t afford to get things wrong. It took time, but it was worth it. Every day with just a few minutes of training, he got better and better.
Grooming sessions with Kousa and the Treat-N-Train in our little yurt in 2018.
Today, I don’t need the Treat-N-Train anymore. Heck I don’t even need treats anymore - he wags his tail so happily when I pull the scissors out! One thing to note here is that we set our ambitions low. Kousa does not go to a groomer. We worked so hard to get him to where he is that we are exhausted. We can manage his hair now with whole-body scissor cuts, and that’s ok. He’s happy and clean and mat-free, and we are happy and stress-free. I have since learned that this method of gentle training to encourage an animal to participate in their care is called Cooperative Care.
