Skip, aka Fabio, aka Mr. Wonderful, has pannus, a “progressive inflammatory immune mediated disease of the cornea,” which leads to blindness if not treated every day for the rest of a dog’s life. It’s especially common in German shepherds, greyhounds, and border collies, and is believed to have be genetically mediated. The good news (besides the fact that the good doctor Sara Greenslit of Anshen Holistic Vet Care found it during the dog’s monthly chiropractic appointment) is that it IS treatable, as long as each eye gets a dose of Optimmune® every day.
But here’s the catch: It’s not an eye drop, it’s an ointment that has to be put into the dog’s eyes each day. Drops you can “drop in,” which makes getting them into an eye pretty easy. But ointment?Not so much. Enter Chiraq Patel and the bucket game–a life saver for so many husbandry tasks that could be difficult to do. Here’s me and Skip this morning:
I started over a year ago with first “lie down and look at the bucket,” (for a treat), then shaped it to one your side, then head flat on the floor, then staying there while I held his eyelids open, then the medicine.
Full disclosure! This morning’s first attempt at a video, in which he truly got his medicine, didn’t record (because, of course, it illustrated everything perfectly). This video is actually a redo a few minutes later, just pretending to insert the ointment. Skip and I were also not in the usual location where we do this every day; it is hard to get a good video there, close quarters, so we moved to the living room. Notice that when we flipped sides (cue = “flipperdip,” or, more likely, moving the bucket), Skip never totally flipped his hips. I saw a tongue flick too? He must have been wondering why we were here in the living room, and why Jim was standing close by with that black-eye thing that often makes dogs nervous. But the combination of Skip’s biddable nature and the brilliance of the bucket game have made our lives so, so much better.
I did write about this in relation to Maggie and her nail care (subtitled: The Dog Who Came To Me at 14 months saying OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO DIE IF YOU TRY TO TRIM MY NAILS). I won’t say she loves it now, (dream on), but Maggie and the dremmel now have a reasonable relationship, and doing her nails–that grow like weeds and are hard as steel) is so so much easier now.
I have two friends right now whose dogs hate nail trims, one who is a tough a case I’ve seen, and one who just needs patience and good timing. All this got me to thinking that it’d be a good thing to start a village conversation about the bucket game and husbandry. Tell us your stories! What works, what doesn’t work? It is clear that like most dog of training, getting the bucket game to work takes some training experience. So many decisions! When to treat, when to wait? When to ask for the next step? When to go backwards? It’s hard to provide generic advice because each decision based on what happened earlier, like an elaborate plant identification key, and so many decisions are based on knowing how to read a dog and how to respond. My only generic advice is to go much, much slower than you think, and to divide each behavior up into as many small steps as you can. For example, a dog who hates nail trims needs lots of reinforcement for having it’s paw held. I’d probably condition being comfortable with the noise of a dremmel separately from that.
What’s critical about the “bucket game,” or anything close to it, is that the dog gets to choose. If, for example, Skip picks his head off the floor when I lean forward with the tube of ointment, I withdraw my hands, and lean back. Basically, I’m saying “whenever you’re ready.” It’s all about giving an animal agency, or autonomy. . . the thing that every sentient wants as much as water and air, and it is as powerful as any one technique can be.
Tell us your stories! The more we can inspire people to learn to take care of their dogs with compassion and patience, the better the world will be.
MEANWHILE, back on the farm: I am crawling out of the black hole of covid et. al., and happy to be able to enjoy spring in short increments. Dear friend Melissa sent me a cuddle toy for when I was sick, but I gave it to Maggie, feeling guilty about how neglected the dogs have been. (Jim has done wonders, but there are limits to what one person can do.) Skip, in the photo below, might be asking where his toy is.
Here’s something wonderful to make my heart sing! Showy orchids in a woods that used to be all buckthorn and honeysuckle (all invasives).
And the dogs and I are able to work the sheep again! I got too caught up in it to take any photos while working, but here’s Skip after working on a warm dog–he always pees right afterward and if he’s tired he doesn’t bother to lift his leg.
Flowers are everywhere . . .
And the skies were gorgeous the night that a huge storm came through. Lots of damage elsewhere, but we got a little wind. And no rain, sigh.
I’ll end on what I’m calling “Another successful transfer of fur from dog to human.” I finally got the dogs brushed once I was on my feet. Three weeks with no brushing and spring shed . . . you can imagine.
Be well, friends! Tell us your happy husbandry stories!
English (US) · 