[Dailydrool] Dailydrool Digest, Vol 13, Issue 26

[rebecca lando]

Hi Sarah,


When Humphrey was about 4 months old (he's 8.5 months now) he would get
aggressive about his ear cleaning, too.

What  recommend is going back to square one. Touch his ears and paws very
gently with just your hands, and give him a small food reward as you do it.
Make sure when you do this he's starting out in a calm and relaxed state.
Gradually move up from just touching his paws and ears to stroking them,
still with the treats. If he ever becomes aggressive, stand up and walk away
from him and don't give him any attention at all until he's calmed back
down.

If you give him rewards for allowing you to touch his 'sensitive' spots, and
take your attention away when he becomes aggressive, he will eventually
start to allow you to care for his ears and toes. If it's possible (ie if
you don't have to administer medicine to his ears/toes), try just swabbing
his ears out, very gently, with a dry tissue. We use the Earth Bath gentle,
scentless puppy wipes in Humphrey's ears and it took months for him to stay
calm while we give him his weekly ear swabbing. We even used to wait until
he was zonked out before we'd try to clean his ears. Finally, he just got
used to it, and now he lets us do it - with much snorting and sighing to let
us know he'd prefer we just back the eff off.

Good luck with Toby. Patience and consistency should see you through this!

-Rebecca
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