Resources for
Dog Guardians
The Companion Veterinary Clinic Training Team is passionate about animal behaviour education. We’re excited to offer this new resource library to address your most frequently asked questions! Our Fear Free Certified Trainers offer professional, positive, and science-based methods of training and behaviour modification.
Free Handouts
Food Enrichment for Dogs
Enrichment is a way to mentally stimulate and enhance your dog’s life. It is important that dogs are given the opportunity to display species-specific behaviours such as investigation, olfactory exploration, foraging and problem solving. Exploration is very important for dogs and providing foraging systems that allow dogs to search for, problem solve and investigate ways to access food can help improve their quality of life. In this handout, you’ll find links to some of our favourite toys as well as homemade enrichment ideas.
Teaching Your Pet to Love Being Handled
If your pet doesn’t like to be handled, certain situations can be very challenging. Giving medications, doing nail trims and brushing teeth can turn into a battle. It is also important to be aware this hesitancy can progress into bigger stressors for your pet. A surprise tail pull, paw grab, or well-meaning hug from a child could potentially make your pet uncomfortable enough to bite. This handout covers how to classically condition your pet to handling.
Did you know we offer Fear Free sessions? These sessions are designed to give you the skills to work on veterinary husbandry at home and keep your pet comfortable during veterinary exams. These sessions could include nail trims, grooming, medication administration, and more!
Puppy Biting & Prevention
Let’s begin by understanding that puppies use their mouth to explore and learn about their environment. When playing with other puppies in their litter, mouthing is part of play. When a puppy gets too rough with their littermates, the others communicate by vocalizing and/or biting back. Appropriate play toys, consistency from humans, and socialization with other puppies is very important to help teach your puppy appropriate ways to use their mouth. In this handout, you’ll learn how to set your puppy up for success and what to do when your puppy bites you.
We cover puppy biting, basic manners, and a variety of other topics in our puppy classes.
Teaching Your Pet to Love Being Handled
Did you know we offer Fear Free sessions? These sessions are designed to give you the skills to work on veterinary husbandry at home and keep your pet comfortable during veterinary exams. These sessions could include nail trims, grooming, medication administration, and more!
Crate Training
We cover crate training, housetraining, and a variety of other topics in our puppy classes.
Housetraining
We cover crate training, housetraining, and a variety of other topics in our puppy classes.
Counter Surfing
Counter surfing is a term used to describe dogs taking food or other items off counters or tables. Dogs are scavengers by nature, so counter surfing is a natural behaviour for them and is a common problem for many dog guardians. It can also become a dangerous behaviour if our dogs remove something potentially harmful like an item that is toxic to pets or something that may cause an intestinal blockage if ingested. In this handout, we cover how to manage this behaviour while you work up to training your dog to do an alternative appropriate behaviour.
We also offer private training options to help with counter surfing and other problem behaviours.
Conditioning Your Pet to a Cone Collar
Conditioning your pet to a cone collar prior to a procedure can be very helpful! Steps should be broken down to ensure your pet is successful doing every step and does not display signs of fear, anxiety or stress. There are many different kinds of cone collars, traditional plastic ones, soft collars, inflatable cone collars and surgical onesies that can help with recovery from medical procedures.
Here is a video on how to introduce the cone collar to your pet to help them build a positive association.
Did you know we offer Fear Free sessions? These sessions are designed to give you the skills to work on veterinary husbandry at home, and keep your pet comfortable during veterinary exams. These sessions could include nail trims, grooming, conditioning to a cone collar, medication administration and more!
How to give Your Dog Oral Medications
Getting your dog to take oral medication can be a real challenge. Here at Companion Vet Clinic, we believe taking medication should be fun and FAS-free. That’s why we have developed a technique for a treat-medication-treat pattern that is perfect for food-motivated pups! By offering treats and meds in a planned sequence, you and your dog can avoid the stress and strain of forced or unsuccessful medication sessions. Watch the video to learn how! And of course, if you are looking for more tips and tricks for Free Free compatible animal husbandry skills, consider signing up for one of our one on one Fear Free sessions, where we cover all the basics in a clear and simple manner.
Crate Training
We cover crate training, housetraining, and a variety of other topics in our puppy classes.
Free Dog Training Videos & Webinars
Publications, Media Coverage, & Guest Appearances
Jessica shares her passion for animal behaviour through educational presentations, public speaking, and mentorship that supports the next generation of professionals. Continue reading below to learn more.