Have you ever wondered how a zoo vet or handler would draw blood from an elephant or lion? Or how they would examine a hippo’s teeth? Or how an orca is weighed? These animals aren’t anesthetized; it’s done through training and specifically a technique called cooperative care.

It recently became clear that this technique would be very helpful with our companion animals, especially during routine grooming at home and at veterinarian or groomer visits.

Cooperative care involves training a dog to tolerate grooming and veterinary procedures by being a willing participant. That may sound almost impossible, but it is indeed possible with time, patience, and help from a trainer knowledgeable in the technique.

In cooperative care, the dog is trained to give or deny permission for an action that needs to be performed, e.g., nails being trimmed, teeth being brushed or checked, etc. They can indicate this permission by maintaining a behavior.

For example, if we want to trim our dog’s nails, we can train a dog to place their paw in our hand or on a surface. As long as the dog keeps her paw there, she’s giving permission for the nail trimming to continue. Then, the procedure, in this case nail trimming, is paired with a reward so that a positive association is developed.

Giving an animal some control in scary situations can reduce their stress and fear, and increase their confidence and tolerance for the situation.

Although cooperative care techniques can take some time to train, the payoff is huge. The stress for your dog and yourself is greatly diminished, and vet bills can be greatly reduced if you can trim your own dog’s nails, brush their teeth and avoid dental issues, etc.

For these reasons, cooperative care training is becoming more popular for dogs and other companion animals. It improves the welfare of animals and reduces the risk of injury for everyone involved as well as reducing vet bills.