We had our first happy vet visit last weekend.
We are very fortunate that our trainer organised it on a Saturday early evening when no other staff or clients were there. A puppy class had just finished so the smells of the puppies (and treats!) would hopefully compete against the scary vet clinic smells.
As soon as we got out of the car in the practically empty car park, George was on high alert and high stress. This has been George's current state outside the house for a few weeks unfortunately.
We were a little early so I took him for a sniff around the car park, out of sight of the puppies. He wasn't able to listen or focus on me. I just let him sniff.
Unfortunately a man came out of a nearby building. We did our emergency turn but George was barking and lunging. We hid around the corner playing Find It until all the puppies had left.
He handled seeing the trainer and going in the clinic quite well - he only barked once when she moved away. He soon worked out that lots of treats were involved.
After initially remaining on very high alert, he started to relax. We got to explore the empty consulting rooms, the surgery room, the waiting room and behind reception. He was curious and exploring. He got two paws on the scale.
As soon we got outside the clinic, he stressed out again. He barked at people in the very far distance. I was glad that the trainer got to see what we are dealing with outside. She noted that he was very tense, and doing lots of lip licking.
George's baseline stress being so high again is really challenging. We can't effectively work on desensitisation or counter-conditioning when his stress levels remain so high, and when the distances for the triggers are huge. I still think we haven't got the medication balance right.
The trainer advised that working on George's calmness in the car park is likely too hard at this stage, and I would need to just get him in to the building as soon as possible (exactly what we do when leaving/returning to the house).
She recommended trying to coincide a visit when the VB is there and/or just entering reception without the receptionists moving as the next step.
I'm very grateful that we got the opportunity for the visit today and the advice and support from the trainer. I suspect it will be a long journey.