Location:  Colorado Springs, Colorado

Dog Age:  9 weeks

Dog Sex:  Female

Neutered?  No

Dog Breed: Shih Tzu

Training History:  Potty Training in Progress

Number and ages of humans in household: 4 humans age 3 29,29, 7

Other Pet Info: Two other dogs and a cat

How Long Owned: One week

Other Info:  This dog is very Sassy and talkative.  Thus, her name is Sassy. She is the bossiest dog I have ever seen. She can be very sweet and loving, but she is very bossy. She will bark to get her way very persistently even when ignored.

Question:  My puppy snaps/bites when I try to clean the goop out of her eyes. I have two other dogs and neither one have ever done that. They stand still when I try to clean their eyes with little to no resistance.  

When does the problem arise?  When I try to clean the tear gunk out of her eyes.  I am very gentle but she goes ballistic and starts snarling and snapping at my hand.

How often does the problem occur?  Only when I try to clean her eyes. She is fine with her ears, etc. She lets me play with her paws. She just hates having her eyes touched.

How have you attempted to solve this problem? No - it scares me. I don't want to get bit. I also don't want a dog that will bite at me every time she gets hurt or scared. I know she is thinking it hurts when I pull the eye boogers out, but it has to be done. What do I do?

If dog is biting has skin been broken?  No

Daily Food Intake: 1/2 cup

Type of Food: Solid Gold

Answer

Many dogs dislike being handled, particularly in areas such as the feet/toes, ears, mouth, neck and yes, eyes.  In my experience, about 1/2 of all dogs are touchy about being handled/touched.  Of the other 1/2 who aren't, many of them had conscientious owners who did positive early-puppy handling exercises. 

What is unusual about Sassy is that she is reacting this way at such a young age.  Often puppies allow all kinds of handling and their "touchiness" doesn't appear until well after 3-6 months of age (which is why most people don't do early-puppy handling exercises -- they don't think they have to). 

So even though Sassy's early issues could signify big problems in the future, the fact is that if you start right away using positive methods, you can easily nip this in the bud.  The older a dog gets, the harder it is to modify her behavior.  And conversely, the younger a puppy is, the easier it is to modify her behavior.  That's why our website urges early handling exercises for all puppies, even when they don't do what Sassy's doing.  I've listed the link to our handling exercises below because it's important that you do these exercises for all of Sassy's potential problem areas even if she is not exhibiting any discomfort now.

What you need to do

Your job is to get Sassy to enjoy having her eyes cleaned, and you do this by very gradually creating an association between her absolute favorite things in the world and eye-cleanings. 

Some ground rules before you start:

Do not move to the next step if Sassy snaps at you during an exercise.  Do not reprimand her either.  Rather, move to the PREVIOUS step for a day or 2 more and then try to progress again.

Everyone in your household should be involved and/or doing these as well.  Your 7 year old is probably able to copy what you're doing, just stress the gentleness and praising aspects of these exercises, and tell him/her not to do them unless you're supervising.

If Sassy's doing very well, you can drop down to 2 days per step rather than 3 days.  Make sure she's at the same level with everyone in the household, however, before reducing time on any step.

If you need to use more treats, go ahead.

If your treats are not yummy enough for her to progress, get something better (soft and stinky are the key words).

STEP 1.  Determine what Sassy loves more than anything else.  Almost all pups have something they absolutely love.  It could be their regular food, but usually with smaller dogs it's a particular type of treat.  Because she is reacting so negatively to eye cleanings, I'd figure out what she truly loves more than anything else (see below for suggestions).  If you're concerned about her eating too many treats AND she allows you to make progress as outlined below, then mix the treats with part of her daily ration of food. 

Try soft cat treats (usually in a foil ziplock bag in the cat section), or bits of canned tuna fish, freeze-dried liver, Pupperoni, Canine Carryouts, hot dogs or baloney.  ANY OF THE ABOVE SHOULD BE CUT INTO PEA-SIZED OR SMALLER PIECES, whether you mix them with kibble or not.

STEP 2.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 2 treat pieces as you pet her head for 1-2 seconds.

STEP 3.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 2 treat pieces as you pet her head with your thumb near her eye (alternate eyes) for 2-3 seconds

STEP 4.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 2 treat pieces as you pet her head and gently hold her chin AS IF you needed to clean her eyes (or however you normally hold her while cleaning her eyes) for 3-4 seconds

STEP 5.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) for 5-6 seconds.

STEP 6.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger gets close to her eye, for 2 seconds.

STEP 7.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger gets close to her eye, for 5 seconds.

STEP 8.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger touches her face close to her eye, for 5 seconds.

STEP 9.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger "cleans" her face close to her eye, for 5 seconds.

STEP 10.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger cleans her eye, for 2 seconds.

STEP 11.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger cleans her eye, for 5 seconds.

STEP 12.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger cleans her eye, for 7 seconds.

STEP 13.  5 times daily (or more) for 3 days, praise and freely feed Sassy 3 treat pieces as you gently hold her chin (substitute your holding method if different) and your eye-cleaning finger cleans her eye, for 10 seconds.

You now should be able to clean Sassy's eyes without any problem, whenever you want. As a matter of fact, Sassy probably will be looking forward to the eye-cleaning routine.  You can drop the treats entirely now but I generally prefer to change to a "variable schedule of reinforcement"; some days she gets a few treats, some days she doesn't.  This entire process took 36 days unless you were able to speed things up a bit, so by the time she's 4 months old you should be out of the woods.

In the meantime, consider doing the same type of progression with other parts of her body, particularly if you believe you will be having her groomed by a professional in the future.  Groomers -- and vets -- will charge extra if your dog is difficult to handle, so you can save a lot of money and future anguish by doing these handling exercises (modified to your pup's comfort level) now.  Our basic handling exercise info is at:  http://www.dogdaysusa.com/puppy101.asp  (number 5).

It also occurs to me that there may be products out there which reduce the production of eye boogers, or at least makes their removal less painful to the dog.  It's worth asking at your vet's or groomer's.   

With regard to her barking at you, ignore it!  Give her attention only when she's not barking.  I am certain she has an un-ignorable bark (as many pups do).  Nevertheless, ignore it!  Any behavior will die without reinforcement, and any behavior will increase with reinforcement.  So even if you're yelling at her, it's reinforcing the behavior.  Ignore it, ignore it, ignore it, and praise/treat "good quiet!" any time she's not barking.

Best of luck, and feel free to write back if you're hitting any roadblocks, or just to tell me how you're doing!  

Suzanne Harris,

Dog Days Behavior Center

www.dogdaysUSA.com

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