Dog afraid of being measured

[Smpickett]

Does anyone have any suggestions for a dog who is terrified of being measured. Bella is afraid of anything coming over her head.She won't even retrieve a ball from under a chair. She acts like she's being murdered when I try to have her measured, and I need to have her measured for Champs.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Richard Wolfe]

Not sure something else might work better, but I used this on mine.  Make yourself a wicket out of 2 pvc elbows and 3 lengths.  If you make it about 18 inches wide it would fit almost any dog.  Make the uprights a little taller than your dog's withers.  Doesn't really matter how tall this one is as it is not an official one, but a little taller if preferable.  Then put it on the floor or ground and let the dog get near it with no fuss about it at all.  If the dog won't approach it, a little peanut butter or easy cheese or any other treat that some scent or part of the treat would adhere to would help to get the dog to approach it.  Do that until the dog is comfortable with it.  Then lean it up against something, same routine.
Then you can try to measure the dog with it.  The wicket DOES NOT have to ever go over the dog's head, you can bring it up from the back if you need to.
Don't know why that wouldn't also work for yours.
Good luck.

[Lin Battaglia]

Keep it simple to start with, cut short 12-20" pieces of PVC laying them on the floor different places so the dog has to walk by them or step over them. Might take awhile. Then start to touch the dog with a piece of PVC different places on it's body and give treats until you can come up on the shoulder area. Don't talk a lot while doing this. You might also try laying one under where the dog will stand to eat from it's bowl of food. Lay one in the dog bed, in the crate etc. etc. Desensitizing takes a long time. I always recommend people start touching their puppies with PVC sticks as they grow up. Perhaps stuff a PVC stick with Peanut Butter too and give to the dog. All dogs love Peanut Butter. Good luck.

[Audri, Cee Cee, Lily, Toto, and Calypso]

Can the judge bring it up from behind her while you are in front of her with some really good treats?  That way she won't have it coming over her head.

[HarryMelamed]

This is one of the many Stanley Phobias.   Luckily we have been measured and we can go on in life.   It is a once or three times occurrence depending on the venue.   I tried everything, but when Stan senses "impending doom", there is nothing I could have done.

[Chris Nelson]

The other thing that might help is for you to put the wicket over her, instead of the judge.

As long as the judge is there to supervise and make sure the wicket is placed correctly and she isn't slouching it shouldn't be an issue.

I have done this a couple times as a judge when the dog was either way too afraid of me, or I felt like I was going to leave with a new scar if I proceeded to do it myself