Training for Injections

A great thing to teach any animal is how to cooperate in his own health care and veterinary procedures. This technique is a great asset in this goal. Here is a presentation of a way to teach horses to stand for injections. I am presenting the process as if it were done in one long sequence, but in fact, it is better to do a little over many sessions. You get more done, per minute, in a five minute session than you do in a 30 minute session, so you might as well have three 5-minute sessions interspersed in your grooming time, as to try to do this all at once. I have done this in as little as ten minutes, but it is better to just slowly and gently and be thorough. We did a bunch of pigs and they were trained in one hour per pig of actual pig training time, in 5-minute sessions done 3-4 days a week for 2-3 weeks. So, do not push too hard.

If you have the manual, there is a section in the appendices where various training methods are compared, and each has a strength and limitation. One that has an application here is 'manipulation.' When an animal is manipulated, it tends to make him resist up to a point, and when you get past resistance, he tends to stay in a limp, kind-of brain-dead state, especially, when the manipulation is in the form of deep massage.

Teach your animal to target, then work on increasing the duration of his contact on target, until he will stay still for about three minutes. This is plenty of time to give an injection or take a blood sample. More than plenty. Make sure that he will stay on target, regardless of what distractions you introduce.

Now you are ready to begin manipulation. While the animal is on target, start a light but firm massage of the muscle area where shots will be given, while issuing a steady stream of intermediate bridges (ib's). From time to time, also insert a name for this experience. I call it 'easy' or 'relax'. He should love this and it should go pretty fast.

Now reintroduce distractions, and make sure he will stay very steady for up to three minutes, despite manipulation and distractions.

Repeat as above, but add finger jabs all over the neck region (do neck first because it is easier. Process for butt is same, but a bit harder usually). Nothing terrible, just significant pressure increases.

Get a sterile needle and show it to your animal. Do not try to hide the needle. Ask him to maintain contact with the target while 'easy' and insert the needle and LET GO of the needle and focus on the targeting again. You should be really using those intermediate bridges during this process. DO NOT TRY TO ACTUALLY GIVE AN INJECTION OR TAKE BLOOD YET. Sometimes the animal will react to the needle going in, in which case you do not want there to be any resistance, hence the letting go of the needle. Often, they act as if they did not notice the needle go in. If he reacts, wait til he quiets again and remove the needle. In any case, make sure you give a terminal bridge (tb) when the needle is inserted, and again when it is removed.

Routinely go through the training process so the horse will be 'up' on this whenever you need it. However, only use a needle when you actually need a needle, that is, once the behavior is trained. No need to use up needles and risk irritation, infection etc, because it is not necessary to maintain the behavior.

Hope this helps.