Anyone who has been to my workshops/clinics/talks will know that I remind people that dogs are learning all the time as the nervous system is processing information every second of the day, even when the dog is asleep. When Léo was rushed to the vet the other month, he was virtually unconscious. He was sedated on arrival and spent the whole day at the vet being treated by someone he had never met before and remained sedated for his stay as it was imperative that his seizures were brought under control. When we picked him up, Léo was still so out of it that he had to be carried to the car, head lolling. My lovely vet and I had agreed that Léo would be better off at home, otherwise he would have spent the night in the clinic for further monitoring. Léo went back to the vets today for more blood tests. He was pretty indifferent with the vet nurses and the receptionist until he made friends with the vet nurse who helped with the blood test, but when he first saw the vet he wagged his tail. And then wagged his tail again. Léo never forgets a friend and it was lovely to see that despite how rubbish he must have felt that terrible day, he clearly has positive memories of his time at the clinic and although on the outside he looked as though he was unable to process anything at all, he was most definitely highly aware. Tells me a lot about our lovely vet and reminds me (not that I need that) how amazing these incredible animals truly are.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Sep 2014 18:56:29 +0000