didn't think it would be possible - clicking instead of sedation for x rays

My young Saga was to have her elbows x ray'ed for AD. It is not part of the breeding program for the breed (chesapeakes), but we wanted to have a look anyway. The first set of pictures got a judging neither I or the photographing vet understood (on a scale from 0-3 she got a 1, we thought she looked to be a 0)

To cut a long story short we decided to xray her again now 6 months later to see if anything had changed.

Instead of sedating her I spent 10 minutes alone with her in the x ray room. I got her to put her front paws on the table and lifted her rear end up. She has never been on a table before (not while conscious ;o) ) So she got a bit frigthened. I cued her to down and c/t several times for increasingly relaxed posture. Then I gently rolled her over on her side, she struggled briefly but I clicked at the same time as I rolled, so the treat distracted her. Now she was on her side, but still looked a bit stressed, and her muscles were all tensed up. I kept my one hand on her lowest front leg, the other on her neck and c/t her a couple of times, she started to relax, I c/t every time her head was on the table, then for muscle relaxation, which could be easily felt in the front leg. After about 15 c/t I could manipulate her front legs into position and she kept her muscles relaxed while I moved her legs about. We were ready for the x ray. The picture was good on the first take, so with the x-ray'ing vet's help she was gently rolled over to her other side. She tensed up and I c/t as fast as I could for 3 c/t. Then she started to relax and I could c/t for being more and more relaxed. Then I started moving her frontlegs around, and she got a few c/t for that until she was all limp in those muscles again. Then we took the picture and once again the first picture was fine. It took about 10 minutes from we got in until the first x ray was taken and about 10 to 15 c/t to make her ready for the second - that is about 30 seconds from we moved her to her other side until she was relaxed.

I don't know how much the x ray vet realised about what was going on, I pride myself that we have a reputation for having easy-to-handle dogs, he migth have just assumed that was why things went so easily -  but for me it was a great experience. Much better than having the dog sedated or having two humans more or less lying on top of the dog until it stops struggling....hurrah for clickersavvy dogs.... If I had had a bit more time I would have trained a lie-on-your side cue before we went there, that would have made it even easier

Christina