This week I got out a shot I needed to give Tristan and showed it to him (so he would know what to expect), and he got really upset. Ducked under the couch like he does when he thinks something is going to be awful. I put Gwyn in her room and just waited for him (only a few minutes, he wasn't trying to evade, just register a protest, which is totally acceptable)
When he did come up to me, I showed him the syringe again, tapped his back, lifted a tent of skin, gave him the subQ injection... he didn't have a problem with any of that. He was still bracing for the awful thing that he was afraid would happen. I told him he was done and he did the Tristan Happy Dance (bouncing straight up to tap my hands with his nose).
So if it wasn't the shot, what made him so upset? Tristan really, really dislikes being bodily restrained; I think that's probably what he was expecting. Something about the feeling is really upsetting to him, I have always thought it's probably related to the way his skin has just always been extremely sensitive. I had not realized *how* much of his dislike of vet visits is related to being held at all, rather than being manhandled by a relative stranger. I will have to work on that, see if we can desensitize the lil guy some.
For being very brave and approaching when he was dreading something, though, he got a rib bone (and of course Gwyn did too)
