Standard Obedience - CB'S Dog School

During the past couple of weeks, I have received more than my "normal share" of people telling me about severe problems with their vets. The problems typically arise when there is a conflict between what the owner thinks is right to do and what the vet wants to do.

You may say, "there shouldn't be any problem there...". Correct! There shouldn't. The reason is that it is the owner who is in charge of what treatment is being given to his/her dog! It is not the vet...

Your vet is a subcontractor that is hired by you to do the work you decide to have done. Legally, the dog is your property, just as your car is. You would not expect to leave your car in the shop for an oil change, and then come back and see a bill for a tire change and an engine cleaning too!? Or would you? If so, I hope you don't pay the part of the bill for those services you did not order...

It is no different with your dog. If you bring your dog to the animal hospital to have a problem checked out, then the vet has no legal mandate to perform any services to your property (your dog) that were not ordered by you, or at least consented to by you. If he/she does it anyway, you have no obligation to pay for those services - but you have a legitimate basis for suing the vet, particularly if the service could damage your dog's health.

Now, I know - it is hard to believe that veterinarians would deliberately harm a dog - but it is actually often the case that they do...

One of the main problems is vaccination. There are still many vets who adamantly believe that yearly revaccinations with multiple vaccine is "the right thing to do". They completely ignore the recent unanimous recommendation from the 27 veterinarian schools in the USA that this is most definitely not the case. They may not do this because they are obnoxious - but they might do it because they do not dare to not do it...

(The reason is that veterinarians in North America are completely controlled by the Veterinary Associations and the big industries. If you want to know more about this, then check this article.)

Back to the specific obnoxious behavior from a vet's side. There are many vets who want to vaccinate your dog, no matter what. If the dog is to have any kind of medical treatment, they vaccinate it first. If the dog is injured and is coming in for "repair surgery", they vaccinate. If you come in for just a checkup, they want to vaccinate.

First of all, all vaccines are labeled from the manufacturer. On the label is clearly stated that "this vaccine is only to be administered to healthy dogs with no current challenges to their immune system".

This means, in plain English, that if your dog is sick, injured, or in any way whatsoever has its immune system compromised by a challenge of some sort, the vaccine manufacturer warns against vaccination! For very good reason. It is very well known from their research that

Want proof? Check Merck's "Vaccine Bible". Merck in Darmstadt, Germany is probably the world's biggest and most diligent manufacturer of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, including vaccines. They have no interest in putting those warnings on the labels and writing about the possible complication of misusing their products, if it were not for good reason - because it means less sales to them when people follow the warnings...

So, what do you do when your vet insists on vaccinating your dog, and you don't want him to do it?

The answer is very simple: you tell him that he will hear from your lawyer if he does it!

And then you make sure that you actually can back it up.... empty threats are of no use.

There is a lot of good news for you here. First: you do not need to know anything about veterinary medicine in order to support your demand. No need for arguing with the vet whether or not it is "right" or not to vaccinate your dog. Your decision about it is all that counts in court!

Next: Backing up your demand is very simple and quite inexpensive when you have a PPL (Prepaid Legal) membership (North America) or a family insurance for legal help (Europe) behind you. If you don't, you are looking at paying a lawyer some $2-300 for helping you - and that could very well be more than what you could claim from the vet.

See, these obnoxious vets know this - and they rely on your not being willing to pursue the matter legally. But they do not know that you can get a PPL membership for less than a dollar a day, and that is costs you NOTHING to get your lawyer involved in such a case!

On top of that, even if you did not have your PPL membership in place when this happened, you can still sign up for it - and have it cover your dispute with this vet! To me, it is amazing that PPL will do this, totally unlike all other kinds of insurance that will have nothing to do with the past. But this is different. Check it out in more detail at http://novasoljudicare.com/family.

Dealing with experts is no different from dealing with dogs. If you let them get away with "bad behavior", the unwanted behavior gets repeated. You have to stop it when you are exposed to it. There is no way out of standing up for your rights and making it clear who the heck is paying the bill here...!

The thing that probably causes most people so much difficulty here is that they confuse "expert" with "authority". That is very dangerous.

Experts are people who have a lot of very specific knowledge in a very limited area. There is no way such people should be allowed to make any decisions outside their area of expertise! They do not know enough about all those other things that also have to be taken into account when you make an informed and diligent decision, such as your own health situation, your finances, your vacation plans, the other members of your household, an alternative offer from a competitor to your "expert", your personal knowledge about your dog and its preferences and habits, the workload on your job, your sick aunt, the promise you gave your neighbor to help him, etc... All these things could be important and worthy being considered before you make the decisions that is best for you and your dog. No expert will have any clue about any of that - and that disqualifies them from making the big decisions! (I know - this list is longer than what it should be - but only you will know what is relevant for you to take into account - that's my point.)

Also, who pays for this? YOU! That means that your "expert" is hired by you - so you can fire him as well. You do would not hire a housekeeper to manage your family, would you? There is no reason to think that you absolutely have to do what you vet suggests...

Now, it is wise to listen to an expert - and ask good questions. Good questions start with "How" or "Why". Quite often, you will also need "What does that mean?" Remember, in order for you to make the final decision, you need to know what your options are and what the consequences are of your choosing any one of them. Your expert must supply that knowledge to you in such a way that you can understand it. That's what you pay him for! You don't pay him for making decisions. You pay him for giving you the knowledge you need so that you can make the decisions that are to be made!

But I am actually telling you what to do: STAY IN CHARGE! And contrary to what many people have learned in school, you are not dumb when you ask question in order to understand something you don't understand. You are dumb if you don't...

Finally: In all negotiations, the one that asks the questions is the one who controls the situation. Knowledge is power, and the more you acquire, the more power you have. This goes also on the small scale in a simple conversation. You get power by asking, so ask, ask, ask! Keep asking until you have sucked up enough of the knowledge you need to make your decision. For vaccinations, one piece of knowledge you definitely should have is the label on the bottle/container the vaccine is delivered in. Maybe also the product description that follows. And I promise you: you want to have that knowledge before that stuff gets injected into your dog's body.... The reason is that you will feel a strong need for asking a question that starts with "why"!

Mogens Eliasen holds a Ph.D. level degree in Chemistry from Århus University, Denmark and has 30+ years of experience working with dogs, dog owners, dog trainers, and holistic veterinarians as a coach, lecturer, and education system developer. He publishes a free newsletter "The Peeing Post" containing lots of tips and advice on dog problems of all kinds, particularly about training, behavioral problems, feeding, and health care. For more information about Mogens Eliasen, including links to other articles he has published, please send a short e-mail to contact@k9joy.com