By Sarah van Herpt BSc, MSc, CVN

Traditionally, animal training using positive reinforcement has been the domain of zoos and aquaria. It has been used to empower animals in these institutions to voluntarily participate in their care for a range of medical and husbandry behaviors. Over time, this practice has evolved to prioritize consent, shifting toward a more collaborative approach now known as cooperative care.

This concept has expanded beyond zoos, influencing various animal care settings. The same training techniques used to support wildlife, including rescued bears, can also significantly improve the welfare of companion animals, enhancing their well-being and strengthening their bond with caregivers.

The power of cooperative care

Cooperative care goes beyond simply training an animal to participate in its own care; it ensures it has a choice. The animal learns it can voluntarily engage in medical and husbandry procedures and, just as importantly, that it can walk away at any time. It can also participate in the training by doing easier, more basic behaviors, so it can say "no" to certain aspects of the training without losing access to rewards.

At its core, cooperative care relies on positive reinforcement. When animals willingly perform a desired behavior, they receive something rewarding, creating a sense of trust and collaboration between them and their caregiver.

Cooperative care is crucial in fostering a positive welfare environment for the animals in our care. We can improve their mental well-being and physical health by reducing stress through these techniques.^1,2 Stress has been shown to impact immune function, influencing an animal's ability to fight disease and respond to treatment effectively.

Exposure to cooperative care techniques can also improve an animal's behavior in a veterinary setting. Animals accustomed to various situations and trained in different behaviors tend to be more resilient,³ making medical visits less stressful for both them and their caregivers.

Cooperative care in bear training

Animals Asia, an organization dedicated to ending bear bile farming in Vietnam, uses cooperative care techniques to train rescued bears in their two sanctuaries. These animals arrive deeply traumatized, both physically and emotionally, often suffering from severe medical and behavioral issues. To help build trust between the facility trainer and the bear, these simple "foundation" behaviors are taught:

• Focus: The bear remains sitting in one place, focused on the trainer.
• Wait: The bear sits in one place while the trainer moves around, opens den doors, etc.
• Follow: The bear follows the trainer from one area to the next.
• Target: The bear touches its nose to the target (tennis ball on a stick) and moves to it wherever it is placed.

These behaviors allow both the trainer and the bear to learn the principles of cooperative care together, setting the stage for more advanced medical husbandry behaviors. As training progresses, the bear always retains the choice to opt-out. If uncomfortable with a particular step, the bear can decline, be asked for a simpler behavior it is confident in and still receive reinforcement.

Once a strong foundation is in place, the team progresses to training medically necessary behaviors. These not only improve the bears' health and welfare by improving health monitoring and allowing the direct application of therapies, but they also reduce the need for stressful interventions under anesthesia. Some key medical husbandry behaviors include:

• • Open mouth: Teaching bears to open their mouths allows for proactive monthly dental checks, helping us catch and treat issues early. It also enables immediate examination if a bear shows signs of dental discomfort.
  • Nail trims: Many rescued bears suffer from mobility issues due to years of confinement on bile farms, leading to uneven nail wear. Cooperative care training allows us to trim nails as needed, preventing unnecessary anesthesia for a routine procedure.
  • Eye drops: One of our bears, Annie, requires daily steroid eye drops to treat corneal oedema. Thanks to cooperative care, she voluntarily accepts her treatment—something that otherwise would have been impossible.
  • Ear swabs: When adult female Asiatic black bear Fern arrived, she had a persistent ear infection that was difficult to manage. Through cooperative care, we trained her to accept regular ear swabs, making treatment and monitoring much easier.
  • Blood draws: Several bears are trained for conscious blood draws, allowing us to monitor liver and kidney function, hormone levels, and thyroid health without sedation.
  • Blood pressure checks: In collaboration with a student from Washington State University, we collect conscious blood pressure readings to establish reference ranges for Asiatic black bears. This research aims to determine whether non-sedated readings can help diagnose and manage systemic hypertension—one of the most common health issues in our bear population.
  • Hand injections: Many of our bears have negative associations with the transport cages used for medical procedures. This, as well as our goal to always improve welfare, has led us to begin training the bears to accept hand injections for anesthesia in their familiar, safe spaces. This reduces stress, gives the bears the ability to consent to what is happening to them, and makes the health check process significantly more bear-friendly.

The process of training the bears to allow the medical team to take blood samples is crucial in monitoring health without sedation, including liver and kidney function, hormone levels, and thyroid health.

Cooperative care training has positive impacts not just on the bears, but also on their trainers. Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre, Tam Dao bear carer, Tran Thi Phuong, says, "Cooperative care generally helps us to create a strong bond between humans and bears. For humans, we can be closer to them and understand them better. Through training, we can facilitate the vet team to do monthly dental checks, read blood pressure, get blood samples, or do hand injections all consciously, etc. This helps us find their health issues in a timely manner without having to be anesthetized, so their welfare is increased."

Junior veterinary surgeon Le Xuan Thai, DVM, finds cooperative care extremely beneficial. "Cooperative care transforms the veterinary experience for bears by reducing stress, building trust, and turning routine exams into positive experiences for bears," he says.

Applying bear training techniques to companion animals

Cooperative care is not just for bears and zoo animals; it can also benefit pets by improving their welfare, providing enrichment, and making veterinary visits less stressful.

Cats and dogs can be trained using cooperative care techniques to voluntarily enter their crate, accept handling for routine exams, and participate in essential veterinary procedures, such as dental checks, eye and ear exams, and nail trims. By giving animals a sense of choice and control, cooperative care helps build trust and reduce anxiety during medical care. These techniques can be integrated with other strategies in the veterinary clinic to create a calmer, less stressful experience for pets.⁴

A bear caretaker's story: Training a dog for chemotherapy

Teaching the Animals Asia bear care team cooperative care training skills has had a ripple effect, extending beyond their work with rescued bears and into the way they care for their pets at home.

Bear caretaker Phan Thi Binh and her male dog, Bong, are powerful examples. When Bong was diagnosed with a transmissible venereal tumor (TVT), he needed chemotherapy. However, the clinic was a negative place for Bong. As a puppy, he had been critically ill and spent significant time there undergoing chest drainage and other intensive treatments. Over the years, multiple procedures and surgeries reinforced the dog's fear, making it difficult to handle.

Because Binh had extensive experience with cooperative care through her work with bears, to apply those same skills at home. Binh focused on desensitizing Bong to touch his leg, ensuring the dog could receive chemotherapy without sedation and with far less stress.

Conclusion

Cooperative care transforms the way we interact with animals, from rescued bears to beloved pets at home. By prioritizing choice, trust, and positive reinforcement, we can reduce stress, improve welfare, and make essential medical care a smoother experience for everyone involved.

At Animals Asia, the team has seen firsthand how these techniques can empower animals to take an active role in their care, leading to better health outcomes and stronger human-animal relationships. The same principles that help rescued bears accept blood draws and nail trims can be applied to companion animals, making everyday handling and veterinary visits far less stressful.

The story of Binh and her dog, Bong, is a testament to the power of cooperative care. What started as a training program for rescued bears has rippled out into the lives of pets and their caregivers, proving that compassion, patience, and choice can make a world of difference.

By embracing cooperative care, we are improving individual animal welfare and reshaping the way we think about training, treatment, and trust, one bear, one pet, and one caregiver at a time.

A mission of compassion Since arriving in Vietnam more than eight years ago, Sarah van Herpt, BSc, MSc, CVN, has spent most of her time at Animals Asia's Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao. The organization is dedicated to ending bear bile farming in Vietnam, and the team operates two sanctuaries that rescue and rehabilitate bears as part of that mission. These animals arrive deeply traumatized, both physically and emotionally, often suffering from severe medical and behavioral issues. Animals Asia's work is built on four core pillars: empathy, respect, courage, and tenacity. These values and the tagline, "Kindness in Action," guide everything the team does, shaping their approach to both animals and people. Since arriving, van Herpt's key projects have been expanding the organization's animal training program. What started with just five trainers focusing on basic, reactive behaviors has grown into a team of more than 40 trainers working on everything, from foundational skills to advanced medical husbandry techniques.

Sarah van Herpt, BSc, MSc, CVN, is the director of Veterinary and Behavioural Husbandry Services for Animals Asia. With extensive experience in animal behavior and rehabilitation in Vietnam and New Zealand, van Herpt is deeply committed to the rehabilitation of animals recovering from medical or psychological trauma. Her role includes empowering others through capacity building and creating meaningful career development opportunities for the Vietnamese community. She is currently pursuing a postgraduate diploma in clinical animal behavior.

References

1. Oppler, S.H., Palmer, S.D., Phu, S.N. and Graham, M.L. (2024) 'The role of behavioral management in enhancing clinical care and efficiency, minimizing social disruption, and promoting welfare in captive primates,' Veterinary Sciences, 11(9), 401.
2. Brando, S.I.C.A. (2012) 'Animal learning and training: implications for animal welfare', The Veterinary Clinics of North America. Exotic animal practice 15: 387–98.
3. Gazzano, A., Mariti, C., Notari, L., Sighieri, C. and McBride E.A. (2008) 'Effects of early gentling and early environment on emotional development of puppies,' Applied Animal Behaviour Science 110: 294–304.
4. Lloyd, J.K.F. (2017) 'Minimising stress for patients in the veterinary hospital: why it is important and what can be done about it,' Veterinary Sciences, 4, 22.