Does your dog get very anxious and stressed during vet visits? While some dogs are satisfied with a few tasty treats, others may need different interventions to relax.
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On her Instagram profile @r.plus.dogs, specialist trainer and behaviorist Renee Rhoades shared three tips that can help make vet visits a bit easier for you and your dog. Check them out:
1. Stay with your dog during the appointment
Unless in cases of medical emergencies, Rhoades recommends that owners stay in the room with their pet during consultations and exams. “Dogs can go into behavioral shutdown when separated from you,” she explained in the post.
2. Minimize unnecessary handling
Next, the expert suggested avoiding unnecessary handling by the vets as much as possible. “A special hot tip that I have is using your awesome camera on your phone to take pictures of things that you want your vet to see on your dog’s body before you get to the vet,” said Rhoades.
“Yes, they still might want to see or touch that area, but this can also cut down on the physical handling the vet needs to do. Many dogs reach their limit when there is a lot of touching so cutting back on it could help your dog.”
3. Consider using calming medication
Although many owners prefer not to medicate their pups unless absolutely necessary, a vet visit is one of the cases where Rhoades explained that medication can be very helpful in making your pet calmer.
“This one for me is a no-brainer… if your dog is just a little bit uncomfortable imagine the potential for them to feel even more comfortable with situational medication on board. I’ve seen many instances where dogs go from fearful to actively liking the vet because intervention was quick,” she emphasized.
This content was created with the help of AI
