The Fear Free Approach

Pets don’t often like to be handled by strangers, placed on an examination table or given vaccinations that sting. A fear-free approach is meant to allow pets to get comfortable in the clinic setting and begin to trust the veterinary staff handling them. To help establish this trust, our trained staff use a variety of techniques including:

• Avoiding eye contact – Dogs especially can see direct eye contact as a challenge or a threat. Therefore, we avoid it and instead, address you first. We’ll ask you questions about your pet’s health and any concerns you have, giving your pet time to realize we are not a threat.
• Taking our time with felines – Cats are well-known for being shy. When you bring your cat into our exam room, we’ll give them the time they need to get comfortable and come out of their carrier on their own time.
• Food motivation – We recommend bringing your pet to us a little hungry. Using food to motivate them to cooperate or to simply distract them is a great tool that keeps them happy and allows us to do our work.
• Getting down to their level – Some pets really don’t like being on an exam table, so if needed, we’ll examine them where they’re comfortable, whether it is on the floor or in our lap!
• Low restraint handling – No pet likes to be held down, and we don’t ever want to do it! Our staff uses low-restraint handling (often paired with food motivation) to keep pets from struggling out of fear.