Easy Ways to Decrease Pet Patient Stress

Julie Shaw, RVT, VTS (Behavior), owner and director of Stepping Stone Animal Training, LLC., in Lafayette, Indiana, describes a few ways to decrease pet patient stress. Three easy things to remember: 1) slow down, 2) talk softer, and 3) listen to the pet and their owner.

Veterinarians need to be in the moment whenever they walk into an exam room. Instead of thinking about the other patients they may have to treat that day, they need to focus on the pet they are seeing at the moment and block everything else out.