Better compliance and health with low stress handling of dogs

"Freedom from pain, injury, and disease through prevention or rapid diagnosis and treatment. Freedom from fear and anxiety by ensuring conditions and treatments that avoid mental suffering." These are two of the five freedoms for animal welfare. However, many dogs become very stressed during veterinary visits, as well as when the pet owner tries to treat or groom the dog at home.

Risks when a dog gets stressed

Less stress = better health

A stressed dog may try to escape the unpleasant situation. Escape behavior can range from pulling away a paw when the veterinarian wants to examine it, to jumping off the examination table, and sometimes even displaying aggressive behavior such as biting the person trying to examine or hold it. If the dog becomes very stressed, it can make examination and treatment very difficult for the veterinary staff and also for the pet owner. This poses a risk for slower healing and reduced quality of life. It can also lead to a shortened lifespan (for example, if the dog develops a disease requiring regular treatment at home and/or at the clinic, difficulty treating the dog can be a factor in deciding whether to treat or euthanize the dog).

Stress itself can cause suffering for the dog, and it also affects the dog's physiology (e.g., blood pressure, heart rate, respiratory rate, temperature, etc.), which can make it more difficult to make an accurate diagnosis, thus increasing the time it takes to provide the correct care and recovery. Stress and pain interact, can intensify each other, and can be difficult to distinguish, which means it may be hard to assess whether the dog is in pain or is mentally stressed (or both) – again making it more difficult to determine the appropriate treatment.

Stressed dogs means stressed people

Pet owners, veterinary staff, and students in veterinary and animal nursing programs report feeling stressed and/or uncertain when handling stressed, fearful, and/or aggressive animals (1-4). By having knowledge about common stress behaviors in dogs, and understanding how to adapt the care situation, it may be possible to prevent the dog to escalate to severely stressed and thus aggressive behavior.

Example: by being aware of one's own body language and by recognizing and understanding the dog's common stress signals, veterinary staff and pet owners can pause, interrupt, and change their plan BEFORE the dog escalates trying to break free or risk biting someone. This often provides immediate benefits, for example, in conducting an examination, taking blood samples, administering injections, treating wounds, and even during aftercare at home (5).

Project plan and methods

Part 1

• Develop and practically evaluate a Swedish-language tool to support the assessment of dogs' stress levels in the clinic and during training. The aim is for the tool to be useful for both animal health professionals and dog owners.

The relevance of the tool will be evaluated by ethologists and other experts in dog behaviour.

Part 2

• Develop training guides (in Swedish) for clinical situations. The training guides will be structured in a way that is useful for both animal health professionals and dog owners.

The guides will be developed using literature studies, site visits, courses in the field, as well as practical training and evaluation by veterinarians, dog owners, and students.

Part 3 

Changes may occur regarding Part 3.

• The dogs' "stress level" during a veterinary clinic-visit will be assessed according to the protocol developed in Part 1.

Follow-up will occur after 1 year regarding stress levels, divided in groups with “trained” and “untrained” dogs.

• Survey/interview study regarding treatment in both intervention groups, potential behavior change in dog owners, and perceived applicability of the training and knowledge in stress assessment.