Fear Free Handling for Vets and Groomers

Marty and Laura talk about the concept of fear free handling of pets by veterinarians and groomers. A concept popularized by veterinarian Dr. Sophia Yin, the reality of working with pets to lower their stress in new situations isn’t all that new, Marty noted.

“I think fear free and low stress handling are important techniques. But this isn’t new. And that’s part of the frustration that I have with this, is we’ve always done things this way. It didn’t have a name back then, but we’ve always put peanut butter on cookies and we’ve always put cheese out and we’ve always gotten out the chicken baby food for the cats and the puppies. So to me, a lot of this isn’t as new or revolutionary as it would lead you to believe.

“(Yin) started teaching techniques for veterinary staff and veterinarians to handle pets that came to the office so that they would have an easier time accepting the care. The people that owned them would have an easier time seeing what was happening and the veterinarians and veterinary staff were safer. So I think those are all really important things to consider. Those are all real things. Cats like to bite and scratch veterinarians. Dogs get a little panicked sometimes.

“It’s important to veterinarians that we have our staff safe, that we’re safe, that the clients are safe. I think it’s really important that we look at the psychological effects of our staff because they don’t want to force pets to do anything. And we look at the psychology of the pet. And that’s where it really becomes important is that every time that the pet has a bad experience at a veterinary clinic, it can remind them the next time that they come in, then it’s unfavorable.

“What I don’t like about ‘fear free, low stress’ is that those sentences lead off with a negative term. And personally, that sort of rubs me the wrong way. And it’s not that I think the philosophy behind it is bad. I think the terminology is problematic for me because I don’t want anybody to say, well, what do you mean it’s fear free? Was there something they were supposed to be afraid of? It sets up the expectation that the veterinarian is a scary place and that shouldn’t be the expectation, right? And that’s my concern is that it leads with a negative.”

The Marty & Laura Show is produced by Pure Dog Talk Inc., with sound design and editing by Premium Audio Services.