To feed or not to feed: Counterconditioning in the veterinary clinic

Westlund, Karolina

doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2015.05.008

Cited by 21 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Approaches to improve dog and therefore owner veterinary clinic experiences include the use of low stress handling techniques [ 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 ], completion of the examination in a comfortable location for the dog [ 10 ], use of chemical restraint [ 11 ], and provision of treats [ 12 ]. Studies have shown that despite making changes to the physical [ 13 ] and social [ 14 ] veterinary environment, indicators of fear (avoidance, escape, reduced posture, lip licking) persist as a result of the handling used during the physical portion of the examination.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dog Owner Perceptions of Veterinary Handling Techniques

Carroll

Cisneros

Porter

et al. 2022

Animals

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Veterinary care can be a source of stress for domestic dogs and their owners. If a dog owner is not satisfied with the veterinary experience, this may reduce the frequency of veterinary visits and negatively impact a dog’s health and welfare. Allowing dog owners to offer their perspectives on aspects of the veterinary appointment may help improve owner satisfaction. We assessed owner agreement towards 13 recommended handling techniques used on dogs during routine veterinary appointments, when the participants’ dog was calm, fearful, or aggressive. An online cross-sectional survey targeting current dog owners, residing in Canada and the United States, was used to examine the influence of participant’s pet attachment (using the Lexington Attachment to Pets Scale (LAPS)) and demographic information (age, gender, experience working in the veterinary field) on owner agreement towards the handling techniques. The majority of participants (N = 1176) disagreed with higher restraint techniques (e.g., full body restraint, muzzle hold) and tools (e.g., dog mask), and agreed with lower restraint techniques (e.g., minimal restraint) regardless of dog demeanor. Logistic regression models revealed that for medium/large dog owners, having previous veterinary work experience resulted in lower agreement with the use of minimal restraint (p < 0.0001) and higher agreement with the use of full body restraint on fearful dogs (p = 0.01). Small dog owners were more likely to agree with the use of minimal restraint on fearful dogs if they had a higher pet attachment score (p < 0.001), and were more likely to agree with full body restraint if they had previous veterinary work experience (p < 0.0001) or were male (p = 0.02). Owner perspectives align with current handling recommendations and provide further support for the use of low stress handling methods to improve owner satisfaction and dog welfare during routine veterinary care.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dog Owner Perceptions of Veterinary Handling Techniques

Carroll

Cisneros

Porter

et al. 2022

Animals

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“…Lickimat ® (Innovative Pet Products PTY, Australia) and blue mat for non-slip examination [ 15 , 16 , 17 , 36 ]…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Changing Veterinary Handling Techniques on Canine Behaviour and Physiology Part 1: Physiological Measurements

Squair

Proudfoot

Montelpare

et al. 2023

Animals

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Signs of distress in dogs are often normalized during routine veterinary care, creating an animal welfare concern. We sought to test whether targeted interventions during veterinary visits affect physiological indicators of stress in dogs. Some 28 dogs were examined within four visits across 8 weeks. All dogs received the same care during the first visit and were then randomized into control and intervention groups for visits 2–4. In the intervention group, 14 dogs underwent procedures designed to reduce stress and to enlist their collaboration during examination. The 14 dogs in the control group received routine care. At each visit, heart rate (HR), serum cortisol (CORT), neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), and creatine kinase (CK) were measured. A composite stress index based on the summed standardized scores for these markers was constructed. No differences in HR, NLR, and CK parameters between groups were found, and both groups had a decrease in CORT by visit four. However, the intervention group showed a greater overall decrease in CORT between the first and fourth visit than the control group (p < 0.04). The composite stress index differed between the first and fourth visits for the intervention group, but not for the control group (Intervention p = 0.03; Control p= 0.288). There was a tendency for the composite stress index to worsen at visit four vs. visit one for the control group. The findings suggest that dogs that participated in adaptive, collaborative exams and procedures designed to minimize fear had a greater reduction in stress over time compared to those receiving standard care.

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“…Such strategies are comprehensively discussed in reviews (Edwards et al 2019b;Lloyd, 2017;Riemer et al 2021). Many techniques implemented to reduce fear of the veterinary clinic involve the use of food for distractions or counter-conditioning, and training (Howell & Feyrecilde, 2018;Jones, 2018;Westlund, 2015). Yet, the evidence of the efficacy of such interventions in clinical practice is lacking.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%