Most pet dogs and cats can be attached to their territory and have a sheltered and protected life with predictable daily activities that usually do not involve traveling away from home. Visiting the veterinarian can be a challenging experience for dog and cat owners. Thankfully, we’ll discuss how to make veterinary visits less demanding and help your pet overcome the fear of veterinary visits.
Useful Pointers to Keep Pets Well-Behaved During Vet Visits
During vet visits, pets usually show stress symptoms like dilated pupils, vocalizations, attempts to hide, and frantic panting. If you’ve come here hopeless with your stubborn pet who does not want to cooperate with you each time you visit the vet, below are five effective tips to help them conquer their fear.
1. Train your pet to be sociable before vet visits
Going to the veterinarian can be intimidating for the pets as it’s a new place with strange animal odors and faces. To help your furry baby get used to settings like this, train them to be friendly with their fellows. Letting your furry companion play with the canines in your community or taking them to pet boarding facilities can help improve their familiarity.
Moreover, this can help skyrocket their confidence in socializing with new people and other animals, whether in a vet’s clinic or strange places.
2. Help your dog feel comfortable getting touched
Canines should not retaliate when getting touched, and this is something you must pay attention to before seeing the vet. Dogs aren’t often comfy when having their tummy prodded, tails lifted, and feet and nails touched. Daily spending time doing these actions can help your dog retaliate less and eventually love getting touched. This will help the pet groomers when grooming your furry pet and the veterinary team when administering pet vaccinations.
Every pet parent knows that regular grooming and preventive care like examinations, sterilization, parasite prevention, and cat and dog vaccinations are essential. Pet professionals will need to touch your pet for the mentioned procedures. However, you’ll have no worries if you train your dog to behave when being handled.
You may browse the home page of local veterinarians to learn more about the necessary pet preventive care.
3. Be knowledgeable about your dog’s symptoms
Dogs can’t talk and will never speak. This is why you must be watchful and bold in telling your veterinarian about what your canine is experiencing. You might also create a list of symptoms your pet is struggling with. If you forget what to tell your veterinarian the day of your visit, you have a list they can read. This may also help the veterinarian to be clear and concise with the possible conditions your pooch is going through.
4. Take car rides with them regularly
Most canines enjoy riding in the car as they’re off to go to a park and have fun with their fellows. However, some dogs only get in a car when going to a vet, causing their stress levels to increase. To prevent pets from believing the same, take more car trips with your dog to different locations so they don’t only associate it with vet visits. This will help eliminate the thought that a car automatically implies vet visits.
5. Bring them hungry
This doesn’t mean skipping their breakfast that day. The point is to not feed them too much before the time of the appointment. A hungry pet will be treat-motivated, and providing treats can be a reliable distraction while the vet team is doing their work.
