Veterinary visit fear is extremely common in dogs and causes significant welfare harm that Fear Free and Low Stress Handling approaches significantly reduce.
Veterinary visit fear causes acute welfare harm during the visit itself through the stress response, and chronic welfare harm through the avoidance behavior it creates in owners - dogs with fearful veterinary experiences are brought less frequently, delaying diagnosis of health problems. The welfare cost of untreated dental disease, undiagnosed arthritis, or preventable disease in fear-avoiding dogs is substantial. The good news is that veterinary fear is largely preventable through early positive conditioning and significantly reducible in adult dogs through patient Low Stress Handling approaches. Fear Free veterinary practices demonstrate that the same diagnostic information can be obtained with dramatically less patient distress through environmental and handling modifications.