Assessing stress in dogs during a visit to the veterinary clinic: Correlations between dog behavior in standardized tests and assessments by veterinary staff and owners

A visit to a veterinary clinic can be very stressful for the dog, and stress may interact with pain. The aim of this study was to observe the behavior of dogs in a veterinary clinic and to correlate it with subjective stress assessments by different persons. Systems have already been developed to assess pain in dogs. We tested the behavior of 105 dogs, sampled from 233 dog-owners who completed our questionnaire and whose dogs were patients at the clinic. The dog-owner, the test leader, the nurse and the veterinarian were each asked to assess if the dog was experiencing pain or was stressed and to evaluate, overall, how the dog experienced the visit.
Source: Journal of Veterinary Behavior: Clinical Applications and Research - Category: Veterinary Research Authors: Source Type: research