Calm Canine Clinics: Reducing fear and anxiety in practice

The veterinary clinic can be a stressful environment for many of our patients, and any resulting fear and anxiety can have long-lasting impacts on their emotional and physical wellbeing, and can compromise the safety of both owners and staff members. Creating a Calm Clinic environment is essential in conditioning a positive emotional and physical response in our patients when they visit us, which in turn facilitates a calmer and safer practice environment for owners and staff.

This one-day course with experienced lecturer, RVN and behaviourist Charlie Wright explores ways to reduce fear and anxiety in canine patients in the practice, and can be attended as a one-day course, or as part of our Calm Clinic Academy. By recognising species-specific factors that influence the biological stress response and the behavioural coping strategies of a patient, we can tailor how we approach patients, manage the environment, and design behaviour-focused services within the clinic.

Every staff member plays a crucial role in helping to create a calm clinic environment, so this course is open to the whole team, including vets, vet nurses, management, veterinary care assistants and receptionists.

Topics covered include:

• Recognising species-specific challenges
• Adapting our approach to focus on emotional health
• Overcoming barriers in canine stress reduction
• Facilitating caregiver compliance
• Running canine behaviour services
• Training dogs for examination and procedures

This course is part of the Calm Clinic Academy - a comprehensive 12-month programme open to vets, vet nurses and practice managers, which includes online training programmes, case studies and assessments, and two attendance days at our central London venue. Find out more about the full academy.