by Matthew Tyler Funk

Created on: September 22, 2009   Last Updated: September 25, 2009

A visit to the vet's office is often a stressful experience for both pet and owner. Many of the animals at the vet's office are sick or injured and therefore are inordinately anxious, which makes good behavior on everyone's part an important aspect of a safe healing environment.

First of all, I think many people bring their perfectly healthy animals to the vet far too frequently for a simple checkup or to satisfy some sort of displaced hypochondria on the part of the owner. Healthy animals are often playful and rambunctious and the vet's office is no place for a group of rowdy perfectly healthy animals to be stirring up trouble. The fewer animals there are at the vet at any given time makes the atmosphere easier to handle for everyone who does have a genuine need to be there.

Sometimes, though an animal does have a genuine need to visit the vet, the animal can be too energetic for what needs to be a safe healing environment for other animals as well. Owners of such animals need to bring a method of restraint along with them such as a leash or a carrier, to keep their pet from harassing or injuring other sick animals. A good idea for dealing with a large energetic dog, for example, who needs to make a visit to the vet would be to bring along a human partner to wait inside in the waiting room for your name to be called while you walk the dog outside on a leash.

In short, sick and injured animals need space, and sometimes other pets with the best of intentions can further injure unhealthy animals. Out of control animals at the vet's office are a needless stressor in any vet visitor's life, be they nonhuman patient or human family member. You wouldn't start talking loudly on your cellphone in the middle of the dining room of a fancy restaurant, it is and should be a commonly expected courtesy to control your pet's behavior at the vet's office as well.

Visitors to the vet should be on the same behavior as visitors to a doctor's office. If you have trouble understanding the need to restrain your pet in the waiting room of the vet, try imagining yourself in the waiting room of a doctor's office instead. Your pet should meet the same standard of behavior in either environment.

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