Looking for ways to reduce the anxiety level of your dog patients and increase the satisfaction rating of pet owners?

Consider placing the pet and its owner into an exam room immediately after they arrive at the clinic to ease pet anxiety during the veterinary visit, says researchers Whitney J. Engler, DVM, and Melissa Bain, DVM, at the University of California–Davis. In addition, play classical music at a low volume for a simple and cost-effective way to greatly improve owner satisfaction with the veterinary visit.

These findings, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, came from their prospective randomized controlled study of 74 dogs examined at a veterinary teaching hospital.

They found that owners rated their dog's anxiety level in the waiting room greater than that in the examination room regardless of treatment.  Owners rated mean anxiety and aggression scores of dogs during the physical examination significantly greater than those assigned by clinicians. Visit satisfaction for owners exposed to original classical music was significantly greater than that for owners not exposed to music.

Source: http://avmajournals.avma.org/doi/abs/10.2460/javma.251.2.195

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