We love veterinarians, veterinary technicians, and the other veterinary professionals who keep our dogs healthy! They are caring, hard-working animal lovers. They must care for animals in every sort of challenging situation with skill and compassion, whether the animal is sick, injured, overexcited or stressed, fearful or aggressive, or dying. They also have to deal with us, the human guardian, who may also be stressed-out, fearful, or aggressive!

However, veterinarians are not usually experts on service animals or life with a disability. Veterinary schools have so much other material to cover, they usually provide little-to-no information on service animals. This means it’s up to up to both the client and the veterinary team to communicate about a service dog’s unique care needs to get the best outcome for all concerned.

Communication is Key

It is up to service dog guardians to provide their veterinarian with the information that will help them best care for our service dogs. Because the role of a service dog is different from that of a pet dog, our service dog’s needs may be somewhat different from the other dogs that arrive at the vet clinic.

All the tips in this post involve communication. Every service dog team is different and has unique needs. Vets will not understand the day-to-day life of a service dog team, and handlers lack medical expertise. This means it is up to service dog handlers to communicate our needs to our dog’s medical providers AND veterinary practices can make this much easier with a few adjustments.

Speaking up can feel very difficult for a service dog handler. Handlers often have had negative experiences with discrimination or ableist attitudes. We may feel embarrassed or vulnerable calling attention to our needs or our disability.

Veterinarians and clinic staff can pave the way for service dog teams by knowing a few basics (below) and asking questions about our service dogs’ needs in a kind, yet matter-of-fact way. If every veterinary clinic included a basic question about disability accommodations in their new patient intake form, it would make a world of difference! (See sample questions at the bottom of this post.)

If you are a veterinary professional, please read on for tips about how to best serve your service dog patients.

If you’re a service dog handler, consider sharing this post with your vet’s office before your dog’s next wellness check. It’s best to begin the conversation before your dog has an illness or injury.

1. Consider the dog’s job and ability to work when making treatment decisions

While your primary goal is always the health of the animal, remember that the dog’s human partner is relying on their dog to function. When deciding how to treat a particular condition, injury, or illness, consider whether there are ways to approach treatment that will enable the dog to work — today, tomorrow, for the next few weeks, or ever.

Examples:

Service animals need to think and make decisions to do their job. A dog cannot guide its handler home or alert its handler to a medical condition if it’s sedated. When treating pain or other conditions that require medication, are there options that will provide the dog relief without sedation?

An Elizabethan collar (“cone”) can be important to prevent a dog from licking or scratching an injury. But the cone almost always makes work impossible for a service animal. Can a surgical recovery suit be used while the dog is working, even if the cone is used during off-duty hours?

Suppose the handler doesn’t drive and will need to take public transportation and walk home. If the dog has an injury that should be left open to the air, can you wrap it to allow the dog and handler to get home safely, with instructions to remove the dressing once home?

Shaving a patch of fur or putting a brightly colored wrap on a leg are not a big deal for a pet dog. But service dog handlers are the recipients of a great deal of unwelcome public attention. Anything that makes their dog more noticeable or that indicates that the dog may in any way be suffering or unwell can create a hassle. If possible, try to shave the fur in an inconspicuous location, and use a wrap that matches the dog’s coat color as closely as possible.

Vaccinations sometimes cause soreness at the injection site. Many service dogs wear harnesses, vests, or other equipment when working. Is it possible to adjust the site of the injection — or the administration route — so that the equipment is not pressing on the sore area? (Or, if not, see #2 below – prepare the handler that the dog may not be able to work for a period of time, and plan accordingly.)

2. Discuss the impact of tests, treatment, and even routine preventive care with the service dog’s handler

Because the handler may be relying on the dog to function, before performing any procedure or administering any treatment, even cosmetic changes, provide details on how it can affect the dog’s behavior, functioning, and appearance. What symptoms might it cause? How long will they last? The handler may need to plan transportation, work, school, or errands around how and when their service dog will be able to work.

Examples:

When people get X-rays, they don’t need to be sedated. But dogs often are sedated for x-rays, leading to grogginess afterward. If a service dog handler knows the potential impact of x-rays might render their dog unable to work that day, they might schedule the appointment on the weekend, take time off, or plan to work from home the rest of the day.

Some medication may affect the dog’s behavior in ways the handler would not expect, such as changes in appetite, thirst, urination, energy, or mood. I will never forget the time my second service dog, Gadget, started taking prednisone shortly before I held a potluck dinner party. My normally very well-behaved service dog ate almost an entire tray of deviled eggs when my back was turned! I was baffled by this sudden change in behavior. I only learned a few days later that prednisone increases appetite.

Fortunately everyone was very understanding. However, some service dogs are trained to open the refrigerator to bring their handler medication or juice. These handlers should be warned to remove the pull-cord from the fridge handle!

Likewise, changes in the frequency of a service dog’s meal, water, or potty schedule can significantly impact the handler’s plans. A service dog who needs to urinate more often may require their handler to reschedule air travel or adjust a conference schedule.

Anything that affects a dog’s mood and may lead to fear, anxiety, aggression, etc., should be explained in clear language, and any other alternatives discussed (see below).

3. Allow the handler to weigh in on treatment options

The clinical picture for the dog is your expertise, but the handler’s needs add a layer of complexity. Just as you sometimes need to modify protocols for a brachycephalic dog or a dog with heart disease, you may need to take the service dog’s job and handler’s needs into account.

Service dog handlers are usually not typical pet parents. Since they spend all day, every day, with their dog, they often know their dog’s behavior extremely well. Because they also rely on their dog, their commitment to their dog’s wellness and functioning — at any cost — may be much higher than the typical pet parent.

Service dog handlers often don’t have as much flexibility for a “wait-and-see” approach as pet parents. And what might be a nuisance issue for a pet can have a global impact on a service dog.

For these reasons, if your go-to for a particular condition starts with what is easiest and/or least expensive (because that is what most pet parents want), that might not be the right starting point for a service dog. If the best course of action would actually be referral to a specialist or an expensive test, but you usually offer a less-expensive solution to pet parents first, explain to the service dog handler both options from the start. Provide details on the pros and cons of each.

Examples:

Even mild allergies and itchiness can have a significant impact on a service dog’s functioning. Even if a dog is not licking his pads raw or getting sores, a dog who is chronically just itchy enough that he is periodically rubbing against people or rolling on the floor will have trouble settling. A long, relaxed down-stay is an essential skill for a service dog working in public. The dog is also not learning and thinking well because it is distracted by its discomfort.

Recently, I had two clients whose dogs had allergies, causing them to be itchy. In both cases, the dogs were started on a treatment which had to be adjusted. In one case, the vet listened to the handler and kept trying treatments that enabled the dog to work. In the other case, the vet took the dog off treatment that had been helping the dog function because he felt that the impact of the medication long-term had the potential to cause damaging side effects, but offered no other treatment.

The result of this is that one of those dogs was able to complete her training and continue working (see picture below), while the other dog has trouble settling and performing her tasks. While she is otherwise an excellent service dog prospect, as long as she continues to be chronically itchy, daily life will continue to be a struggle for the dog AND her handler.

4. Recognize that the service dog handler probably has more information about their dog than a typical pet parent

As previously mentioned, service dog handlers are intimately familiar with and connected to their dogs in ways that most dog guardians are not. They spend all their time together. They rely on their dog in ways most people do not. They may have spent years training their dog every day.

This often leads to greater familiarity with the subtleties of their dog’s health and behavior. For example, if a service dog handler raises a concern that seems minor, consider that they might be seeing an earlier or more subtle sign of a condition before most guardians would catch it.

5. If possible, avoid separating dog and handler

Service dogs and their handlers typically are together all the time and rely on each other in ways that pets and their owners usually don’t. For these reasons, it can be very stressful, or even traumatic, for the handler and dog to be separated.

If it is your usual practice to separate the dog from the handler for certain procedures, ask the handler if their dog will be OK with that, or if they would prefer you find ways to keep them together.

If it’s absolutely necessary to separate them, explain exactly what will happen to their dog while they’re apart, and reunite them as quickly as possible. Also, check with the handler if they need any assistance during the separation (such as guiding them back to the waiting room, calling in a family member or friend, etc.).

Access & Accommodations

Veterinary clinics may help to identify service dog teams and serve them better with the following questions on an intake form. The first few questions will be helpful for disabled pet parents, too!

• Do you require any disability accommodations to enable us to care for your animal? if so, please describe.
• What is the best way to communicate with you? e.g., by text only, face-to-face without a mask, etc.?
• Do you prefer to wait outside or for a staff person to speak with you outside before your animal’s appointment?
• Is your animal a trained service dog (or service-dog-in-training)? If so, please provide some information so we can best maintain your dog’s health and ability to work…
• Does your service dog typically accompany you everywhere? Perform any weight-bearing tasks? Use any special gear or equipment?
• Is there anything else about your service animal’s specific tasks or routines that might be relevant to their healthcare?

Information & Support for Veterinary Practices

Did you find this information useful? Please feel free to share this post with attribution (Sharon Wachsler of At Your Service Dog Training, atyourservicedogtraining.com) on social media, in classes, with staff, or anywhere else you think it would be helpful!

Would you like your staff to learn best practices for working with service dogs? Sharon is an experienced, engaging speaker who loves to support pet pros and answer their questions. She offers lunch-and-learns, webinars, and consulting — online throughout the US or in-person in Massachusetts — to veterinary practices. Contact us for continuing education that meets the needs of your patients, your clients, and your staff.

Do you need a trusted, evidence-based service dog training referral? Headed up by a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, At Your Service Dog Training uses only positive methods — with dogs and people! Our trainers have over 30 years of combined experience with owner-training service dogs. Contact us if you’d like our rack card for your front desk.

Thank you for reading this post and for your dedication to the animals and their humans!

Tremendous gratitude to Registered Veterinary Technician (RVT) Courtenay Watson for contributing her expertise and insight to this article. Thanks to her generosity, this article is much better and more complete than it would have been without her input. Nonetheless, any errors or omissions in this article are solely the author’s.

https://atyourservicedogtraining.com/veterinarians-service-dog-tips/