Handling techniques and risk factors reported by veterinary professionals during dog examinations: a cross-sectional survey across Canada and the United States
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Introduction: Handling techniques are known to influence dog stress in veterinary settings; however, little is known about the current handling techniques applied to dogs during routine veterinary care or risk factors associated with their use. This cross-sectional survey aimed to assess common handling techniques used on calm, fearful, and aggressive dogs by veterinary professionals in Canada and the United States and identify risk factors for minimal and full-body restraint. Methods: A convenience sample of veterinary professionals completed an online questionnaire. It collected information on participant characteristics and clinic experience (e.g., gender, Ten Item Personality Index, bite history, stress-reducing certification), participant professional quality of life (using the ProQOL scale), general examination practices (e.g., use of treats), perceptions and importance of examination factors (e.g., staff safety), and frequency of using 14 different dog handling techniques. Logistic regression models were used to identify risk factors for the use of minimal and full-body restraint on fearful and aggressive dogs. Results: = 691) were veterinarians (39.2%, 271/691) and non-veterinarians (60.8%, 420/691), who routinely handle dogs during routine examinations in Canada (21.7%, 150/691) and the United States (79.1%, 541/691). Minimal restraint was reported to be used for calm (82.7%, 566/684), fearful (73.1%, 499/683), and aggressive (51.9%, 352/678) dogs during routine examinations. Full-body restraint was commonly reported to be used for calm dogs (58.5%, 400/684) and most frequently reported for fearful (63.9%, 434/679) and aggressive dogs (68.6%, 465/678). Handling decisions were influenced by factors including age, gender, practice type, graduation year, bite history, stress-reducing certification, and owner presence. Professionals prioritizing staff safety and using stress-reducing strategies (e.g., treats) were more likely to use minimal restraint, while owner presence and focus on examination completeness were linked to full-body restraint. Personality traits and professional well-being, particularly extraversion and secondary traumatic stress, also influenced handling choices. Discussion: Handling techniques vary with dog behavior and are shaped by numerous factors, highlighting the complex relationship between personal and clinic-level influences on veterinary staff interactions with dog patients. These findings generate hypotheses for future observational research exploring factors that support stress-reducing techniques to improve dog welfare in clinical settings.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".