You are at the veterinarians office with your dog. You are waiting to see the vet and when your turn comes you get into the room. Then you are asked to wait in the room, while your dog is taken into the back to have blood drawn, the vaccines, or some other procedure. Or you get into the room the veterinarian comes in does an exam and notices that your dog is a little agitated, he asks to have your dog brought into the back. You ask yourself, why? Why is my dog going back there, what is happening to my dog back there, you might even hear a yelp and you know it is your dog...what are they doing? Why does my dog need to go back there why can they not do the procedure in the room or why can I not go back there to see what is happening? All these are legitimate questions and I have three reasons why.... attitude, insurance and training.

Attitude - Most dogs do better without their owner present. There attitude completely changes when they are away from their owner for two reasons. The first is that dogs just like people can feel stress and tension. They are acutely aware when there is a problem, they may not be able to fully understand the situation and therefore may not respond appropriately. All the dog knows is that it is away from home in a different and sometimes scary place (they get hurt here) and that their owner is a little anxious or nervous, so they know something is wrong. Now you as an owner may not be nervous about the procedure but rather nervous because the dog is nervous, you feed off of each others anxiety which then makes the dog difficult to deal with in a safe manner. If you take the dog out of the situation, away from the owner, so it can not directly feel the tension, the dog actually calms down. The second reason is that some dogs try and protect their owner from anything they consider a threat. Some dogs are well known for not trusting anyone, except for their owner, and that becomes much more evident when they are in a strange environment or in an environment in which pain was inflicted upon them - shots hurt. In this case, when the dog is taken away from the owner and he no longer has anything to protect his attitude improves dramatically.

Insurance- Money and lawyers that is what insurance is all about. Lawyers trying to figure out the "what if" situations and how much money it will cost if that "what if" should occur. In veterinary medicine, it is spelled out that if when doing a procedure on an animal and the owner is injured or bit the veterinarian is held accountable. Insurance companies know this and if a client is injured then there is no coverage or minimal coverage; however, if an employee is injured then the employee has workers compensation insurance plus the standard insurance would not dismiss their claim due to negligence of the veterinarian. That is correct, it is considered negligence on the veterinarians part if you hold your dog and you are injured. So in order to protect himself, the veterinarian will and should require certain procedures to happen away from the owner using trained individuals, which brings us to the third reason why your dog is brought into the back at the vet's office.

Training- There are trained individuals in the back room for procedures. Many veterinary exam rooms are small and most back rooms are quite large. In order to have as many trained individuals working with your dog in enough space to properly work, your dog must be brought into the back room. Properly trained individuals know how to draw blood or more importantly know how to restrain your dog in the most effective way and minimize the chance of hurting themselves or your dog in the process. Not only are they trained professionals but they deal with situations like this everyday, with the same team of people, which also makes it safer for the people and the dog.

So when your dog is asked to go into the back room, it is not because the vet wants to do mean nasty things without you knowing. They do not want to do treatments without your knowledge, they really have the concern for the safety and health of your dog. Bringing your dog into the back room usually eases your dogs attitude, reduces insurance woes, and utilizes trained individuals.