At the Vet — You Are Part of the Plan

1 Most dogs are afraid at the vet

If your dog trembles on the exam table, he is in the majority. In a study in Germany (Döring et al., 2009), researchers observed 135 dogs during a standard examination in a veterinary practice. Most of them showed fear, particularly on the table, and 78.5% were classed as fearful based on their behavior.

The study also looked at what went along with that fear. Dogs whose earlier visits had all been good ones were significantly less fearful than dogs who had already had a bad experience at a vet.

So a frightened dog on the table is not a badly behaved dog. That is how most dogs react. Everything below has one goal: easier visits — never skipping or putting off the care he needs.

2 Why you matter in the room

Researchers have a name for what an owner can be to a dog: a secure base. It is the same idea used for young children and the people who look after them.

At the University of Vienna in Austria (Horn, Huber and Range, 2013; two experiments, with 20 and 26 dogs), dogs were given a puzzle to work on. They kept at it longer when their owner was in the room than when the owner was away — whether the owner encouraged them or stayed silent. When an unfamiliar person took the owner’s place, it did not help.

In Budapest, Hungary (Gácsi et al., 2013), a team measured something closer to what happens in an exam room: heart rate. Thirty dogs were approached by a stranger acting in a threatening way, once with their owner there and once without. Their heart rate went up, but the rise was significantly smaller when the owner was present. The researchers compare it to what parents do for infants: an owner can buffer a dog against stress.

So being there is not a favor to the vet — it is part of how he copes. If the clinic allows it, stay with him. Your own tension comes into the room with you as well — that has a chapter of its own.

3 A quiet dog can still be afraid

Reading fear is a skill, and it does not come automatically, even to people training for it. A study of 218 veterinary students at the University of Córdoba in Spain (Menor-Campos et al., 2022) found that they recognized the obvious signs of stress in dogs, such as barking and aggression, but tended to miss the subtle ones: yawning, low activity, a raised paw.

Subtle signs come before loud ones. A dog lying still on the table may be coping — or he may be further into stress than he looks. Stillness can hide fear. Watch for:

• the whites of his eyes showing
• a closed mouth, or lip-licking
• a tucked tail
• a body braced, ready to get up
• refusing a treat he would normally take

Judge him by those — not by whether he yelps.

Pain also changes how a dog takes being touched. Veterinary sources describe dogs showing apprehension while their body is examined by hand, and dogs with belly pain guarding the area and resisting being handled. If he reacts every time one particular spot is touched — his belly, for example — tell your vet. Finding out why is the vet’s job.

4 How a flat-faced dog is handled

A French Bulldog’s airway is already narrow, and that changes what safe handling means. An article for veterinary nurses in Today’s Veterinary Nurse (Rayburn, 2022) says a towel lets a flat-faced dog breathe freely while his head stays under firm control, and that it prevents panic from a squeezed airway, which often comes with a firmer hold or a muzzle that does not fit.

This is what it looks like: the towel is rolled into a long tube and wrapped gently around the neck, starting under the chin, and the ends are held behind the head so that fingers stay out of the dog’s reach.

The same article advises examining a dog standing rather than lying down, where the procedure allows. And the 2015 guidelines of the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) ask vets to use the least stressful, most humane methods of restraint first, because a heavy-handed approach may raise stress and manual restraint makes struggling and injury to staff and patients more likely: “less is truly more.”

How dogs are actually held varies. In a 2025 survey (Nakonechny et al.) of 691 veterinary professionals in Canada and the United States, vets and other clinic staff described how they handle dogs during routine exams:

• 63.9% said they use full-body restraint — holding the whole body still — with fearful dogs, and 58.5% with calm ones
• about 87% of those who answered held a stress-reducing certification, such as Fear Free. Full-body restraint was still common, but certified staff were more likely to use minimal restraint
• staff who used stress-reducing strategies, such as treats, were also more likely to use minimal restraint
• the choice depended on both the person and the clinic: experience, type of practice, personality, their own stress at work, and what they felt mattered most

One finding matters for owners. Staff who said an owner’s presence did not change their handling were less likely to use full-body restraint on fearful dogs. The authors suggest they may feel less pressure from clients. So say it out loud: you are in no hurry.

This is people describing their own work in an online survey, and the authors note that full-body restraint may even be under-reported. But the picture is clear enough: not every vet handles dogs the same way, and a certificate on the wall does not settle it. How they approach your dog does.

5 When you hold your dog at the vet, think first about his breathing

A French Bulldog already has trouble breathing, and in the exam room he is already frightened. If his air is restricted as well, he will panic.

Our experience, not veterinary advice. This is how we hold Spike, and it works for him. We cannot promise it will work for your dog, so take from it what you can use. Most likely you will have to get to know your own dog and practice a little how to hold him. Ask your vet to show you how to hold yours. Here is what we do:

1. When you lean against him, check that he has a little room to move.
2. His nose stays free. Do not cover it with your body, and mind your clothes: a loose shirt, a sleeve or a scarf can close off his nose even when you are not leaning on it.
3. If you have to hold his head or neck, use his build. A big head on a narrower neck cannot slip through a loose hold around the neck, so you do not have to squeeze.
4. Never press on his neck. The measure is borrowed from the rule for fitting a collar: according to the American Kennel Club (AKC), one finger should fit between collar and neck on a small dog and two on a large-breed dog, so you know it is comfortable. We found no such rule for a hand, so let one to two fingers fit between your hand and his neck: you are not squeezing him, and you still have control.

6 Practice being held at home, while he is healthy: through play and rewards

One study has actually tested this. In it (Stellato et al., 2019), 37 dogs finished: 15 practiced and 22 were the comparison group, all older than a year and mildly to moderately afraid of the vet. For four weeks the owners practiced exam-style handling at home, 5–10 minutes twice a week, with treats, starting with the mildest touch (a hand resting on a paw) and building up to a firmer one (massaging the paw), and once a week they made a short visit to the clinic. The authors call the result “mildly effective”: the dogs’ body posture during the exam improved, and so did the owners’ satisfaction with their dog’s level of fear, but the other signs of fear did not change. 44% of the owners did not carry out the plan. The authors write that a longer, more intensive program might do better.

Other sources point the same way. Cornell (2024) advises practicing touch on paws, ears and mouth with treats, and never forcing the dog: he should be free to walk away if he is uncomfortable. The AAHA guidelines (2015) add that treats and toys are used to lower fear. And the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB, 2008; an official position, not a study) says a puppy should be handled from the start so that he learns to accept being touched all over, with rewards, praise, petting, play or treats. If a puppy shows fear, it says to seek veterinary guidance.

Our idea, not veterinary advice. This is mainly for dogs who find being held hard, like Spike. Try it while he is healthy and in a good mood: hold him the way described above, but at the start let him go straight away, then build up the holding time bit by bit. Reward him every time with a treat or a game, so that being held goes together with rewards and play. The aim is for an exam to feel to him like being petted. Stop as soon as he stops taking treats or wants to leave, and if his breathing gets louder or faster, let him go and let him settle. If he pulls away or shows fear, do not carry on, and ask your vet: the AAHA guidelines warn, speaking about puppies, that forced exposure can make fear worse. With a puppy you can do the same from the start, including lying still, the way an exam or an ultrasound needs.

7 A calm plan for the visit

Put together, the findings above point to a plan you can take with you:

1. Stay with him, if the clinic allows it.
2. Tell them how he is with handling before anyone touches him. Say what he does, not only that he is nervous: “He is fine with a needle but hates being held still.” “Please keep fingers out of his mouth — at home he takes tablets in food.”
3. Ask for low-stress handling by name. If your Frenchie has had a hard time at the vet before, start by finding someone trained in it.
4. For a flat face: nothing should press on his nose or his neck. Ask whether a towel can be used.
5. Ask whether he can be examined standing, where the procedure allows. On his back, with a stranger leaning over him, a dog has no way out.
6. Before the visit, get him used to being held at home, while he is healthy, with treats and play. Start with a hold he can leave right away.
7. Bring what is his — his blanket, the treats he loves, the smell of home.
8. Say that you are in no hurry.

Whether a particular tablet can go in food is a question for your vet: some must not be crushed or given with a meal.

Then, in the first minute, watch how they meet him. Do they look at him before they touch him? Do they go slowly? Do they ask you how he is with handling? Do they treat his fear as information — or as disobedience?

8 The one limit: his breathing

Whatever the hold, and whoever is holding, one rule sits above the others in this breed. A stressed flat-faced dog breathes as if he were running.

If his breathing keeps building and does not settle, or if his gums or tongue turn blue, purple or gray, stop right away and tell the vet. That is not behavior. It is his airway, and it is an emergency.

Which hold suits which procedure is the vet’s call. Knowing this limit, and saying so the moment you see it, is yours.

9 Spike: our experience

Our stories and opinions on this page are our personal experience with one dog, Spike. One dog is not the measure for every dog — for your dog, your vet decides.

Spike’s reality  ·  Dominican Republic

“We learned to hold him without hurting him. Learn it too — a Frenchie is easy to hurt.”

Spike likes going to the vet. Most of the time an injection gets no reaction from him at all. An ultrasound, an X-ray or anything else where we have to hold him is another story: lying still while we hold him is the hardest thing we ask of him, and it takes more than one pair of calm hands — and a song.

A dog who does not blink at a needle is easy to read as a dog who is coping. But stress itself can dull pain for a while, so that stillness may be arousal, not calm. At home, relaxed, the same dog objects to a little cream on a sore spot. Same dog, different state.

When we hold him, this is what we do. His big head rests in the crook of one arm. Nothing presses on his neck: he can still move his head, he just cannot lift it above the elbow. Our body leans gently against his. And we sing to him, using words he likes.

When he was ill, he lay calmly in his crate on an IV drip for hours. But when a vet reached toward that crate, he made it very clear that it was his. What we took from it: a crate is a place to be, not a place to be handled. Exams happen outside it, in our hands. Waiting and recovery happen inside.

A vet once showed us the standard way to place a tablet at the back of a dog’s throat. We told him Spike is difficult about that. He answered that he knew dogs — and he did, but he did not know Spike. The technique is correct, and for most dogs it is exactly right. What was missing was information about this one dog, and the person who had it was standing in the room. At home, Spike takes his tablets hidden in a crumb of food.

What we would pass on:

Holding a dog safely is a skill. Learn it before you need it, and ask your vet to show you how.

Never crush the airway. Even in a hug, leave him room to breathe — and the limit above applies to us as much as to anyone.

If your Frenchie struggles at the vet, talk to someone trained in low-stress handling first. It is the best advice we have.

Say what your dog does, and keep saying it.

About the Author

Spike’s Dad

Not a veterinarian — the human behind Spike, a dark brindle Frenchie, for 7+ years. What is written here is checked as carefully as we can against the sources listed above. When real life with Spike differs from the studies, we say so.

How this site is researched →