I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Stefanie Kotschwar, a licensed veterinary technician at Lynwood Animal Hospital, Nepean, Ontario, Canada. Her practice has a strong emphasis in exotic pet care, and makes providing a Low Stress Handling® care experience a top priority.  Stefanie has been selected to present Low Stress Handling® in small mammals at ExoticsCon this fall. Dr Foote: Stefanie, I see that you have various degrees.  Tell me about your journey into veterinary care for exotic pets.  Originally from Austria, I grew up in Colombia. As a young adult I moved to Guelph and earned my degrees in nutrition and zoology.

It is April, and thunderstorms are upon us here in the Midwest.  Many dogs are fearful of thunderstorms.  It is the most common subtype of noise phobias in dogs.  The behavioral response may vary from mild pacing or panting up to escape behaviors such as digging repetitively at the door,  trembling severely, or injuring teeth and nails to get out of confinement.  Triggers for the fear include falling barometric pressure, wind, rain, cloud cover,  and thunder (1) Many of these triggers are present hours before the storm develops.  When the thunder and lightening occur, often the dog escalates into full

Have you ever been in a new city or location or situation and uncertain of where to go and the person who’s supposed to be guiding you keeps getting you mixed up? “This way,” they say as they walk forward slowly but while scanning the signs to the right and left. And then, “Wait no… this way.” And then, “Oops. I meant the other way instead.” If you have, I’m sure you remember the stress and frustration. Now ask yourself, do the dogs I walk at the veterinary hospital or shelter get mixed signals, too? Am I conveying an air

As the discipline of reducing stress during veterinary care grows, it helps to have a place where you can find resources.  In this post, I have gathered the handouts, blog articles, book chapters, and on-line course content descriptions in one place to help you provide a better care experience for your patients. At my practice, Okaw Veterinary Clinic, I found that hanging a framed copy of both the dog and cat body language posters helped me and my staff recognize brewing fear and aggression before it escalated. The posters are available to purchase in packs of 100, which make great

As practices and shelters are looking to incorporate Low Stress Handling skills into their daily routines, our work at CattleDog Publishing continues to grow. I recently traveled to the Midwest to present full day seminars on Low Stress Handling. I had a wonderful group of DVM’s, technicians, trainers, and some of the staff from Indy Humane. Colleen Benson, the head of the behavior team at Indy Humane gave me a tour of the facility. It was there that I found Dr. Liz Rose busily hanging shelves, painting crates, and creating a “cat-astic” space for the adoptable cats. This wonderful area

The past year has been chock full of so many wonderful things and December 2018 is no different. Between all of our various sales (the best of which starts on December 19th and goes through the 24th), Certification time limit extensions, and the introduction of some of our staff that you may not have met yet, we are very excited to share it all with you. Holiday Sales For the past two weeks (yes, I realize I should have written this blog at the beginning of the month) we have been offering 20% discounts (different products each week) through both