Pet Safety

ANIMAL HANDLING AND RESTRAINT

Animal Handling Skills-Professionalism and Safety

The public watches us to learn how to properly handle animals. Being professional means being SAFE and HUMANE. Good animal handling skills prevent staff from being injured and good animal handling skills reduce stress for the animal.

Examples of Safe Animal Handling:

  • Be aware of the special stressors for animals in the animal clinic or hospital setting.
  • The clinic or hospital is extremely chaotic for any animal-there are an incredible number of smells and other stimuli and animals are likely to be confused and distressed.
  • Never put your face directly into the face of a dog or cat.
  • Do not move in behind or crowd around a dog.
  • Concentrate on the animal you are handling without being distracted by other activities.
  • NEVER sit on the floor while handling/examining a dog. If the animal becomes aggressive or aroused you will be unable to move away or protect yourself and risk serious facial bites.
  • Always be prepared to protect yourself or move away quickly in the event an animal becomes aggressive unexpectedly.

Communication:

Any animal exhibiting potentially aggressive behavior should have a kennel sign (CAUTION) posted to alert others who may be handling the animal. Specific alerts or recommendations should be written on the sign and in the medical record to provide staff and other volunteers with as much information as possible when handling the animal.

Restraint or Control:

  • Crouch down so that you are on their level. Do not sit on the ground as you will be unable to move away or protect yourself if necessary.
  • Avoid direct eye contact but maintain safe visual contact with the animal.
  • Talk in soothing tones. Avoid high-pitched, excited talk.
  • Try patting your leg or the ground, motioning the animal towards you.

Request Information or Enrollment

Hours 

Monday – Thursday 7:30AM – 10:00PM
Friday – 7:30AM – 5:00PM
4242 South Sheridan
Tulsa, OK 74145
Phone number: (918) 610-0027
Fax number: (918) 610-0029

Veterinary Assistant Program
facebook.com/communitycarecollege
twitter.com/CommCareCollege

Any Comments, Opinions Or Suggestions Are Appreciated

View Comments

  • I'm excited to learn about restraints. And you make a good point. Clients look at us to know the proper way to restrain their dog the right way. You don't want to give the wrong information and then someone get hurt.

  • I am really excited about this week! This is gonna be a lot of great and very important information for us to know and share with family and future clients to keep the client, the animals, and us safe!

  • I'm happy about this week cause it show me about properly handling and restraint a animal thank Danny

  • I wish more pet owners would read these safety tips in dealing with animals of all types. Safety issues are universal, and spreads beyond the animal kingdom to include, birds and reptiles as well. Protecting your face, and educating pet owners of this should be a priority. I'm already teaching my 7 year old Grandaughter that to put her face in an animal's, bird's or reptile's face is inviting a possible bite! I learned that lesson a few months ago when I let my dog get to close to my face, and she nipped my nose hard. True she shouldn't have done that, but, I should have kept my dog away from my face. That incident will be the only one.

  • Thanks Danny for another great blog.. I love how there are so many ways to restrain our animals, a lot of seems like common sense but it's a great teaching method for owners and future coworkers

  • I can't wait to learn more about this subject, I beleive this is one of the most important classes. Everyone should learn or take classes about this before owning an animal

  • Very good information I find myself doing the excited talk all the time to animals guess I need to work on trying to stop that.

Leave a Comment