Having your dog "worked on" is certainly not like having you car worked on, where a sign is posted "only mechanics past this point".

A good owner makes all the difference with a difficult dog.

thank you , one and all . . .

i'll be removing the stitches myself , and head down the road a ways to a new vet .

My vet routinely does things with owners out of the room (or takes the dogs to the back) but they've never had an issue with me being present. After I requested a few times I think they must have written something on the files because now they ask me or assume that I want to be in the room with my dogs.

 Quote: ian bunbury

thank you , one and all . . .

i'll be removing the stitches myself , and head down the road a ways to a new vet .

I would at least stop by to talk to the vet in person as office staff can't really you give a straight answer on that sort of thing (i.e., they need to say it's policy and they don't have the authority to make exceptions). Tell him why you have always been present and that you want to be in the future. Then his response should tell you if he's okay with that or if you need to find a new vet.

 Quote: Mara Jessup

 Quote: ian bunbury

thank you , one and all . . .

i'll be removing the stitches myself , and head down the road a ways to a new vet .

I would at least stop by to talk to the vet in person as office staff can't really you give a straight answer on that sort of thing (i.e., they need to say it's policy and they don't have the authority to make exceptions). Tell him why you have always been present and that you want to be in the future. Then his response should tell you if he's okay with that or if you need to find a new vet.

I agree wholeheartedly. If you're otherwise happy with this vet clinic, why not try to find out for sure before just changing. It could be just a case that the new owner doesn't know you well, and you need to establish an understanding.

I have a decades-long relationship with my vet. It's a multi-vet clinic, but I see the same vet 99 percent of the time. I also know the staff pretty well, and while I sometimes let them take the dog in the back for a routine blood draw or even an x-ray, there have been occasions when I have said I want to go back with the dog, and they have had absolutely no problem. For me, it depends on the dog. I have one who takes everything in stride, and I've let them do x-rays on him without me. My other one is very fearful by nature and I feel I need to be with her. I've had dogs in the past where, for one reason or another, I felt I wanted to be with them when they needed to be taken out of the exam room for x-rays, EKGs, etc. Pretty much everything except surgery.

(And I once had a horse vet who invited me into the operating room when he was finished, to show me his work and explain what he had done, after I had been observing from the other side of a window.)

That said, I do understand that some owners would be more of a hindrance than a help, and there are cases where things are better done out of their presence. I don't think most of the regulars on this board would fall in that category, though.

thanks mara , cheri . . . i will stop by when i know the outgoing vet , who still works partpart time , is present and let him help me build a relationship with the new owner . if that doesn't prove fruitful , then down the road i will go .

don't like to say it , but really the main attraction of this vet is the convenience of location . he's right down the road from my house , and about 150 meters from the bottom of the ski lift .

Big thing for me is that when I vote with my wallet by withdrawing my business, I want the person whose income is affected to know why.

Not the receptionist, for example, but the actual owner of the practice.

If I don't speak, then that person has no knowledge to use to correct a bad (or undesirable to me) situation.

Clients vary tremendously in what they can tolerate. Some men faint at the sight of blood, much more common with men then women. Some folks get woosy over expressed anal glands. I removed maggots from a wound one time , the client fainted and the practice owner was furious.


Forum readers are not your average dog owner.

 Quote: Betty Landercasp

.... Forum readers are not your average dog owner.

Very important for us to remember. The vet has no way to know that an owner doesn't fall into the 90% of owners who are much more hindrance than help.

Like raw diets, and how many enthusiastic but ignorant new owners see their friend's raw-fed dog bursting with health and conclude that "if it's raw, it's better" -- and then destroy a growing puppy's bones (and teeth and internal organs and more) with a ground-beef-no-bone diet.

I'd be afraid of random raw diets too.


So IMO, the vet is right to doubt, but wrong to make it a blanket policy. As Anne and others have said, we've proven ourselves.

But I couldn't work with a practice that was closed to that.

I've had two vets in almost forty years. Both have treated multiple dogs of mine, and know me very well. The first signed a letter of reference for my application to vet school.

Neither allows any owner to remain in the room if anesthesia is required. Owners they are familiar with can remain for any other procedure. Neither had a problem with me helping restrain or calm my dog, but if the dog reacted or struggled, I was asked to step aside and make room for a team member that the vet was used to partnering with. I (but I wouldn't think all clients) was then allowed to pet and calm the dog's head IF there was room for me to do so without interfering with the team members.

I understand the vets' issues with liability and preference to members of their staff, and have never felt distrusting of the way either handled my dogs or me. I can also understand that they don't want to be interviewed or otherwise scrutinized during a procedure.

But that's just me.