Established in 1999

By Gaby Dufresne-Cyr, CBT-FLE

A visit to the veterinarian normally involves unfamiliar people, unusual sounds and smells, physical handling, and procedures that may feel uncomfortable or frightening. For some animal, even a routine examination can become a stressful experience. Over time, repeated difficult visits may influence how a dog, horse, or cat responds, making future examinations increasingly challenging.

Cooperative veterinary care offers a way to approach these experiences through learning, choice, communication, and participation. By preparing animals for the handling and procedures they may encounter throughout their lives, caregivers can help them develop greater familiarity with veterinary care and the skills needed to participate as comfortably as possible.

Understanding cooperative veterinary care begins with a term we have been using in animal care for generations: husbandry.

Husbandry Definition

Husbandry refers to the practices involved in caring for animals and maintaining their health and well-being. In animal care settings, it includes the routine activities required to meet an animal's physical needs, monitor its condition, and provide appropriate medical attention. For companion animals, husbandry can include grooming, preparing for veterinary examinations, and other medical procedures.

Although we use the word husbandry in veterinary medicine, animal behaviour, livestock management, and zoological institutions, it may be unfamiliar to pet caregivers, who are more likely to describe these activities as everyday care, grooming, or medical treatment.

Husbandry describes what we do to maintain an animal's health and well-being. Cooperative care changes how we approach the learning process and training behaviour. Instead of focusing on completing a procedure, we consider the animal's understanding of what is happening, its emotional response, and its ability to communicate readiness or discomfort.

A Brief History of Cooperative Care

The term cooperative care developed from a long history of animal learning and practical work with animals whose medical care presented particular challenges.

In zoological institutions, veterinary examinations and treatments can be difficult to perform safely. Moving a large animal into a treatment area, collecting a blood sample from a wild animal, or examining the mouth of a potentially dangerous species may traditionally have required substantial physical restraint or chemical immobilisation.

Animal behaviourists and trainers began applying learning principles to teach animals to participate voluntarily in these procedures. Through carefully structured training, animals learned to enter designated spaces, present particular body parts, remain in specific positions, or accept medical handling.

Over time, these approaches became increasingly relevant to companion animals. Dogs, horses, cats, and birds learn to enter carriers, stand on a mat, rest their chin on a target, offer a paw, accept an ear examination, or participate in other routine procedures.

The concept now encompasses grooming, routine husbandry, home care, and veterinary procedures. Cooperative veterinary care is the more specific application of these principles to clinical examinations, diagnostic testing, treatment, and preventive medicine.

Veterinary Care Cooperative Explained

Cooperative veterinary care involves teaching an animal behaviours that allow it to participate voluntarily in aspects of its examination or treatment.

The process may begin well before the first veterinary appointment. A puppy, foal, or kitten can gradually become familiar with being touched on different parts of the body, having its ears examined, allowing its mouth to be inspected, or experiencing gentle handling of its paws.

We introduce these activities in manageable steps, allowing the animal time to explore, learn, and choose to participate in the experience. As learning progresses, we teach the animal specific behaviours that communicate readiness to participate. Choice becomes meaningful when the animal's behaviour has a predictable effect on what happens next.

Cooperative Veterinary Care Matters

Veterinary care is an essential part of responsible animal guardianship. Vaccinations, physical examinations, dental assessments, diagnostic testing, and treatment help prevent disease, identify health problems, and maintain quality of life. However, an animal's response to veterinary care can influence how easily veterinarians can provide these services.

Fear, anxiety, discomfort, and uncertainty may lead to avoidance, struggling, freezing, growling, scratching, or biting. These behaviours can make an examination more difficult and may increase risks for the animal and the veterinary team. They can also make it harder to assess the animal accurately.

The Benefits of Cooperative Veterinary Care for Dogs, Horses, and Cats

One important potential benefit is a reduction in fear and stress associated with handling. Gradual exposure, positive experiences, and predictable interactions can help animals become more comfortable and recover faster.

Cooperative care can also support confidence. Learning that a particular behaviour leads to a predictable outcome gives an animal useful information about its environment. Repeated experiences can help the animal develop practical skills for navigating other situations and environments.

These skills can extend beyond the veterinary clinic. Familiarity with handling can support nail trimming, brushing, ear, or eye cleaning, toothbrushing, and routine checks of the body for changes that may require attention.
Cooperative care may also benefit animals that already find veterinary visits difficult. 

However, established fear or distress may require a more gradual behaviour-modification programme and additional measures to support emotional and physical well-being.

Cooperative Care and Social Cognitive Animal Training (SCAT)

Cooperative care provides a practical setting in which to explore the relationship between animal learning, social cognition, attachment, and the environment.

Social Cognitive Animal Training (SCAT) is an integrated framework that considers how animals learn through the interaction of social, cognitive, relational, and environmental influences. It draws on learning theory alongside concepts from social cognitive theory, attachment theory, constructivism, and situated learning. 

Within this framework, we consider behaviour in relation to the animal’s experience, understanding, relationships, and surroundings, purposefully developing the animal’s problem-solving and decision-making skills.

From a SCAT perspective, these elements work together. A trained behaviour is more likely to be useful when the animal understands the interaction, feels sufficiently secure, can communicate through its actions, and has practised in environments relevant to the task.

SCAT also encourages us to look beyond whether an animal can perform a behaviour under familiar conditions. We want to understand whether the animal can adapt its learning when the people, settings, or circumstances change. In veterinary care, that means preparing an animal for a variety of experiences, including different forms of touch, changes in body position, unfamiliar equipment, and interactions with veterinary professionals.

This perspective places the learning process at the centre of preparation. The animal develops skills through experience, and the caregiver learns to recognize and respond to the animal's communication.

A Broader Understanding of Animal Care

Husbandry remains an essential part of responsible animal care. It encompasses the practical activities that maintain health and well-being, from everyday grooming to long-term medical treatment.

Cooperative veterinary care adds an important dimension by considering how animals choose to participate in those activities. SCAT offers a complementary framework for understanding how those skills develop and how relationships influence attachment, social referencing, cognition, and environmental experience.

Together, these perspectives invite us to consider cooperative veterinary care as both a medical responsibility and a learning experience.

References 

• Wess, L., Böhm, A., Schützinger, M., Riemer, S., Yee, J. R., Affenzeller, N., & Arhant, C. (2022). Effect of cooperative care training on physiological parameters and compliance in dogs undergoing a veterinary examination: A pilot study. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 250, 105615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applanim.2022.105615
• Dixon, S., Fraser, L., and Edlund, S. (2018). What is Cooperative Care? IAABC Foundation Journal. Retrieved from https://journal.iaabcfoundation.org/cooperative-care
• Maclin, K., & Grandin, T. (2026). Cooperative Care in Zoo, Livestock, and Companion Animals and Positive Reinforcement in Horses: A Scoping Literature Review. Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888705.2026.2740621
• Riemer, S., Heritier, C., Windschnurer, I., Pratsch, L., Arhant, C., & Affenzeller, N. (2021). A Review on Mitigating Fear and Aggression in Dogs and Cats in a Veterinary Setting. Animals: an open access journal from MDPI, 11(1), 158. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani11010158