Six Strategies for Building Trust in Veterinary Care

The process of companion animal veterinary care works well when owner, veterinary professional and pet have developed trust in each other. Sometimes financial limitations or social-media trends conspire to erode the owner’s trust; time-pressures and high workload can negatively affect the veterinary professional’s trust; and animals with good memories might find it hard to maintain optimism in the process. This essay proposes six practical strategies for trust-building between the three parties involved. Using a patient-centred approach, some strategies might specifically enable trust between human and animal. These include respecting animal autonomy, using gentle touch and encouraging pet-directed speech. Three further strategies are suggested to encourage human–human trust, and include using gentle humour, being attentive to polite disagreement and using liberal praise. Practical and nonverbal tacit ways of building trust might prove useful tools to help reduce tension in all parties and ideally foster increased trust in veterinary care