You may have heard of “Fear Free” in your veterinary clinic, but did you know it also has significant applications to other types of pet care professionals such as pet sitters, trainers, and shelter staff and volunteers? Additionally, many pet care professionals (including pet sitters!) are now classifying their services as “force free” for pets. Why do each of these matter in pet care and why should you seek out these kinds of pet professionals?
Fear Free
With a mission to “prevent and alleviate fear, anxiety, and stress in pets by inspiring and educating the people who care for them”, Fear Free is more than just an educational and training program. It’s a mindset that has permeated pet care culture, and rightly so. Just like us, non-human animals are emotional and sentient beings; they experience and are shaped by stress, can build resiliency through learning and support, and thrive under positive reinforcement. Also like us, non-human animals need to have their basic needs met including food, water, and shelter, as well as their emotional needs such as safety, enrichment, and choice.
The Fear Free programs, which are available for veterinary professionals, pet sitters, trainers, groomers, boarders, and shelter staff and volunteers, provide current and scientifically-based knowledge to support animal emotional well-being. Their trainings help those who are at the forefront of pet care understand how to recognize fear, anxiety, and stress in animals and provide solutions and practices for preventing and reducing these emotional experiences. This not only serves to enhance the animal’s experience, but also strengthens human-animal bonds and reduces stress in pet care professionals and pet parents.
And because Fear Free begins at home with knowledge and advocacy, they also have resources and information for pet parents! Check out Fear Free Happy Homes for resources, to listen to podcasts, and to watch videos, all geared toward those who want to make home life even better for our four-legged loved ones.
Force Free
Force free in pet care is similar to Fear Free, but takes things a step further. Simply put, it means not forcing an animal to do something it doesn’t want to do or doesn’t choose to do. In practice, there are of course limitations to this – sometimes, my dog needs to go to the vet because she needs medical care, either preventative or to treat an illness or injury. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get much choice about that. But in most other aspects of her life she gets as much choice as possible. To do this requires patience, compassion, and experience in understanding your dog’s signals and communication.
To explore why this concept matters, let’s examine a typical day in your dog’s life. Your dog probably wakes up when you do and waits for you to get dressed. Perhaps you take your dog for a walk next, and then feed them breakfast. You might leave for work for a few hours and come back at lunch, going for a second walk. You might then leave again, come home in a few hours, and go for another walk, followed by dinner, perhaps some play time, a pre-bed potty, and then your dog goes to bed at the same time as you. None of these events were chosen by your dog – not the timing, the order, the activity; they were all chosen by you! While this isn’t necessarily harmful, and dogs generally prefer routines and schedules, it’s a way to illustrate just how little choice our animals have over what happens to them every day. Even on your walk with your dog, did you let them decide where you walked? How about the pace of the walk? Did they get to sniff everywhere they wanted for the whole time they wanted? What about how long you walked? You likely made these decisions for your dog as well! Choice and freedom are incredibly supportive for emotional well-being, and you can get a sense for this by imagining if someone dictated each moment of your day – when you got to eat (and what and how much), when you got to go to the bathroom, when you exercised, when you had to sit down and be still…I know it would drive me bananas! Our pets have similar emotional needs and the more choice we can give them the happier they will be.
Obviously our pets do not get to make all the decisions for themselves and we are entrusted with their care and well-being. What force free does mean is working closely with an animal to understand their needs and let them make choices whenever possible, which includes opting out. When animals have the chance to participate, versus being forced to, their emotional needs are better met and our bonds with them are strengthened. Offering choice and respecting the answers builds trust and cooperative care.
What does this mean as a pet sitter and trainer? For me, it means I will offer as much choice as possible to your pets, listening carefully and avoiding situations that cause fear, anxiety, and stress for them. This includes allowing your pets to say “no” to me and respecting that as a stranger in their home. It also means I do not use any equipment or methods that are known to cause fear, anxiety, and stress such as painful and non-painful aversives, including (but not limited to) prong collars, “e-collars” [shock/beep collars], spray water bottles, physical force, etc. It also means that for situations where choice is limited (such as required medication administration), I will use compassionate handling techniques that are tailored to your pet’s preferences.
Learn More!
I am always happy to talk with clients about why I do not engage in forceful animal behavior and how I will provide compassionate and emotionally supportive care for your pets while you are away. Below are some resources that provide additional information in a variety of formats and from reputable sources.
- To learn more about Fear Free visit their website. They offer a FREE course for shelter staff and volunteers!
- For some scientific resources and about the harms of aversives check out this page
- I recommend this site for tons of great resources and discussions by training professionals about force, labeling of our pets, and the ethics of animal training
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