You are doing everything right and I suggest you carry on with what you are doing - almost...

You know that your dog is going to react badly to going to the vet - but it has to be done.

This is one of those situations when our desire to comfort and nurture and protect and reassure the animal we love can over-ride what we know is the best thing for the dog's mental view of the situation. (I have to say that this is the most difficult situation for me with my own dog, especially as he gets older and trips to the vet become more frequent!)

Before you go to the vet try to organise in your mind what your needs are (to be respected, not to be judged, to ease the stress of your dog, to give comfort and reassurance to one you love, to show them that you understand their anxiety and the need to make it clear that although you don't like putting them through this it is necessary and you are sorry) and the needs of the dog. . .

The dog needs to feel safe, that you are not worried about the situation and that you will protect it if anything goes wrong.

There are obvious conflicts in what you and the dog need here. The more you try to comfort and reassure the more the dog will understand what a worrying situation it is in. The more times you ask for a response like a sit or a down and the dog does not respond first time, the more the dog realises that you are not in control and are behaving differently from usual - the dog then realises that it is in a highly volatile, dangerous and threatening situation. . . if the leader is this anxious, upset and has suddenly started acting like a low ranking member of the pack then I am in obvious peril, therefore I need to defend myself.

The vet situation is never likely to get a lot better, the dog knows that the situation makes you anxious, sees the vet as a threat and assocaites the smell, location, activity and behaviour of other animals and owners with loss of control and fear.

The only way to get this a little better is to accept that vets are there to be a doctor to your animal - they are not behaviourists and have little or no training in this field. They are not trained to be people friendly. They have vast knowledge and have longer training than doctors, but, they have medical interests. They are then expected to be good at business, staff relations, IT, finances, insurance and keep up to date with drug and therapy advances.

The worst vet I have ever visited had the best "people" skills I have ever encoutered in a vet - my dog would of died if I didn't have some veterinary knowledge - the best vet I have ever known was so awful with my dog and me that I wrote a letter of complaint to the practice!!! I then bought flowers and chocolates and aplogised in person after an inspired diagnosis and treatment plan.

Keep the muzzle on, don't try to comfort the dog, keep it all very business like and try not to give commands. In and out with as little fuss as possible and as little reward for freaking out as possible.