Fear Free Resources for Animal Shelters

What is Fear Free?

Fear Free, founded in 2016, is a groundbreaking initiative dedicated to reducing fear, anxiety, and stress in pets while promoting enrichment and emotional wellness. Offering online education for veterinary professionals, pet experts, animal welfare organizations and pet owners, Fear Free provides unparalleled resources developed by leading specialists in veterinary behavior, anesthesiology, pain management, shelter medicine, animal training, grooming and more.

Fear Free Shelter Program

The Fear Free Shelter Program was created to help improve the experiences of shelter animals by providing free educational materials for employees and volunteers. The program is offered online and includes four modules:

1. Emotional Health: Learn about the emotional needs of dogs and cats, the effects of stress and stressors that exist within the shelter environment.
2. Recognizing How Animals are Feeling in the Shelter: Understand the body language of dogs and cats, how stress impacts behavior and how to reduce fear, anxiety, stress and frustration in shelter animals.
3. How Animals Learn: Learn about common triggers of fear, anxiety, stress and frustration as well as techniques to improve the emotional health of shelter animals.
4. Fear Free Communication and Animal Handling Basics: Understand how to safely handle shelter animals to reduce stress, how to remove shy and stressed animals from kennels and how to effectively communicate with shelter team members.

Anyone in the shelter environment can benefit from the program, including medical staff, reception staff, adoption counselors and volunteers.

Fear Free Veterinary Professionals

Veterinary professionals can earn Fear Free Certifications as individuals or as a veterinary practice. By using Fear Free techniques, veterinary professionals can see more accurate vital signs due to reduced stress in their patients. Veterinary professionals can access an educational library, complimentary RACE-approved CE courses and more as a Fear Free certified professional. 

Resources & Downloads

• Fear Free Shelters
• Dog FAS (Fear, Anxiety, Stress) and Frustration Scale for Shelters
• Cat FAS (Fear, Anxiety, Stress) and Frustration Scale for Shelters
• Animal Behavior Pathway Resources
• Webinar: Fear Free: Helping Shelter Pets Find Health, Happiness, and Homes