All About Therapy Dogs

Article Title: All About Therapy Dogs
Author: Kelly Marshall

More and more therapist, doctors and mental health
professionals are becoming aware of the wonderful therapeutic
benefits of involving dogs in patient recovery. Dogs are used
with brain injury patients, elderly, physically impaired as
well as patients in hospitals and treatment centers. The very
nature of a dog, its loyalty, unconditional love and its pure
joy at seeing a friend really make them a wonderful asset to
any therapy program.

Therapy that involves dogs, known as Animal-Assisted therapy,
is used in many different settings in several different
countries. The dogs can be involved in helping with fine motor
control as the patients move their arms and fingers to pet and
brush the dogs as part of their therapy process. Large muscle
therapy is also completed when the patients take the dogs for
walks or on outings to parks and recreational areas.

Dogs can also be used as a friend for many patients. Elderly,
shut in and isolated patients come to see visits from their
therapist and their dog as a chance to interact with another
living thing. Dogs are very non-judgmental and are always happy
to see the patient, which is very positive for the patient both
emotionally and socially.

There is little hard scientific evidence as to how or why dog
therapy works so well with many patients. Many therapists
believe that the unconditional love of the dog helps patients
gain self-confidence and self-esteem. There is another school
of thought that caring for or spending time with a dog
something that often brings patients back to their childhood or
to a more positive time in their life. Regardless of exactly how
or why dog therapy works so well with patients is not as
important as the fact that it really does work.

Therapy dogs are not a specific breed or type of dog, nor do
they have to a certain age or size. Usually therapy dogs are
medium to large sized dogs but there are many small dogs that
make excellent therapy dogs. Many organizations that use
therapy dogs have volunteer owners and dogs come to the
hospital or care facility and work in conjunction with the
health care professionals and trained therapists on staff.

Therapy dogs must be very calm and well behaved. They should
have no history of any kind of aggression or lack of obedience
in new or unfamiliar settings. The dogs should be very well
socialized and should not be prone to barking or whining as
this can be disturbing to the clients as well as other patients
in the facility.

Most therapists require that the therapy dogs do through
special obedience and possibly other training. The dogs are
taken in and out of the facility many times before they
actually start working with the patients and clients. In
addition both the owner and the facility will need to carry
special insurance on the therapy dog to cover any possible
events.

If you have a dog that loves people, is very calm and relaxed
even in new situations, has lots of patience and is very
obedient you may want to volunteer with a dog therapy service.
The internet is a great place to start your search for
agencies, or contact your local hospital or long-term care
facility to find if dog therapy is being used in your area.

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