Running head: DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 1 Dog-Therapy Can Help Andrea Lloyd ATRAbute article October 30, 2015 Biographic Information Andrea M. Lloyd is a Professional Practice Lead for Therapeutic Recreation with Alberta Health Services. Her work as a recreation therapist has spanned the province and reached across the continuum of care. She is a CTRS and is presently working on her Masters degree. Andrea lives in Red Deer, Alberta with her husband and therapy dog.
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 2 Dog-Therapy Can Help I have worked in therapeutic recreation since the early 1990s. Over the years, I have learned that everyone is unique and what resonates with one client, will not necessary impact another. Pet-therapy is one of those things. However, with the right client pet-therapy can work miracles. My first experience with pet therapy is hazy, but I remember taking care of a facility bird at a long-term care facility. Residents would check on, feed, and talk to the bird. There were also regular volunteers to assist with cleaning the cage. Another facility I worked in had a pet cat in the building and two rabbits in a cage. Having these animals present definitely changed the feeling in the building from a sterile nursing facility, to a more home-like environment. For animal-lovers it is no surprise that the non-judgmental comfort of a soft furry friend has therapeutic value, but to the unconvinced professional who is perhaps indifferent to the benefits of animal therapy, this article will outline the many benefits of adding animal-assisted therapy (specifically dogs) to your service delivery. Certification Dog therapy can sound risky, but there are stringent procedures to become a therapy team. Options for getting your dog screened to visit clients in a facility include the Delta Society, SPCA, and St. John Ambulance (SJA). SJA has a therapy dog program that started in June, 1992 as a pilot program in Peterborough, Ontario and today nearly 3,000 Therapy Dog teams reach thousands annually (St. John Ambulance, n.d., para. 2). SJA has an intense application process for certifying a therapy dog. Starting with an application which includes reference letters, a criminology report, and records of the dog s immunizations, the process moves to a 3 hour evaluation session. A professional dog-evaluator oversees the dog and handler
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 3 progress through a myriad of tests to see if the dog has the temperament of a therapy dog. The tests include: loud noises, wheelchairs and walkers coming close to the dog, a crowd rushing to the dog to pet it, handler s control over the dog, the dog s possessiveness, and how the dog relates to the other handlers and dogs being evaluated. The evaluator also inspects the dog for any open areas on their skin or health issues. Once your dog therapy team (handler and dog) is certified, there is a process to match the team with a facility. SJA works closely with the volunteer coordinator at the receiving facility to ensure a thorough orientation to prepare the team for visits. When a team is certified, facility managers can be confident that the therapy dog team has gone through the rigorous application process. The Delta Society (screens all animals for therapy) states that the ideal candidate for therapy teams is healthy, prosocial, well-behaved, skilled in basic obedience, clean, well-groomed, and at least one-year old (Horowitz, 2010, p. 339). Where did pet-therapy start? There is evidence of dogs and other animals were used to socialize patients in mental hospitals in the late eighteenth century (Horowitz, 2010). Boris Levinson was a psychiatrist in the 1960 s and he introduced the idea of animals being co-therapists. He claimed that animals were an emotional mediator and catalyst of a social process (Moretti et al., 2011, p. 125). By the 1970s, using pets for therapy was no longer experimental and now follows specific operational processes. Where are these teams found? There have been vast studies done on the value of pet therapy in different settings. Dogs unusual skills at reading human social and communicative behaviour (Cirulli, Borgi, Berry, Francia, & Alleva, 2011, para. 3) provide them with the innate ability to reach the
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 4 unreachable. Dog-therapy teams are found in hospitals, long-term residential facilities, outpatient offices, libraries, universities, schools and at sporting events. Perhaps the most common place to find a therapy dog team will be in hospitals or long-term residential centres where the team s main goal is provide some normalcy to clients. Hospitalized patients will often describe their deepest pain while in the hospital is from missing their pet and a visit with a dogtherapy team can alleviate that pain for the moment. Dogs have also been shown to enhance patient s wellbeing in waiting rooms in cancer centres (Buettner, Wang, Stevens, Jessup, & Magrinat, 2011). Pet therapy improves depressive symptoms in residents in a long-term care facility by 50%...and self-perceived quality of life was also greatly improved (Moretti et al., 2011, p. 129). When residents move into a long-term care centre, they have dealt with losing their independence, their home, and often their pet. Dog-therapy can provide that needed tactile contact for which there are no substitutes. There are reading programs at libraries where therapy dogs are read to by the children (Laube, 2015). Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have difficulty relating to people, but have an inclination towards animals. By including a friendly dog into a therapy session with a child with ASD, researchers found better behaviors, attention and language by the child (Cirulli et al., 2011). Dog-therapy teams will often be seen during exam times in universities and schools to help students relax. The St John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program recently sent a dozen dogs to the Pan Am and Para Pan Am Games to help relieve the stress of athletes (CTV NewsGo, 2015). Where ever they are, dogs improve the environment by providing familiar comfort and disarming pet-lovers. These relationships are beneficial for the dogs, their handlers and the client. There is dog-therapy happening in the non-traditional sense as well. For example, rescued dogs are given second chances by female inmates in a Texan prison. The inmates retrain
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 5 the dogs who are then adopted out (Paws in Prison, n.d.). This program provides an interesting twist to therapy, because the program is providing purpose to the inmates and also giving the dogs a second chance for a home. Benefits of Dog-Therapy Some benefits of having a therapy dog team as described in the research are: increased relaxation, reduction of pain, better attitude, better sleep, decreased loneliness, lower heart rates, less pain, and lower blood pressure (Horowitz, 2010; Engelman, 2013). Wohlfarth, Mutschler, Beetz, Kreuser, & Korsten-Reck, (2013) examined how dogs affect physical exercise in obese children. They found that children profited more for the presence of a dog when participating in a variety of movement games (p. 803). The benefits for children who grow up with a pet are increased self-esteem and self-confidence, they learn responsibility and have more empathy as well as reporting a higher social status because of their pet (Cirulli et al., 2011). Other studies show that adults who own a pet are more physically active than non-pet owners (Johnson & Meadows, 2010). A significantly poignant memory I witnessed was a dog-therapy team working with a young girl who was in foster care. She had multiple medical issues and was terrified of dogs. The handler was so gentle and interacted with the child as her dog sat quietly nearby. The young girl watched every move the dog made. Over the many visits, the young girl was transformed from anxious and fearful to relaxed and joyful. Therapy in this case was to demonstrate the patient that dogs are not all bad. Another memory I have is of a man who was in palliative care. He lived alone and his one companion was his dog. He was so worried and concerned about his dog, despite friends of his caring for the dog while he was hospitalized. Dog-therapy visits were his lifeline. He counted the hours down to the next visit. Another patient was unreachable. He
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 6 would not engage with any professional and sat in his room with the curtains drawn until a dog-therapy team came along. He love dogs and lit up whenever a dog came to visit. The recreation therapist used dogs as the modality to reach him and work on leisure goals. When my dog and I visit patients in the hospital, the staff s faces light up and they remember my dog s name from our previous visit. Engelman (2013) stated an unanticipated result was that staff stress appeared to decrease as a result of interactions with the therapy-dog (p. 66). The environment improves when there are dogs interacting with patients and staff. Conclusion Pet-therapy is not for everyone and there are risks involved. However, animal therapy is effective at improving health for many humans in all walks and ages. Therapy dogs are nonthreatening and non-judgmental and are known to have a calming effect on people. When introduced properly, animal assisted therapy can be that extra boost that is needed to push therapeutic recreation service delivery to the next level. Consider bringing a dog-therapy team into your book club program, use dogs in your sensory stimulation treatments, or to reach that difficult client. Partner with a screening body and add therapy dogs to one element of your therapeutic recreation program delivery. Animals are such agreeable friends they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms. ~George Eliot
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 7 References Buettner, L. L., Wang, Y., Stevens, K., Jessup, H., & Magrinat, G. C. (2011). Perceived benefits of animal-assisted therapy in the oncology waiting room. American Journal of Recreation Therapy, 10(4), 25-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.5055/ajrt.2011.0008 CTV NewsGo. (2015). Doggy therapists: Therapy dogs to support Pan Am athletes [Video file]. Retrieved from http://canadaam.ctvnews.ca/video?clipid=652238&playlistid=1.2459075&binid=1.81591 1&playlistPageNum=1&binPageNum=1 Cirulli, F., Borgi, M., Berry, A., Francia, N., & Alleva, E. (2011, D). December. Istituto Superiore di Sanita, 47(4). http://dx.doi.org/10.4415/ann_11_04_04 Engelman, S. R. (2013). Palliative care and use of animal-assisted therapy. OMEGA: Journal ofdeath and Dying, 67(1-2), 63-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.2190/om.67.1-2.h Horowitz, S. (2010, December). Animal-assisted therapy for inpatients. Alternate and Complementary Therapies, 16(6), 339-343. Johnson, R. A., & Meadows, R. L. (2010). Dog walking: Motivation for adherence to a walking program. Clinical Nursing Research, 19, 387-402. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1054773910373122 Laube, G. (2015). A dog in the library? Retrieved from http://www.librarydogs.com/ Moretti, F., DeRonchi, D., Bernabei, V., Marchetti, L., Ferrari, B., Forlani, C.,... Atti, A. R. (2011, June). Pet therapy in elderly patients with mental illness. Psychogeriatrics, 11(2), 125-129. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1479-8301.2010.00329.x/full Paws in Prison. (n.d.). http://www.pawsinprison.com/index.html
DOG-THERAPY CAN HELP 8 St. John Ambulance. (n.d.). http://www.sja.ca/english/community- Services/Pages/Therapy%20Dog%20Services/default.aspx Wohlfarth, R., Mutschler, B., Beetz, A., Kreuser, F., & Korsten-Reck, U. (2013, October 29). Dogs motivate obese children for physical activity: Key elements of a motivational theory of animal-assisted interventions. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, 796-808. http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00796