Our Furry Friends: Benefits of Therapy

Dogs for Sick and Lonely

Taken from Therapy Dogs Seem to Boost Health of Sick
and Lonely by Lara Suziedelis Bogle, National
Geographic News

t is a truth universally acknowledged that dog is

mans best friend. However little known the
benefits of such a friend upon first acquaintance,
this truth is so well fixed in the minds of men that he
is considered the rightful property of someone or
another.
Meet Bo, a therapy dog in the POOCH (Pets Offer
Ongoing Care and Healing) program, friend and
canine counselor to many, but rightful property of
only one. Rewind to 1999. Outside her Los Angeles
home, Marcia Sturm, Bos
owner, is approached by an
employee from Cedars-Sinai
Medical center asking if Marcia
would be interested in bringing
Bo to the hospital, the AIDS
unit to be specific, and visit
Figure 1. Taken from
with patients. Marcia agrees
speechdudes.wordpress
.com/tag/animaland she and Bo have been a
assisted-therapy/
part of POOCH ever since.
Bo is one of many therapy dogs, with the number of
these therapeutic dogs constantly growing. These
specially trained canines visit people in hospitals,
nursing homes, mental health centers, shelters, and
schools. They do anything from simply lifting spirits to
assisting with physical therapy.

Key Words: therapy dogs, comfort/s/ing/able, canine

counselors, mental health service/mental health/service

Evidence shows that regular visits, even if brief, from

these canine counselors can have a positive impact on
elderly nursing home patients. For what do we live,
but to help others and uplift them in our turn? And
what better partner than mans best friend?
particularly one who has been properly vetted and
found to be truly an effective friend, one who is not
self-absorbed, like a cat, but is only absorbed in
comforting others in needotherwise known as a
therapy dog.
Of course, these hospitals can be a frightening and
disorienting place for a dog. Its like a veterinarians
clinic for humans (and weve seen how dogs react at
the vets). However, Bo eventually acclimated to the
gurneys and machines and came to know the hospital
quite well. A dogs good opinion once lost can be
gained again with a gentle hand and a tasty treat. And
lets be honest, we all feel a little more comfortable in
an anxiety-producing situation when we receive a tasty
treat and a warm smile. He and Sturm visit the AIDS
and cardiac care wards every other week. Because Bo
must be bathed before each visit, he is not able to visit
quite as frequently, otherwise his excessive bathing
would cause skin problemsfor him, of course, not
the patients.

Animal-Assisted Therapy Programs

s part of the POOCH program, Bo even has a

uniforma blue scarf that ties around his neck.
Once his scarf is on, he knows its time for his rounds
at the hospital. Uniforms for therapy dogs are
standard. Some have scarves like Bo, while others have
vests. These uniforms given to these special comfort
animals signify the dogs as part of a special service.
Being quite the charmer, Bo provides a great amount
of comfort for elderly patients who have few visitors.
Even for those who are too sick for Bo to spend
significant amounts of time with, Bo is still their
friend.

Becoming a Canine Counselor

nterestingly, there is not a specific breed or size that

a therapy dog must be. Temperament is more
paramount. For
example, if you look to
your left, you will see a
neurotic mess that
would clearly be a poor
choice as a comfort
Figure 2. Taken by Matt Olsen animal. She cant even

Bo even makes friends with families who are anxiously

sitting in the waiting room, providing comfort to those
may not be physically ill, but are still in need of that
warm, soft reassurance that Bo offers.

handle sitting for the

camera. However, if you
look to your right, you will
see a much better canine
counselor calmly waiting to
offer relief and security for
those in need.

However, Bos work is not all cuddles. Its serious

business. His kind of service is not for those who are
blind or disabled. As a therapy dog, he proffers a
different kind of help. As a comfort animal for the
mental health of patience, it is his job to give
emotional support to those in need. He alleviates the
mental pains of many patients at Cedars-Sinai, even if
only momentarily.

Besides being well-trained,

therapy dogs must also be
patient, gentle, and comfortable with strangers (which
the above dog clearly is not any of those things). There
are many organizations like the Delta Society and
Therapy Dogs International, Inc. that evaluate, train,
and register dogs that are compatible for the therapy
dog program.

Some dogs volunteer with informal visits to simply

boost spirits. Others work in a structured environment
with trained professionals. Started in 1996 by social
worker Barbara Cowen, The POOCH program that
Bo is a part of is an informal service. So Bo does not
work with physical therapists or social workers and
does not help patients reach clinical goals. But he does
uplift peoples spirits, which is just as important, and
in turn improves their mental health, and in turn can
improve their physical health.

The dogs are then given a trial period to assess their

capability for emotional dog support. These canine
counselors must be monitored to maintain their own
health and well-being. It is important the dogs are not
overburdened; otherwise they become dog-tired and
pooped out.

In this particular program there are about thirty

volunteers who stay with patients for anywhere
between five minutes to an hour, depending on the
patients needs.

Figure 3. Taken from

www.petfinder.com/dogs/dog
-training/therapy-dogpractice/

The Best Friend Benefits

ccording to Cowen, nurses of Cedars-Sinai have

noticed patients will occasionally have slower
heart rates and require less pain medicine after a visit
from the POOCH volunteers. It is a refreshing
difference to hear the pitter-patter of paws rather than
the swish-squeak of doctors shoes. There are many
stories like these that support the program of dogs for

therapy. However, while studies of effects of animalassisted therapy were once few, there have since been
more scientific studies supporting these mental health
service dogs.
In St. Louis, researchers conducted a study of elderly
patients in a long-term care facility that supported
weekly visits with a therapy dog reduced loneliness of
those patients. Marian R. Banks of the Veterans
Administration Medical Center in St. Louis and
William A. Banks of the Saint Louis University School
of Medicine conducted the study of therapy dogs
which they published in a July issue of Journal of
Gerontology: Medical Sciences.

Why Dogs Help

They offer a soothing
presence
They offer
unconditional love and
acceptancethough a
dog has pride, he does
not have vanity or
prejudice
They provide a
distraction
They provide
companionship
They promote touch
They make us
responsible

The scientific measure they used was the UCLA

Loneliness Scale, which they tested forty-five patients
with. The patients were monitored and tested before
and after the visits of the dogs. After six weeks, those
patients who spent a half an hour a week with a
therapy dog were significantly less lonely than those in
the control group who did not spend any time with
the therapy dogs.
According to William Banks, "It's not that the animals
have magic vibes coming out of them. It's a quality-oflife issue. It's about giving people access to what they
like and enjoy." The elderly patients were reminded of
the joys animals had brought to them previously.
Weve seen the comforts that pooches can provide,
whether or not they are professionally trained. Some
are simply pets who play with children or who
comfort grieving owners. Others are specifically
trained to comfort and assist Autism, depression, and
PTSD, to name a few things. Either way, a dogs
friendship is very rapid; it
jumps from admiration to
love, from love to devotion
in a moment. Whether or
not he is a volunteer, a pet,
or a professional, theres
just something about mans
Figure 4. Inker; taken from
best friend. We are all fools
http://www.nj.com/news/i
in love with those furry faces ndex.ssf/2008/04/candice_l
eigh_helfandthe_starl.html
and slobbering grins.

Figure 5. Taken from

psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2013/05/19/6ways-pets-relieve-depression/

and

www.everydayhealth.com/depression/pettherapy-and-depression.aspx