Dogs – Therapeutic Benefits

Healing Hounds

Dogs are man’s best friend. Always loyal and ever loving, this
trait has made canines an integral and common part of what is
fast becoming a common mode of therapy in many health care
facilities. Not just dogs but animals in general have long been
recognized as having a positive effect on the healing process.
Dogs, especially, have a calming effect.

These dogs help people cope with emotional issues, offer
physical contact, invoke pleasant memories and they divert a
person’s focus from the problems of the day. That’s why they’ve
been used to great success as helpers for those people who are
in therapy. Dogs are specially trained for their jobs of helping
to take care of the sick, the elderly or the infirm. Currently
there are three types of therapy dogs:

a) Facility Therapy Dogs

b) Animal-Assisted Therapy Dogs

c) Therapeutic Visitation Dogs

The first two types assist physical therapists by meeting the
requirements for a person’s recovery. They are usually found in
hospitals and are permanently assigned there. The most common
type of therapeutic dog, however, is the third type.

Therapeutic visitation dogs are ordinary pets whose owners take
to hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities. These
dogs help people who are away from home due to mental or
physical illness. These people are usually in a highly stressful
or depressing environment and a visit from a therapy dog can
always brighten their day and help them deal with their problems.

Through their bright example, these dogs help the people they
meet maintain a positive attitude. This positive outlook is
important in good health, happiness and staying young. Pets also
provide a chance for patients to touch and be touched. This
gives the patients a chance to express their need for physical
contact, a need that doctors have proven as a very important
factor in a patient’s psychological health.

This is integral in helping people maintain a better mental
standing on their condition. This and the ever-loving nature of
dogs make them perfect cures to depression that often plagues
many patients and residents of nursing homes and hospitals.

It’s very difficult to accurately measure how positive an effect
these dogs have on patients. But all you have to do to see that
they’re doing their job is a happy smile on a patient’s face
when they’re in the company of one of these amazing healing
hounds.