Role of Animal-Assisted Interventions in Medical Treatment

The value of therapy dogs or canine-assisted interventions is increasingly recognized across a broad range of medical specialties as a paw-tential complementary therapy that adds value to conventional medical treatment. We will share some common questions about therapy dogs and animal-assisted interventions.

🐾  What are animal-assisted interventions?  Animal assisted activities generally consist of visits by domestic-trained certified animals and their handlers. These working animals can visit schools, clinics, hospitals, and residential facilities. In health-care facilities, animal-assisted activities can range from animal visitation programs, which tend to focus on the emotional and social aspects of interacting with animals, to animal-assisted therapy, which uses interactions with animals as a formal part of the patients’ treatment plan. Canines are the most common animal employed for this type of activity because of their availability, trainability and consequent predictability.

🐾  Can any dog participate in animal-assisted interventions as a therapy dog?  Since therapy dog visits need to be safe and paws-itive for both the patients and the visiting dog, they are only performed by certified therapy dog and handler teams. These special dogs have to pass a “Temperament Test” which considers different aspects of each dog’s personality such as stability, shyness, aggressiveness, and friendliness. It also assesses the dog’s instinct for protectiveness towards its handler and/or self-preservation in the face of a threat. Therapy dogs have to be obedient, quiet, calm and comforting. They are trained not to bark, jump, or react to other dogs, animals, people or unexpected situations. Therapy dogs are also trained to accept unexpected behavior from patients without barking or biting. The evaluation and certification is only performed by recognized credentialing agencies. Additionally, annual evaluation must occur to ensure that the dog and handler are fit to continue this type of service.

🐾  Are these animal-assisted interventions safe and how is transmission of infections controlled?  A major concern with a therapy dog program is introduction of germs and infection. Therefore, guidelines have been created to help minimize both injuries and the transmission of infectious organisms to and from animals. Hospitals with animal-assisted activity programs have written policies and safety precautions to account for these concerns. Although the recommendations vary by hospital, most programs require the following:

🐾  Use of hand sanitizer by patients and handlers before and after visits

🐾  Change of fresh linen on beds before and after visits

🐾  Patients are discouraged from feeding treats to dogs during the visit

🐾  Animals should not visit patients in isolation

🐾  Animals that have been fed any raw foods, chews, or treats of animal origin within 90 days should not participate in the program.

🐾   Animals should not visit rooms shared by people with known or suspected fears of animals or allergies to animal saliva, dander, or urine.

🐾  Are animal-assisted interventions for everybody?  No. Animal-assisted interventions or therapy dogs are only therapeutic to a selected group of people. If a person has animal-related allergies, phobias, and stress related to dogs, then this type of therapy is not for them.

🐾  Can animal-assisted interventions replace medical treatment? No. Animal-assisted interventions are complementary therapy which is not meant to replace conventional treatments but to support, facilitate and enhance established treatments.