Effects of Puppy Therapy on Mental 

Posted byDébora SabinoPosted inUncategorized

What is puppy therapy?

Puppy therapy is one of the animal-led therapy treatments used in various environments. Animal-assisted therapy is currently a growing field that uses dogs or other animals to help people recover or cope with health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, and mental health disorders.

How does it work?

Pet therapy has many steps to ensure that the process occurs in the best way for both the animal and the patient. Many groups and organizations train these pets, and before an animal and its trainer can participate in the pet therapy, the team has to fulfill specific requirements. Some of the main requirements:

  • A physical examination of the animal to determine if they are immunized and safe from diseases
  • Training courses to ensure that the pet is obedient to calls and is controlled
  • An instructional course to teach the trainer about interactions with other people
  • An evaluation of the animal’s temperament and behavior with the trainer
  • A certification from their organization, guaranteeing that the pet is ready for the therapy sections

Once the organization approves the training progress, animals are assigned for therapy sessions based on the specific person’s needs. The animal’s breed, size, age, and natural behavior will determine which type of treatment will be most helpful.

What are the benefits?

Pet therapy uses the natural human-animal bond, the interactions can help deal with physical and mental issues. It can help reduce blood pressure and improve cardiovascular health, it also causes the release of endorphins that produce a calming effect, as well as alleviating pain, reducing stress, and improving overall psychological state. The following data is taken from healthline.com research.

Some possible goals for pet therapy are:

  • improving motor skills and joint movement
  • improving assisted or independent movement
  • increasing self-esteem
  • increasing verbal communication
  • developing social skills
  • increasing willingness to join in activities
  • improving interactions with others
  • motivating willingness to exercise

Other benefits of pet therapy include:

  • making you happier, lessening depression, and improving your outlook on life
  • decreasing loneliness and isolation by giving you a companion
  • reducing boredom
  • reducing anxiety because of its calming effects
  • helping children learn empathic and nurturing skills
  • improving the relationship between you and your healthcare provider

These treatments can be used in various environments, such as work and educational environments. Usually, big companies with hundreds of thousands of workers tend to have to take measures to prevent issues on the worker’s health, since the work can be extremely robotic and repetitive. Companies can use pet therapy since it can help decrease stress levels, and it was also shown to increase productivity, according to therapydog.com. 

Google is a huge company, currently with approximately 132,120 workers. They have supported the contact with puppies for their workers for a few years. Prior to the pandemic they allowed their workers to bring pets to work, they even had a certain spot to leave them, but they still had access to their puppies throughout the day. Google created the “Puppy Popups”, which is a therapy program for employees across several offices. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this project became more relevant as the employees had to work from home, and some events continued virtually. 

Many universities use this resource as well, bringing organizations that can provide the pets with the goal of “calming” and relieving stress students might be undergoing. Some colleges that brought these programs were Rochester Institute of Technology, their program called ”The Rochester Institute of Technology’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf” offers “Ruff Relief” for students, which is a quick visit from therapy dogs to help students relax. Right before finals started, they were brought as a way to decrease stress, and students commented that it helped them focus. Other universities that use this were: UC Riverside, Fordham University, Occidental College, UConn, and Yale Law. This data was brought from deafdogsrock.com.

Pets can be part of treatment programs, which are all intended to bring relaxation, free the minds, and decrease stress from the patients. They can be used in multiple environments as mentioned, they are good for places of work and learning, to places of health treatment. 

Feel free to use the links below if you want to understand more about these therapy programs.

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