Animals are interesting creatures. Animals, like humans, have unique personalities and abilities. Cody is one such dog that can make people relax. He is not a certified therapy animal, but you would not know it. Lillie, a Chihuahua was attacked by a pit bull while on a walk with her owner. Apparently, the pit bull was only warning her to stay out of his territory because she only received a puncture to her right ear. However, the mental damage was far worse. Lillie began to go into shock. Lillie’s owner ran home with her in her arms and contacted a friend. The friend rushed over, bringing his dog, Cody. Cody is a golden retriever and like most retrievers he is very social and can be hyper. This time was different. This time when he ran in the house he noticed Lillie lying on the couch and must have realized something was wrong. Cody walked up to her, sniffed her and sat down beside the couch. An amazing thing happened; Lillie began to relax after about ten minutes. The effect Cody had on relieving Lillie’s stress is not unlike the effects therapy animals have on humans. Animals have an uncanny capability to calm other animals, but they have the ability to reduce stress hormones and increase endorphin levels in humans (Marcus, 2013). Though there is a lack of long-term studies, animal assisted therapy continues to grow in popularity helping humans deal with many physical and psychological problems. Animals have close bonds with humans that can be traced back for centuries, which is why animals are a popular choice for therapy. The relationship between animals and humans goes back to Prehistoric drawings found in caves. The first documented case of Animal Assisted therapy dates back to 1792 at a psychiatric faci... ... middle of paper ... ...rom being around animals, but in this case fish could be used as part of a therapy program. Animals just like people can experience exhaustion if overworked without extended periods of relaxation. The Delta Society has taken this ethical issue into consideration by establishing standards to protect the animals used as part of a therapy program (Fine, 2006). Emotional issues can arise with animal assisted therapy because some animals could become depressed being in an environment with physical and mental illnesses on a frequent basis. Furthermore, therapy animals show unconditional acceptance, without regard to a persons physical or mental challenges. Moreover, with so few negative aspects of animal assisted therapy, it is understandable why this form of therapy has become a popular choice to comfort humans who are dealing with mental and physical challenges.
Since psychology’s founding, animals has been used as an important way for psychologist to test their hypnosis, and conduct experiments. From Pavlov’s experiments with Dogs and response, to a modern lab studying the brain of sleeping rats, Animals have provided a huge opening in psychological testing. A significant amount of psychological tests would be impossible without the use of animals. Some people claim the psychological research on animals is inhumane citing psychological test involving electric shocks. Others, however, claim that psychological testing on animals, not only provides important research to help improve the lives of both people and animal, but also creates a way to preform test that would be impossible with human subjects.
Dieter Freya, Peter Fischer “Man's Best Friend: How the Presence of a Dog Reduces Mental
In the article “Therapy Dogs Work Miracles. But Do They Like There Job?” by Linda Lombardi. Linda shows that when sevices dog are not stressed out when they are working. Linda worked with many scientist and sciences clients. She worked with “Applied Animal Behaviour Sciences”, the Animal Behaviour did some reacher and found that dogs are not stressed out when they are working. They scientists state this “therapy dogs in pediatric cancer wards are not stressed by their work”(Lombardi). The scientist along with Linda show that dogs are not stressed out when they are working with kids. Dogs are probably not stressed when working with kids because they are active and are up and around with children. In the end of the article Linda states that
Most people are familiar with service dogs and have seen them in action. Animal-assisted therapy is similar service animals in that an animal-human healing partnership is being created. However, the difference is that therapy pets are typically used to treat a mental disability whereas people with physical disabilities use service dogs to help them in many ways. Therapy animals are used in a wide variety of places, such as, hospitals, prisons, nursing homes, therapy sessions, mental healthcare facilities, and even in people’s homes. These amazing animals are used on a wide variety of different disorders, but they are utilized mostly by people suffering from depression, anxiety, and PTSD. For people with these mental health disorders, everything in live can be difficult and challenging, however with the help of animal-assisted therapy, their mood, motivation, and life can dramatically improve. Anyone who hears about these brave, loving animals soon falls in love with them. From a medical standpoint, there have been many successful studies and the support for animal-assisted therapy still continues to grow in doctors and therapists across the nation.
Hollingsworth, Shanna. "Psychiatric Service Dogs: Children with Autism." Psychiatric Service Dog Society. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2011. .
Animals have long been part of human lives serving many purposes from companionship or serve purposes in healthcare history. Pets provide a valuable companionship for older adults and help people grow up in a more secure and active life, as well as playing an important role in the health of a person. Animals provide a relationship centered and compassionate role in the healing and dying journey of their loved one and in general can be of great benefit to both the mental and overall health of an older adult. Pets can offer a variety of health benefits and improvement in quality of life for older adults such as decrease of social isolation, increase positive behaviors, distraction from pain or traumatic thoughts. Pet therapy can advance nursing profession by expanding the horizons in which
Dogs play a key role in therapy for abused children, however animal assisted therapy remains an adjunct treatment. Elisabeth Reichert (1998) states animal-assisted therapy must be used in conjunction with other therapies and cannot stand on its own. This study will focus on the relationships with dogs in treatment of physically and sexually abused...
Research has been done in the area of human-animal companionship and security, and stress management. Due to the relative newness of this field and the difficulties in studying it, most research has been concentrated on the elderly, specifically, institutionalized elderly. Pets have been introduced into these settings in order to minimize the negative consequences of institutionalization. Most research has been conducted on the extreme ends of the continuum, either very brief visitation or therapy of resident pets studies (Wrinkler 216).
considered to have emotional disturbances and were not in the general classroom all day. These children where in an individual school for children with bad behaviors. The research noted that many of the children were getting the benefit of the classroom, but when crisis arose they would revert back to their bad behaviors. An example of this was a boy who was doing well in the classroom with his behaviors, but when his parents were arrested on felony charges, his behavior became unstable. When the research had started, the school social workers in the schools had therapy dogs and where trained in Animal Based Therapy. When the children’s behaviors acted up, they were sent to the social workers office where the dogs would be. Just by petting the dogs and sitting with them while they were talking to the therapist, the children showed vast improvement in their behavior after the crisis and where more likely to discuss their problems openly. The dogs gave the children support and guidance, which allowed then to open up. (Geist, 2011).
In the field of therapy, there are numerous of therapy available out there for different type of individuals and situations as well. There is one type of therapy that usually contains people and animal, it is animal-assisted therapy is a therapeutic approach that brings animals and individuals with physical and/or emotional needs together to perform the therapy. Animal-assisted therapy tend to be focused on individuals either children or elderly for them to be able to connect with the animal thus feeling comfortable talking with the therapist. Pet therapy works for all ages, whether sick or not (Lanchnit, 2011). Although, this paper, most of the focus is on animal-assisted therapy towards children using dogs.
For example, it has been proven that therapy dogs stimulate memory and problem solving skills in a classroom environment. Also, interaction with a therapy dog has been shown to reduce blood pressure. In hospitals, therapy dogs can comfort someone during a surgery, recovery, or if they are just experiencing pain. A study showed that hospital patients with a therapy dog had less pain and recovered quicker and better. Therapy dogs have also been proven to promote self esteem. About ten percent of teens have an anxiety disorder. Therapy dogs can help these students by creating laughter to lift moods. (The Benefits of Therapy Dogs in Classrooms and on College
For centuries, bonds between animals and humans have been stronger than ever. Many people could argue that their pet has become a part of the family. Over time, the bond that a pet and their owner have can become very similar to the bond between child and parent, sibling to sibling, etc. Many studies have been done that prove that the interactions between animals and humans are beneficial to the health of both individuals. Furthermore, the benefits of having an animal has become a large part of one’s health. Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) is practiced in many facilities around the world, but the “lack of interest and knowledge of animal-assisted therapy are still widespread” (Altschiller 12). The therapeutic bonds between humans and their animals have helped many medical cases around the world.
This has led to the belief that dogs can provide company, affection and support to people who are going through a difficult time or who feel lonely. Dogs have aided humans in tasks such as hunting, livestock herding, and guarding. However, as society moved from small rural communities to increasingly large metropolitan areas, the dog’s role changed. Throughout the years a more specific type of canine has helped improve the quality of human life in many ways. These animals are known as therapy dogs. Therapy dogs have been tremendously helpful; providing physical and psychological stability for students and health patients, assisting federal governments to boost morale, and presently, studies are being done to substitute medication for therapy dogs.
Animals are around us all the time. Around the world, animals and their interactions with nature and other species are being studied. This paper will be describe six studies that have recently been conducted on various animals close to home and otherwise. Within these studies are relations to the human world. Researchers connect motion, diseases, and methods of testing health from the wilderness to human civilization. Learning about animals helps us to understand nature better, as well as keying in some interesting information into the lives of humans. Creature-like technology is being incorporated into machinery. Vaccines for camels could aid the human population in staying alive. Learning about ‘Tachykinin’ can help us fight depression. And how is all of this possible? This paper will show you the way.
Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT), which can be provided in a group or individual settings, is designed to promote improvement in a human’s physical, social, emotional, or cognitive function. An article by Chitic, Rusu, and Szamoskozi (2012) provides an analysis in order to determine the value of AAT. Both dogs and horses that were trained for AAT were examined and studied to determine their effectiveness in treating patients with psychological disorders. The results showed that both therapy dogs and horses were valuable aids to the therapeutic process. The analysis suggests that proper training and repeated sessions were necessary for proper treatment of patients. In addition, certain disorders may benefit more than others in regards to AAT. For example, a child with ADHD may not benefit from a therapy dog’s presence, for it may worsen the hyperactive symptoms. On the other hand, a patient with depression may benefit greatly from the same animal (Chitic, Rusu, Szamoskozi, 2012). These findings are a perfect starting point to answering the research question: Do patients who engage in AAT display a betterment in their overall emotional well-being, as well as show improvement in their interpersonal interactions...