The use of dogs for therapy is a very up and coming field. In this field, dogs are used to help people recover from, or better cope with health problems, such as heart disease, cancer and mental health disorders. Additionally, it is not only the patient suffering from these health problems that therapy dogs help; therapy dogs are great for the families, friends and hospital staff around the patient. Often times, patients and family members even grow attached to the dog.
During a study preformed in 2007, Scientists compared a doctor’s visit with a dog present, to a visit without a dog. The usual care in the hospital was used as control conditions among adults hospitalized with heart failure, which can be seen as a naturally occurring stressor. The result of this study was that the subjects brain’s contained significantly lower epinephrine and norepinephrine levels, during and after the appointment when the dog was included in the visit. The study showed that having human-animal interaction (HIA), reduced stressed, calmed anxiety, and gave the patients a more positive outlook on their treatment and recovery. Rebecca A. Johnson, Ph.D, is the director of the Research Center for Human-Animal Interaction at the University of Missouri. She says that, “The vagus nerve that runs from brain to gut is stimulated when you see, hear, touch, and smell the dog,”. This is what causes the relaxation in the patient.
Therapy dogs have taken our country by storm in the past 20 years. 20 years ago there were only 700 therapy dogs certified to provide Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT). 20 years later and now there is said to be 10,000 dogs certified. This shows that therapeutic dogs and their ample health benefits have caught on nationwide. Personally, I love dogs, and being around them greatly improves my mood, and relieves stress. Dogs are proven to be one of the greatest kinds of “medicine” that science can offer.
This is a picture of me and Whitney, the cutest dog in the World! She loves to cuddle, and always makes my day brighter
To start, that dog is very adorable! For years I have been trying to convince my parents to get a dog and I would always use the argument that it would benefit our health and happiness. My efforts never resulted in a family dog, but I learned some crazy facts about how dog owners had a slight reduction in health problems and were outside exercising more often, explained further here.
One of the roughest parts of the transition to college for me is not having a dog around everyday. Simply being in the presence of dogs definitely improves my mood and reduces stress. If I learned anything from these first few weeks of college, it is that dogs definitely have an impact on my mental health.
This is definitely true! Back at home when I had a stressful day, my two dogs would instantly make me feel better and happier. It would be beneficial to have therapy dogs used in a stressful environment (such as here at Penn State) so more people would be at ease!
I love my dog and Whitney is so cute! I never realized how beneficial dogs can be for humans that are going through a rough time! I found a huge list of other cool things that dogs do if you want to check it out!