The Benefits of Therapy Dogs

1.  Health benefits:     It is a proven fact that petting a dog will lower your blood pressure and calm your heart rate.  There are studies that also indicate that petting a dog releases endorphins that can block pain.

2.  Calming effect:    Anyone who has ever petted his or her dog knows that it can calm a person who is angry, afraid, upset or depressed.

3.  Social stimulation:    A patient has a chance to visit with the dog and the dog's handler, then discuss the visit with the staff or other patients.

4.  Interest:    Not much new ever happens at institutions.  Having a dog visit is something interesting the patients will remember for a long time.

5.  Re-focus thoughts:    Interacting with a dog will help patients forget about their problems and instead, focus on the dog.

6.  Morale:    For most people, petting a dog brings back happy memories of past pets and better times, and makes any institution seem more like home.

7.  Need for touch:    Most people in institutions get very little positive touching from other people.  Most touching is painful, or at the least, neutral.  Petting a dog supplies a very real need, especially for people that consider themselves "untouchable".

8.  Decision making:    People in institutions get very few chances to make decisions.   Sometimes, when asked if they want a visit from a dog, a patient will say no - simply because it's the first decision they've been allowed to make in a long time.

9.  Incentive:    Many times a promise of a visit from the dogs is used as an incentive to get people to cooperate.

10.  Practice physical skills:    Walking a dog, petting a dog, grooming a dog, throwing a ball for a dog - these are all great ways to incorporate some fun into doing physical therapy, and make patients much more cooperative.

11.  Improving the quality of life:    This is simply the most important benefit - it is what Therapy Dogs are all about.