IS DOG THERAPY GOOD FOR THE THERAPY DOG?

Abstract

Therapy dogs have been used to support and even improve the health and emotional well-being of humans in a range of different settings. Over the past few decades, the use of animal-assisted interventions has increased dramatically, however, there is still a lack of knowledge concerning the impact that these therapies have on the nonhuman animals involved. Due to the high expectations that therapy dogs face while working, it is important to evaluate their overall welfare and determine if certain interactions or environments cause unnecessary stress. This paper examines how the focus on animal welfare in animal-assisted interventions has developed over the past two decades and summarizes some of the key factors that promote therapy dog welfare (as delineated by the Five Domains Model of animal welfare). Additionally, this paper reports results from an analysis on the behavioral responses of a therapy dog who participated in animal-assisted interventions with intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. A Repeated Measures General Linear Model and a Linear Mixed Model found that the nurse’s physical proximity/interaction with the dog had a positive influence on the dog’s behavioral response. In contrast to this, the nurse’s salivary cortisol levels, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, self-reported recent stress, and self-reported immediate stress did not have any significant effect on the therapy dog’s behavioral response. These findings suggest that high quality interactions between therapy dogs and humans can support a dog’s welfare during animal-assisted interventions.