Content
When we are willing to talk about people with disabilities, there is nothing more beautiful than thinking of an animal that helps them and can take care of each other. Dogs have a very peculiar way of accept all people, without classifying them, and this is what makes them so important when we refer to assisted therapy. They don't stop to see what clothing a particular person wears, whether it's fashionable or not, whether it looks good or bad, they just accept it, with everything they have or not, and in return, they give all their love.
At PeritoAnimal we want to talk about how the dog assisted therapies, what benefits do they have and what makes them so popular. There are many rehabilitation programs that have incorporated them into their staff permanent.
The dog, the great motivational stimulus
At people with some intellectual and/or motor disability they need high doses of motivation to continue daily with some activity that maybe they don't like so much. Its mere presence improves the quality of life of patients both in communication and in controlling emotions, as well as in the development of social skills.
It is not necessary for each patient to have their own dog, instead several rehabilitation centers have their own therapy animals, simply so that they are present in a group while conducting an activity or workshop.
These dogs can work in different groups, of very different ages, from children to the elderly, getting daily improvements. Assisted therapies must be supervised by a professional of health, with the corresponding registration and assisted education that incorporates the dog into pedagogical programs, seeking to successfully assimilate certain activities such as reading with dogs. They are able to generate bonds that people never do, which is why they are so important.
Benefits for humans
- Decreases stress and anxiety
- Improves attention and social skills
- Strengthens muscles, coordination and memory
- Physical movements like petting the dog, playing with him and feeding him
- Offers auditory, visual and tactile stimuli
- Reduces unwanted behaviors
- In particular, they motivate children to express themselves both verbally and non-verbally.
- trigger laughter and happiness
Can Any Dog Help?
There are specific characteristics that these dogs must meet in order to participate "legally" in these programs. Although there are more suitable breeds or that have been used more over the years, race is not the main factor.
therapy dog must have 5 features main:
- Reliable. You must always know how you will react to different situations, people and/or animals that are presented to you.
- 100% controllable. Basic obedience and always under the control of your guide.
- Appropriate for the task. Sounds a little obvious, but you should be able to swim if you have to, jump, etc. It cannot have physical and/or age impediments.
- Predictable. We must always be able to anticipate the behavior it will have.
- Confidence Builder. We close with this point, which is similar to number 1 but more oriented to races: what impact do they have on others.
But we must not only consider these points, the guide is also essential. They must work well together, otherwise nothing will work. Aspiring dogs are submitted to evaluations by ethologists (they study animal behavior) and veterinarians to be sure that they are indicated. It is useless to submit to specific training dogs that we know have a terminal illness and will die in a short time or in old age.
