How Pet Therapy Dogs Can Help

Activities, Education and Therapy

A Therapy Dog provides comfort, companionship and emotional support to individuals, families, and people visiting or living in facilities.

Animal-Assisted-Interventions: activities, education or therapy boasts many proven benefits, including:

Improved fine motor skills, strength, and balance
Increased self-esteem and self-worth
Reduced anxiety and depression
Reducing experience of loneliness and isolation
Reduced risk of a heart attack or stroke
Improved interpersonal and communication skills
Improved sense of purpose and motivation

There are so many things a Therapy Dog can do, and we are happy to help individuals, groups, teachers, therapists, courthouse and hospital employees, and ministers determine how to best utilize a Therapy Dog with their clients.

How the dogs can help

Care Homes

We provide animal-assisted interventions to community homes, care homes, residential nursing homes, dementia patients, and private home visits.

Our visiting teams can help promote both physical and emotional well-being.

We provide weekly, fortnightly and monthly visits to individuals and small groups.

Our professional animal-assisted therapy teams provide a bespoke package for the needs of the individual, group, and care establishment.

Hospital Support

Our specialist teams utilise the benefits of the human-animal bond providing professional interventions to enhance the emotional wellbeing and mental health of young people and adults.

The Therapy Dog Teams for Hospital are effective partners for hospital staff who are looking for a way to help alleviate the stress and trauma of patients and their families while in the hospital.

The Therapy Dog Teams are taught to remain calm and focused in many environments, including a hospital situation, which is often high-stress and highly emotional.

Our teams can help with the following areas: consultancy interventions, AAI service delivery, or affiliate training program to hospitals.

Workplace wellbeing

Making a difference to the mental health and emotional wellbeing of every individual through specialist animal assisted support. Workplace wellbeing is dedicated to improve mental wellness in the workplace along with raising awareness and reducing the stigma around mental health.

We offer customisable wellbeing packages to suit your organisations needs and requirements.

Animal Assisted Learning

The focus of AAL is on education and learning specific skills as defined by the individual or group, such as defining company goals, leadership skills for a school group, managing vicarious Trauma or compassion fatigue, coping with change or increasing team communication to name a few.

These sessions are tailored to meet your teams unique goals.

Consultancy Interventions:

Offers animal-assisted interventions consultancy to schools, colleges, and universities to suit the needs of your students, working in a flexible, nurturing, and therapeutic way.

Our Animal-Assisted Therapists + practitioners are educational professionals who have a wealth of knowledge and experience of working with young people with varying needs.

School Dog Affiliate

Training program for schools across Australia to provide a safe and effective means to provide animal-assisted interventions in school with the schools staff members own dog.

The program not only focuses on training of the dog but of the handler ensuring all health and safety considerations are met, an understanding of canine behaviour along with ensuring safe and effective implementation of the interventions with the welfare of the dog and safety of all involved held at the core of all work undertaken.

University interventions

Students can be faced with overwhelming pressures financially and socially whilst at the same time trying to study and transition in to adulthood. Assisted Learning can bring wellbeing benefits to your students and staff.

Classroom

The Therapy Dogs for the Classroom is matched with full-time special education faculty. They are trained in specific tasks that teachers can incorporate into their classroom teaching.

The training also ensures that they are always under the control of the handler and that each task and command is consistently and reliably performed.

AAI Therapist can provide teachers with highly personalised, hands-on training so they can successfully use the tasks most appropriate for their specific situation.

Courthouse

The Therapy Dog and AAI Therapist assist crime victims, witnesses, and others during the investigation and prosecution of crimes as well as other legal proceedings. They provide compassion and emotional support to everyone in the justice system.

Dogs are utilized in such a way as to not disrupt legal proceedings or create legal issues.
Dogs can provide a sense of normalcy during juvenile and family court proceedings and can accompany vulnerable crime victims, including, children, rape victims, developmentally delayed adults, and the elderly during court proceedings.
They can also provide emotional comfort to family members of homicide victims during the trial and sentencing of the offender.

Counselling Professionals

Therapy Dog Team along with Counseling Professionals are placed with therapists, school counselors, ministers, or others specifically trained to help people in need.

The dog and handler accompany the professional in his or her full-time duties, including assisting in counseling sessions, visiting those in hospitals, nursing homes or private residences, conducting worship services, and attending activities in the community.

The dogs have been specifically trained to help ease counselling and promote harmony.

The presence of a friendly, soft, engaging animal often puts people at ease.

Where Dog Assisted Therapy can help

Medical procedure, people may have less anxiety if a dog is present.
In rehabilitation, people may be more motivated to recover and practice their therapy when working with a dog.
People who have sensory disabilities can sometimes communicate more easily with a dog. This encourages more interaction with healthcare providers and other people.
people undergoing chemotherapy
residents in long-term care facilities
people hospitalized with chronic health issues
veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder
children having physical or dental procedures
stroke victims and people undergoing physical therapy to regain motor skills
people with mental health disorders

Animal Assisted Therapy

Animal-assisted therapy can take place in almost any setting that best suits the client's needs, including hospitals, schools, and even prisons. However, it is a much deeper and more complex process than spending time with an animal, and should follow a treatment plan and a set of goals as determined by an experienced professional.

The focus of AAT involves setting up ground activities involving the animal which require the client or group to apply certain skills.

Non-verbal communication, assertiveness, creative thinking, problem solving, leadership, taking responsibility, teamwork, relationships, confidence, and attitude are examples of the tools utilized and developed by AAT.

AAT is a powerful and effective therapeutic approach that has an incredible impact on individuals, youth, families, and groups.

AAT addresses a variety of mental health and human development needs including behavioural challenges, Attention Deficit Disorder, PTSD, substance use and misuse, eating disorders, depression, anxiety, relationship challenges, and communication needs.

AAT may involve adopting a pet to live at home, taking part in a community therapy animal program, or visiting a facility in which therapy animals live. this can also often provide an opportunity for patients to get out and about, socialise with peers, and even take part in gentle exercise.

What are the benefits?

Animal-assisted therapy boasts many proven benefits, including:

Improved fine motor skills, strength, and balance
Increased self-esteem and self-worth
Reduced anxiety and depression
Reducing experience of loneliness and isolation
Reduced risk of a heart attack or stroke
Improved interpersonal and communication skills
Improved sense of purpose and motivation

Therapy Dogs SA