Associating with dogs doesn’t just make people happier, healthier, and more relaxed; studies have shown that having a dog by your side also affects the way other people see you. “Dog people” are perceived as friendlier, happier, less tense, and less of a threat to others (unless, of course, the pup in question is a snarling attack dog straining on the end of its leash!). The “popularity effect” may explain one of the well-known therapeutic qualities of dogs—the way they often improve people’s social interactions and serve as an “ice breaker” to ease awkward moments and improve conversation between strangers. It also has a lot to do with the way dogs have been used by American politicians to enhance their public image in the eye of ever-present cameras and reporters. President Harry Truman once said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Only five U.S. presidents have not been dog owners. (Not surprising in our canineloving country, where such a fundamental lack might plant seeds of mistrust among a large segment of voters.) From Franklin Roosevelt’s beloved Scottie dog Fala, to Richard Nixon’s cocker spaniel Checkers, to John F. Kennedy’s fluffy little Pushinka (a gift to the Kennedy family from Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev), dogs have long been part of the presidential image, for better or for worse. During the 1992 presidential campaign, George H.W. Bush once claimed that his spaniel Millie knew more about foreign policy than either of his two rivals, Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

In both health care and educational institutions, therapy dogs play a role in assisting speech, occupational, and physical therapists to supplement traditional hospital treatments. The dog seems to be a universal motivator for patients and students. Once a dog is involved in therapy, work suddenly becomes play for many people. This is especially true in work with children. Dogs are even helping kids learn to read in schools and public libraries that have adopted the innovative R.E.A.D. (Reading Education Assistance Dogs) Program, originally developed in Salt Lake City, Utah, by dog/handler teams from the Delta Society’s Pet Partners. The idea behind R.E.A.D. is that children who have problems in school, especially those having trouble learning to read well, often suffer from low self-esteem, have difficulty concentrating, and may be intimidated by the idea of reading in front of people. But these same children are often eager to read to a friendly dog that is willing to lie quietly beside them and “listen” as they read a story. This is also helpful to children for whom English is their second language, who may struggle to get by in a mainstream classroom. For children who have participated in these dog-centered literacy sessions, reading scores have improved significantly. Improvements have also been noted in self-confidence and self-esteem, attitudes toward school and learning, and overall school grades. Most trained therapy dogs adapt easily to the classroom setting—especially those that love lots of attention and petting, don’t mind a noisy room full of kids, and are happy to rest quietly next to a child for as long as needed. The big advantage for students is that dogs never complain or criticize when the kids make a mistake while reading. Instead, they just listen quietly. Dogs have also been enlisted as “co-therapists” by school counselors, who find that withdrawn children are often much more willing to talk in the presence of a friendly dog. Often, students will come to see the dog and stay to talk to the counselor while they pet and play with the animal. In this way, the counselor is able to interact with many more students than would otherwise be possible.

Animals have a special role to play in hospice care, providing comfort and consolation to terminally ill patients during their last days. One social worker who has studied the dying experience of terminal cancer patients in a nursing home came to believe that therapy dogs and other animals can help patients work through their feelings of anxiety and despair, because the animals’ emotions don’t get in the way. Human caregivers, on the other hand, must deal with their own fears of death, and so may unconsciously discourage patients from expressing their sadness and pain. Dogs and other pets are recognized as extremely important to support patients who often feel isolated and rejected because of the nature of their illness. As an added benefit, therapy dogs have been reported to reduce stress and emotional exhaustion among caregivers who deal with such patients on a daily basis. These positive results override any potential risk of infection, especially if guidelines developed for infection control in long-term-care institutions are strictly followed. PAWS (Pets Are Wonderful Support), a San Francisco group providing support services for HIV patients, has published extensive guidelines for minimizing the health risks of contact between these especially vulnerable patients and pets. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined that there is no risk of the AIDS virus being transmitted to humans or other animals by pets. This is a specialized, difficult, but potentially rewarding type of work for therapy dogs and their owners.

Nursing homes are probably the most common place to find therapy dogs working today. One Australian study concluded that, “Like children, many elderly people benefit from something constant, something fixed, such as the undying loyalty of an ever-present pet, as everything else changes around them.” Another study found that when nursing home residents spent as little as 30 minutes each week with a dog, their feelings of loneliness were significantly reduced. Alzheimer’s disease patients who spend 30 minutes per week with a visiting dog become calmer, more responsive, and better able to think clearly. Nursing home staff members have been found to benefit as much as, or even more than, patients do from having a residential dog to help soften and humanize the institutional setting. As a result of these well-known benefits of introducing therapy dogs into nursing homes, hospitals are now beginning to get with the program. The Prescription Pet Program, a joint venture of the volunteer association of the Denver Children’s Hospital and the local veterinary medical society, arranges for trained therapy dogs and their owners to make short visits to consenting patients in their own rooms. The volunteers spend as little as 10–15 minutes with each patient every two weeks, and also make regular visits to specialized areas of the hospital, such as the dialysis unit, special care nursery, or psychiatric unit. Because of infection concerns in the hospital setting, all volunteer dogs wear special smocks to reduce dander and allergic reactions, are bathed before each visit, and receive frequent evaluation and testing to make sure they carry no bacteria or parasites that could be spread to patients. The program has been a great success. Patients who participate are calmer, more relaxed, and have lower blood pressure than patients who don’t interact with the dogs. As one therapy dog volunteer put it, “Dogs don’t see what people see. They don’t see a broken arm or a missing leg or a scar, which may make a patient embarrassed. Dogs make no judgments. They don’t want anything from you and they don’t have to say the right thing. They don’t expect anything except perhaps a pat. They just want to give love.”

Another way the line can be blurred between service dogs and therapy dogs is illustrated in programs like Project POOCH or Puppies Behind Bars. In these and other similar programs, inmates and juvenile offenders are given the opportunity to train homeless dogs for future careers as service dogs, therapy dogs, or police dogs. This provides both the animal and inmate with important skills for the future, while being therapeutic for both. Project POOCH (Positive Opportunities—Obvious Change with Hounds) is an Oregon program that trains juvenile offenders to care for homeless dogs from a local humane society. The dogs, which risk being euthanized if they don’t find homes, are trained by kids in the program to make the animals more adoptable. The student trainers work with their dogs daily. In the process, the trainers themselves learn to be responsible, reliable, and patient. They experience, perhaps for the first time in their lives, a sense of being needed and appreciated, of making a difference in the life of another living thing. By managing their dogs, the kids learn how to manage their own behavior. Those who have been making excuses for their behavior discover that dogs don’t care about excuses. As part of the program, kids also earn school credits, develop good work habits, and gain valuable job skills. Experiencing unconditional love for the first time helps both students and dogs develop self-confidence and the positive attitude they’ll need to build future relationships. As Chris, a participant in Project POOCH, learned while working with Ginger, an abused and abandoned English pointer, “Trust is easy to lose and hard to get back.” There’s ample proof that this kind of program works: Not a single youth from Project POOCH has been involved in any further criminal activity, and the staff members working with the students attest to great improvements in their respect for authority, social interaction, and leadership skills. Similar programs around the country have noted equally positive outcomes. Puppies Behind Bars trains adult women inmates to raise puppies for eventual training as guide dogs for the blind. The program began at New York State’s maximum-security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility and eventually expanded to include five prisons, with about 50 puppies in training at any given time. The puppies live in the cells with their inmate caretakers, attend classes once a week, and spend two or three weekends a month with puppy sitters outside the prison, so they can be exposed to the outside world. After 16 months, the pups are tested to see if they’ll make the grade as guide dogs. If so, they return to their original guide dog schools for further training. Those that aren’t qualified are donated to families with blind children. Either way, the dogs will spend their lives as companions to people who need them. Gloria Gilbert Stoga, president and founder of Puppies Behind Bars, says, “The puppies have affected the lives not only of their puppy raisers, but of virtually all the inmates and staff at the prison.” Both puppies and inmates are transformed by working together as a team.

The examples already cited are just a few of the ways therapy dogs work today. They assist in both physical and mental health therapies for all kinds of patients. Many people may confuse therapy dogs with service dogs. Though related, the terms are not synonymous. Service dogs are trained to work individually with a disabled person, performing tasks the person cannot do easily. Along with a few other service animals, service dogs are defined and covered under the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act, which protects the rights of people with disabilities to have their service animals with them in public places, transportation vehicles, and workplaces. Service dogs have been trained to do all kinds of jobs, to help people with impairments in walking, breathing, seeing, hearing, or otherwise caring for themselves. Perhaps the best-known type of service dog is the guide dog for the blind (Figure 3.2). But dogs have also been trained to fetch dropped or needed items; to pull wheelchairs; to turn lights on and off; to open elevator doors; to hand paperwork to receptionists; to carry things in special backpacks; to pick up items off a shelf; or to alert a person to visitors, ringing phones, and emergencies, among many other tasks. Some dogs are trained to provide support for a person who needs help walking, and others signal epileptic individuals before a seizure occurs, so the person can avoid dangerous falls. Scientists don’t yet know for sure how some dogs are able to sense that a person will soon have a seizure. Dogs may be able to detect subtle changes in human body language, expression, or behavior, or respond to changes in body odor triggered by abnormal nervous system activity in an epileptic person. In addition to performing these essential tasks, of course, service dogs provide the people they assist with social and emotional support. Many disabled individuals consider their service dog their best friend. Some insist they would never give up their dog, even if they could get rid of their disability in the bargain.