BENEFITS OF PET THERAPY

The positive effects animals have on our health and well being have been proven many times over.

·      Seniors with dogs go to the doctor less.

·      Pet owners have lower blood pressure.

·      Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels.

·      Pet owners have better psychological well being.

·      Pet owners have a higher one-year survival rate following coronary heart disease.

·      Medication costs in nursing homes that have animals and plants dropped from $3.80 per patient per day to just $1.18.

·      The presence of a dog during a child’s physical examination decreases their stress.

·      AIDS patients with pets have less depression and reduced stress.

Source:  The Delta Society

Physical Benefits:

Lowers blood pressure and encourages movement such as walking, petting, following dog with eyes.  Talking and caring for a pet increases self-care.

Sensory Benefits:

Touch is stimulating and anxiety reducing.  Also provides smell, sound and visual stimulation.

Mental Benefits:

Promotes empathy, nurturing, acceptance, socialization, mental stimulation, companionship, love, and affection and realty orientation.

Why does pet therapy work?  Pets offer unconditional love and are not judgmental.  They  accept us just as we are!

-         Michelle Rippon and her Springer Spaniel, Paddington, volunteers.  Michelle is also the team leader for the Mountain Area Hospice Pet Therapy Program.

“When Paddington and I finish a pet therapy visit, her body language tells me that she has taken in all the emotions of the visit, whether it is the children, the newly diagnosed cancer patients, or the dying patients.  There has been pain.  There has been laughter – more often strained than spontaneous and effortless.  And there has been loneliness and fear and nostalgic talk of pets at home.  Paddington brings all these emotions home and by doing so, I believe the patients we visit feel less pain and less loneliness and less fear.

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