The Healing Bond: Canine Companions in Mental Health

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Dog and man have been working with each other for centuries. First they were bred for tasks like Hunting, Scouting, and Protection. As the years went by they have been bred and altered to suit various needs. But at the same time the bonds between man and canine have grown strong enough where the canine learned to show love and concern for us. Because of this dogs have now become a viable source of therapy for people. It is said that dogs have helped treat mental health conditions such as Depression, ADHD/CD, Loneliness, and Stress.

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My dogs have done great things in the past for me and have always done it of their own accord. So it was of no surprise to me when I found out there are programs of people and dogs completely dedicated to helping people on physical and emotional levels. Dog is truly man's best friend.

Depression is a serious mental illness that is becoming more and more common in this day of age.

It can cause symptoms that can affect how people think, feel, and handle daily activities. Although often handled by therapy and the prescription of pills people are starting to look for alternative solutions. Due to the increasing danger of overdose and rising therapy costs. One alternative that has gained attention over other holistic therapy methods is the adoption or use of dogs to help treat their condition. The author of the book The Power of the Wagging by Dr. Dawn Marcus, MD made this statement about holistic alternatives “As a typical medical doctor, I was used to prescriptions and medi-cal therapies for my patients.

Although I’d been trained to embrace traditional medical treatments, I soon learned that my bag of pills and remedies barely made a dent in these patients’ lives—and I was re-educated about the need for a more holistic approach that addressed lifestyle, social, and emotional issues in addition to simply physical ailments. But could something as seemingly simple as a therapy dog visit made a real, measurable, medical difference for real patients? Study after study convinced me the answer was a resounding “Yes.”(4).” In personal experience my dog has to helped me in times and grievance. Throughout my life to present day I’ve always had the pleasure of having a dog in the family. During those moments of question and sadness my dogs would join me by their own accord. There was always a sense of concern or curiosity when they came they would accompany me till the storm of my emotions passed. The actions my dogs took were consistent to. These actions are scientifically supported by the University of Lincoln. A study was conducted at the university to see if dogs could recognize emotions content produced by people. Their study showed that dogs do have the ability to take sensory information and form it into a feasible understanding of emotions in both humans and dogs. This lets me know that dogs truly care for their owners and will respond to their owners depressive moments.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a chronic condition that produces symptoms of impulsive behavior, short attention span, and hyperactivity . In severe cases it can be debilitating and cause social disruption for the person and the people around them. Conduct disorder (CD) is similar to ADHD and is a mental disorder diagnosed in childhood/adolescence that is displayed through repetitive and persistent actions of anti social or aggressive behaviors. In the book The Environment and Mental Health they told the story of a boy named Steve. Steve was born with a severe case of ADHD and needed to be watched for most of his life. He was registered into a program to help cope with His ADHD and quickly gained a reputation for mischief throwing tantrums and fits for up to ten hours at a time. After some time in the program they chose to introduce him to the zoo project. They first introduced him to dogs to get him acclimated to animals. After a while of working with dogs he then moved on to actual zoo animals. In the presence of the animals Steve was able to stably interact with both the kids and instructors for prolonged period time. Although his behavior improved while in the presence of animals his behavior didn't improve much while outside the program. It was not until he got into high school when he achieved the title of zoo keeper that his attitude changed and show considerable improvement.

From his story and others they were able to positively reinforce a couple assumptions they had going into the experiments. First is that small animals are able to catch the attention of children. Although the child may study the habits of the animals they remain predictably unpredictable. The animal is predictable enough so that the child is able to understand the animal but still be entertained by uncertainty that comes with it. Second through interaction and uncertainty the child is prompted to respond in a variety of ways. This helps the children develop social skills. This helps open the child up to communication with therapists and others. At the of the study the researchers came to this conclusion That animal assisted therapy and nature education had a large range of therapeutic effects on children with children CD and ADHD. The project was said to overall have the best results with highly aggressive and disturbed children. After some weeks in the program the children were described as calmer and less symptomatic when they returned to school. Although this experiment showed promising result they did mention ways that they would have made the more concrete by adding increase observation times. By having observation occur outside the confines of the program and the school they can acquire more data and further establish the positive effects that Animal assisted therapy can have on the population. (200-202) although this article does not directly relate to dogs in definitely shows some insight into the power of therapy and service animals have over children and adolescents. With their energy and slightly unpredictable ways these animals are perfect to engage the child mind and curiosity diagnosed or not.

Loneliness is described as anxious feelings that a person feels due to a lack of connection or communication with others. Loneliness has also been described to cause inner social pain a psychological mechanism meant to motivate the afflicted to seek social connections in some way or form. In the article The Effects of Animal-Assisted Therapy on Loneliness in an Elderly Population in Long-Term Care Facilities By Marian R. Banks and William A. Banks They conducted an experiment on the introduction of Animal Assisted Therapy (ATT) in a long term retirement homes. The purpose was to see if the animal could soothe the elderly residence of any feelings of loneliness. They conducted a six week experiment on 45 volunteers where they would be split up into groups. The majority of the participating residents had a history of ownership and emotional attachment to pets. These residents missed their pets and desired to obtain another pet at some time. Each of these groups receive different amounts of time with therapy dogs group 1 received no time, group 2 received 30 minute time slots for 1 day, and group number 3 received 30 minutes of exposure for 3 days. At the end of the experiment researchers found that the loneliness of residents in long term retirement homes/ facilities improved with the introduction of Animal therapies. The study showed that the once per week 30 minute session of Animal assisted therapy for the 6 week period greatly reduced loneliness. Group 2 had three sessions per week with the dogs also showed positive results but didn’t do much better than the once a week group. The participants that received no animal interactions had no real changes to the level of loneliness that they were feeling throughout the study. The final results showed that t Animal Assisted Therapy is an effective method in suppressing loneliness in retirement homes and facilities.

When I was younger between the ages of 6-9 there were long periods time where I had nobody around. It was just me and the dog. At first I was just appreciative that I had somebody else in room That I wasn't completely isolated from the world. That prompted me into wanting to go do things with the dog like walks and playing games with him. This not only let me form a even greater bond with my dog but exposed me to all kinds of social interaction just by taking him out. I remember meeting one of my first friends Kevin while walking my dog. He was walking his wiener dog at the park and hit it off. We were friends about 5 years before I moved away. But if it wasn't for my dog I would have never met him in the first place. In the Article/study titled Expectations for dog ownership: Perceived physical, mental and psychosocial health consequences among prospective adopters they conducted an experiment that looked into if dog had positive impacts on the mental health of their owners both experienced and new. The data they produced was most reassuring “Most participants expected improvements across all mental health outcomes namely through increases in happiness (89%), and decreased stress (74%), loneliness (61%), and depression (57%) (Table 1). Both current and previous dog owners had higher odds of expecting decreased stress, reduced depression, and decreased loneliness than participants who had never owned a dog.” This fact not only reassures the healing powers of animal companionship but also encourages people that didn't have pets before to give it a shot for all love and possible benefits they possibly will receive.

Stress is described as your body's way of responding to any kind of demand or threat. When you sense danger real or imagined the body's defenses kick in triggering a stress response. The stress response was the body's way of protecting you of danger situations in the past but still exist in modern day. Dogs are the perfect moderators for stress. You can yell scream have an emotional breakdown and the dog won't care. They just want your attention and affection and will stick around for you. Whenever I get home stressed and worried I look at my dog and I play with him. For that time i play with him I forgot the stress and I have a much better time handling the situation afterward. As I stated earlier scientists claim that you can reduce stress and anxiety moments by (74%) by just having positive contact with a dog for as little as a hour once a week. In the book of American Hookup by Lisa Wade there is a story told about a girl named cynthia. Cynthia is self conscious and experience constant anxiety about her body while alone and in public. She always carried a mirror around her to make sure she looked good but never felt good. She had people to talk to including a boyfriend but that only fueled the flames of anxiety she felt every day. for her I would recommend a therapy dog. They don't judge your appearances and they don't care about social standing having a dog in her presence may reduce stress and aid in some of the loneliness and pressure that comes with.If she wants a non judgmental friend that would support her no matter how she looks she need to look no further than a good ole dog.

At the front line of the clinical tests are the therapy and service dogs. These dogs both provide services to people but in different ways.With therapy dogs the dog’s owner has trained the therapy dog to relate to others. What these dogs are trained to do is to let strangers handled, pet, and walk them while remaining calm and attentive. Therapy dogs can often change the energy and the mood in a room ina positive way so they're usually taken to hospitals, and nursing homes. Therapy dogs do this by bringing a sense of companionship and comfort allowing people to relate and relax while the dog’s visits. People need to realize though that Therapy dogs are not legally defined by federal law and are usually seen as just a person’s pet. After completion of training and evaluation, therapy dogs and their owners have the right to visit people where dogs are typically not allowed such as hospitals, assisted living, retirement homes, and schools. This quote provides some insight on the healing power of therapy dogs “As soon as the dogs arrive, everyone’s face just lights up. Seeing these dogs gives the seniors joy today and helps bring back memories of pets they had in their younger days. One of the first therapy dogs my mom met was Chip. It was almost as though Chip knew he had a special his role as a certified therapy dog. He’d proudly strut into the room, eyes alert and tail wagging, and snuggled up to everyone he visited. He really conveyed a message to each resident, “I came here special today—just so I could see you.” It’s difficult to put into words the joy he brought into their lives but you could sure see that happiness when you’d see each smiling face greeting Chip.” I can draw feelings similar to this in my own personal life. Whenever my family got home from a vacation my dog would light up when he saw us. It completely lit up the mood of the room and made it that more sweet to be home. But my dog was no working dog though.

Joan Turnbull, Delta society had this to say about working dogs “In a sense, a person can think of a service dog as being in a one-to-one relationship—one dog helping one person. Therapy dogs help in a one-to-many relationship—one dog provides joy, comfort, and inspiration to many people.”(Power 11). Service dogs on the other hand help only a single partner with a disability. They can do multiple jobs and functions like pushing a wheelchair, opening doors, fetching items, and alerting someone to a sound. There are service dogs that also help with invisible disabilities. In such a case the dog is responsible for watching and waiting to see if he is needed. In these cases they are trained to help with pain, alert people of seizures, and even watch a person's blood sugar! During times of emergency they work fast and discreetly unless taught to and have save constant lives as a result without much notice. With this knowledge a person should never distract or pet a service dog. Even if it seems as if they are doing nothing one must never distract one for they can be their owners’ only lifeline.

We truly don't deserve dogs. For centuries they have been hard strenuous work for people and now in the present they are helping us understand our own feelings. Whether it is your feeling sad or chronically disable the dog makes no judgments and is there willing to help. There is little to disprove these things. I know that all dogs may not be good but I feel that the majority of them put their owners priorities over themselves. They may not really think anything of their selfless actions but it means so much to us in the long run.