Good Life
Healing Powers of Pets
Questions For The Vet: Dr. Carol Osborne, DVM
1.In general Can Animals be healing for people?
Yes, pets Act as family in the absence of family members
Pets provide empathy, companionship, unconditional love, and relieve loneliness. They also enhance the sense of touch and feel, relive social isolation and help to redevelop social awareness.
In addition pets help promote a sense of personal empowerment as they support self-efficacy and offer enhanced sense of well-being.
2. Can animals be particularly healing for older people?
Yes one may even look back to the days of Florence Nightingale, who recognized animals provide a valid level of social support in the institutionalized care of the mentally ill.
Actually it was not until the late 1970’s that researchers began to uncover the scientific underpinnings of the human-animal bond
Just petting an animal reduces blood pressure and brings smiles to the faces of stressed out patients both children and the elderly
Heart attack patients with dogs live longer than those without dogs
Therapy dogs induce relaxation, they also evoke smiles, looks, leans and touching from older people indicating interest and pleasure with the dogs appearance.
3. Can people with some degree of dementia benefit from having animals or might they just confuse matters for them?
Yes, Interacting with animals increases human levels of a hormone called Oxytocin
Oxytocin helps people feel happy and trusting. It may also offer longer term health benefits
Oxytocin promotes the body to be in a “readiness to heal” state , supports the growth of new cells and predisposes us to an environment in which our bodies can be healthier.
The pets and oxytocin release are particularly helpful to Alzheimer’s patients during the agitation period referred to as the Sundown Syndrome. The syndrome which is well known to caregivers happens in the early evening causes restlessness, confusion, aimless wandering, agitation, and aggressive behavior such as hitting, kicking and biting. Agitated patients often become uncooperative with evening routines making their management of their care more difficult for the staff. Aggressive behaviors often lead to alienation, loneliness fear and accelerated aggression.
During this Sundown Period, the presence of dogs some patients benefit by refocusing their attention to the dog versus the procedure. Another words therapy dogs can be an effective distraction which reduces the patient’s level of agitation and makes things easier for all involved.
Sundown Syndrome is thought to be associated with lighting changes, the day ending and the feeling of going home. Evenings often also trigger old memories. [Melatonin, a natural amino acid, helps some individuals with Sundown Syndrome.]
Dog’s best suited as therapy dogs are friendly, tame and obedient large dogs like Golden Retrievers who also must be trained and certified.
Pets have proven helpful to alleviate the agitation while promoting socialization among individuals with Alzheimer’s disease.
4. Have you personally seen a person with dementia benefit from having an animal? Yes in fact my dad in the end had dementia along with diabetes and many other health issues.
Smokey his black lab who was actually a rescue dog stayed at his side day after day and this seemed to promote lesser periods of agitation, she provided an outlet for my dad to touch, smile, feel, have companion ship and a best friend, along with a sense of self-worth. Smokey was his job, she was basically his responsibility and helped to offer him a reason to wake up each day and live. Smokey also offered a boost in morale, she broke up some of the boredom in my dad’s day and acted as a bright spot in his life.
5. Have you ever worked with therapy dogs?
Yes, several
Autistic children with speech issues for example-1 little boy uttered his 1st word to a therapy parrot.
Parrots are safe listeners and these children find it less threatening to for example explain to a dog the meaning of a particular passage.
I have experienced a man with chronic heart failure get saved by his dog who detected abnormal electromagnetic frequencies through his 6th sense which was indicative of an impending heart attack and let the man his owner was about to have a heart attack just before the man was about to embark on a 5 mile hike with his dog. The dog laid on the ground and flatly refused to accompany his master on the hike. Less than 5 minutes later he had a heart attack and the dog was smart enough to go into the house and knock the phone off the receiver. Help arrived in time to save his life.
Children with Epileptic Seizures, vision and hearing impaired individuals, may get therapy dogs trained specifically to help with these needs, so they can lead fairly normal lives.
Capuchin monkeys have been trained to help people without various limbs such as a loss of an arm or leg for example and they help these people get dressed, pick up the car keys, help them feed themselves, etc.
6. Can an older person handle a Seeing Eye dog or other assistance animal?
This depends on the actual physical and mental capacity of the older person.
The training that a therapy dog undergoes is quite extensive in terms of developing the dogs people skills>
The Canine Good Citizen Certification is the 1st step in the training of most of these therapy dogs. Therapy Dogs International and Delta Pet Partners also offer extended training programs for their canine candidates.
7. Are animals able to sense when someone needs some friendship?
Yes, often through the dogs 6th sense which dogs have because of a functional Vomero-Nasal Organ-the gland is vestigial in humans]
8.What animals might be a particularly good mix for older people?
The physical, mental and emotional needs of the person must be carefully matched with those of the animal for success to be achieved.
Certified, trained, well behaved large dog breeds such as Golden Retrievers, Laborador and Boxers for example.
Dogs are the majority of animals used and trained for human therapy.
Horses rank 2nd, cats rank 3rd. For some, a nice aquarium with fish is not only enjoyable but also relaxing and visually stimulating. In addition it requires minimal maintenance.
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For additional public information on elder safety and protection, see U.S. Department of Justice Elder Justice Initiative.