Therapy dog

This article or the following section is not adequately provided with supporting documents ( e.g. individual evidence ). Information without sufficient evidence could be removed soon. Please help Wikipedia by researching the information and including good evidence.

Therapy dog ​​at work

A therapy dog is a house dog that is specifically used in animal-assisted medical treatment (for example as part of psychotherapy , occupational therapy , physiotherapy , speech-to-speech therapy or curative education ). It is to be distinguished from the assistance dog, which is trained and used as a permanent companion dog for people with physical, mental and / or emotional limitations. The therapy dog ​​should not be confused with the "visiting dog". Visiting dogs are led by specialist staff or volunteers in order to maintain social contact with people in need of care or the like. They do not work in a therapeutic sense, but on a social level.

Dogs of all breeds and sizes are suitable for the work of the therapy dog. Typical examples are German Shepherds , hunting dogs such as the Golden Retriever , or the Magyar Vizsla for reasons of their breed-typical willingness to communicate. You should be of a very solid nature and healthy and have enjoyed extensive socialization and habituation . In addition, there must be a healthy bond with the dog handler .

Therapy dog ​​types

A distinction is made between an active and a reactive therapy dog. The active therapy dog ​​brings its own ideas for play, has a strong stimulating character and is suitable for motivation. The reactive therapy dog ​​reacts to the patient's ideas for play and reflects sensitivities.

Modes of action

1. The presence of dogs can lower blood pressure, a mode of action that was evaluated by the psychologists Katcher and Beck. The subjects were asked to read texts aloud. They weren't allowed to interact with the dog. The comparison group with a dog had a lower pulse rate and blood pressure than the group that read without a dog. The reading performance also improved due to the presence of the dog.
2. The worse the patient's condition before the encounter with the dog, the more his condition improves. In a study with 218 patients, which was carried out by Prothmann and Ettrich at the University of Leipzig, the patients filled out a Basler condition questionnaire before and after the therapy session. This effect could be proven. Four Magyar Vizsla, a German Shorthaired Pointer and three mixed breed dogs took part as therapy dogs. Differences in the effect of the individual dog individuals could not be determined.
3. Dog-human communication is not subject to the danger of double bind .

Hygiene and working conditions

Therapy dogs must be demonstrably free from parasites. A quarterly deworming is mandatory. The maximum workload of a therapy dog ​​is a maximum of 45 minutes per day in individual therapeutic sessions and no more than three times in a week. If several dogs in a pack or other animals are used at the same time and the dogs can withdraw in the meantime, the working time can be up to two hours per day. Therapy dogs are not allowed to stay permanently at the place of work (clinic, practice, nursing home etc.) as "facility dogs". Overall, the working time of the dogs is largely determined by the conditions under which they work (room size, number of people, medical equipment, smells, temperature, etc.) as well as the clientele they work with (seniors, children, people with physical and / or intellectual disabilities, coma patients etc.).

Therapy dogs visit the medical facilities, compared to the remaining canine population of pathogens have an increased risk carrier nosocomial infections to be, that is, from infections that occur primarily in hospitals. In one study, the carrier frequency among such dogs was increased 4.7-fold for MRSA and 2.4-fold for Clostridium difficile compared to the control group .

Breeding and rearing

The targeted breeding and rearing of suitable therapy dogs is steadily increasing. Since not all puppies in a litter are suitable for later use as therapy dogs, the selection process for therapy dogs in the case of targeted rearing begins with the assessment of behavioral development from the time of birth . Puppy tests are used to select suitable dogs. Until the handover, the later therapy dog ​​candidate will be confronted with different people and numerous situations.

education

The therapy dog ​​training can e.g. B. be done through the handing down , which means that the future therapy dog ​​lives together with trained therapy dogs and learns from them. The basis of therapy dog ​​training should always be basic obedience and a breed-typical system test. The bond with the therapy dog ​​handler should be within a healthy framework.

In the USA, dogs and dog handlers have been training to become a therapy dog ​​team since the 1980s. Many years of experience in the USA with the use of dogs in hospitals to support the healing process of patients with head trauma, spinal cord injuries, amputations, strokes, neuromuscular problems and orthopedic damage has been adopted in Switzerland. Based on experiences that were imported from the USA to Switzerland in the 1990s, therapy dog ​​training in therapy dog ​​teams takes place in Austria with the help of the infrastructure of the Austrian Association for German Shepherd Dogs SVÖ on the basis of the examination regulations of the ÖKV .

Switzerland: The Association for Therapy Dogs Switzerland (VTHS) defines therapy dogs as "dogs which, together with their owners, regularly provide social services on a voluntary, unpaid basis". This includes therapy dogs that are trained together with their owners and visit people together, as well as therapy dogs that are integrated into their own work by trained specialists such as doctors or therapists.

Austria: Since January 2016, every therapy dog ​​team, every companion dog team and every school dog has to undergo a state examination under the direction of the Messerli Research Institute of the Veterinary University of Vienna, in accordance with Section 39a, Paragraphs 8a and 10 of the Federal Disabled Persons Act, to carry the designation "Therapy companion dog" and the missions to be allowed to perform.

literature

• Theres Germann-Tillmann, Lily Merklin and Andrea Stamm Näf: Animal-assisted interventions: the multi-professional approach . Hans Huber Verlag, Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-456-85416-8 .
• Anke Prothmann: Animal-assisted child psychotherapy - theory and practice of animal-assisted psychotherapy in children and adolescents . Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-55293-3 .
• Silvia Greiffenhagen, Oliver N. Buck-Werner: Animals as therapy . Kynos Verlag , 2007, ISBN 978-3-933228-24-6 .
• Inge Röger-Lakenbrink: The therapy dog ​​team . Kynos, 2006, ISBN 3-938071-20-6 .
• Maria Störr: Dogs help heal - possible uses in physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy . Kynos, 2011, ISBN 978-3-942335-09-6 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ SL Lefebvre, RJ Reid-Smith, D. Waltner-Toews, JS Weese: Incidence of acquisition of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Clostridium difficile, and other health-care-associated pathogens by dogs that participate in animal-assisted interventions . In: Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association. Volume 234, Number 11, June 2009, ISSN  0003-1488 , pp. 1404-1417, doi: 10.2460 / javma.234.11.1404 . PMID 19480620 .
2. ^ Delta Society
3. ↑ Therapy dogs: many locations are possible. Good cooperation with specialists. VTHS, accessed August 15, 2020 . 
4. ↑ Therapy Dog Team. Retrieved August 15, 2020 . 
5. ^ ÖKV - Examination Regulations for Therapy Dog Teams. Retrieved August 15, 2020 . 
6. ^ Therapy dogs: dog and friend. What makes the dog a therapy dog. VTHS, accessed August 15, 2020 . 
7. ^ Austria, assistance and companion dogs