A therapy dog is a kind of a pet dog that improves your and other people’s lives by providing comfort, companionship and support. These dogs are trained to be gentle and friendly around strangers and let them hug and pet themselves.
These dogs are different than the emotional support animals and are usually accompanied by its owner and some organizations also work to provide these comfort dogs where they are needed. Therapy does not need an ESA letter but it needs different documentation.
Wondering how can a therapy dog help? Below are some of the ways these dogs are cheering up the people and bringing smiles everywhere.
In the Courtrooms
Reliving the same traumatic memory and facing your perpetrator is quite difficult and traumatizing. The process is especially difficult for kids who are in the middle of a case and are one of the testifiers.
These comfort dogs stay by their side and give them the assurance that they are not alone. This helps calm their senses and help them go through the trial interviews and other legal proceedings.
In Hospitals
Dogs in hospitals have raised eyebrows but, considering the psychological benefits that they offer, dogs in hospitals are becoming an accepted phenomenon. Therapy or comfort dogs prove to be the best companions for the patients who are in ICU. Usually, ICU patients need lots of mechanical help and medication to survive.
Due to this medication, they are delirious and depressed due to being alone and confined. Interaction with these therapy dogs and patting them relieve this stress and the sense of loneliness. This gives these patients willpower to get better.
In Hospices
A hospice provides palliative care to terminally ill patients. Suffering from a terminal disease or seeing a loved one suffering is probably the most difficult time of anyone’s life. Having therapy dogs in hospices has proven benefits, partly because dogs have natural therapeutic effects on humans and partly because they offer unconditional love, support and companionship.
They help connects the families and elevate the spirits of the dying persons. Palliative care is aimed at making the remaining life of the person comfortable and painless and no one does it better than these comfort dogs.
Ways to Help a Stray Dog or Cat
If you have a lot of dogs in your neighborhood then seeing a stray pet every now and then is quite common. You must have seen a pooch or kitty wandering around aimlessly, what to do if you come across any such lost pet? Help it of course.
Helping a stray pet will help it to reunite with its lost parents. But, may of us do not know how to to it. The following are some ways and steps to help a stray dog reunite with its home.
Try to Coax the Animal into Coming to You
If you want to help the dog or the cat that is lost then at first you must make sure that you do not scare the animal away. If it is in a crowded area then wait for it to go somewhere safe.
Do not try to run after it else you may startle it. It is especially true in the case of dogs, a scared dog is a threat to itself and to you as well.
The best way of doing it is to talk to it in a gentle voice and offer some food to coax it into coming to you.
Put a Leash on It
Once the dog comes to you, you can try to put a leash on it. However, make sure that you do it as slowly and unnoticeable as possible. Most of the time, the dog may scare and run away when you try to restrain it.
In case of a cat, try to restrain it into a cage or if you do not have a cage, keep it in your lap.
Check it for ID
Check the dog or the cat for an ID card. Usually, the pet parents have a card around their pet or emotional support animal’s neck so that whoever finds their pet could contact them easily. Besides ID cards, many pet parents have microchips inserted into the dog’s or cat's body.
In case you do not find any ID on them, take it to the veterinarian doctor and get it checked for microchips.
Share its Picture on Social Media
If you do not find any clues of the animal’s ownership then post their pictures on social media and ask your contacts to share the pictures with their contacts. Hopefully, the actual owner will also be looking for its lost pet and come across your post.