When you’re willing to talk about people with disabilities, there’s nothing prettier than thinking about an animal that helps them and can be taken care of, dogs have a very special way of accepting everyone, without classifying them, and that’s what makes them so important when they refer to assisted therapy, they don’t stop to see what clothes a certain person wears , whether it is fashionable or not, whether it looks good or wrong, he simply accepts it, with everything he has or do not have change give all his affection.
At Animal Expert we want to talk about what dog-assisted therapies are, their benefits and what makes them so popular, there are many rehabilitation programs that have integrated them into their permanent staff.
- People with intellectual and/or motor disabilities need high doses of motivation to continue daily with an activity they may not like as much.
- Their mere presence improves the quality of life of patients both in communication.
- In the control of emotions and therefore.
- Also in the development of social skills.
It is not necessary for each patient to have their own dog, on the contrary, several rehabilitation centers have their own therapy animals, simply to be present in groups during an activity or workshop.
These dogs can work in different groups, of very different ages, from children to the elderly, improving every day.Assisted therapies must be supervised by a health professional, with the corresponding registration and assisted education that integrates the dog into educational programs, in order to successfully assimilate certain activities such as reading with dogs, can generate links that people will never be able, so they are so important.
There are specific characteristics that these dogs must meet in order to participate “legally” in these programs.Although there are more suitable breeds or have been used more over the years, the breed is not the main factor.
The therapy dog must have 5 main characteristics
But not only do we have to take these points into account, the guidance is also essential.They have to work well together, otherwise nothing will work.Applicant dogs are evaluated by ethologists (study the behavior of animals) and veterinarians to make sure they are correct. It is not necessary to train dogs that we know have a terminal illness and will die in a short period of time or in old age.
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