How are Dogs Used in Hospitals?
By: Sandy Richardson
“Last set,” I thought as I did twenty more sit-ups. Exhausted and covered in sweat, I
hurried to the water fountain. However, something in the corner of my eye caught my attention
while I was walking through the workout machines. I stopped, with a confused look on my face,
and went back to see what it was. There, I saw a large dog lying next to one of the workout
machines. Suddenly a question popped up in my head, “Are dogs allowed in the gym?” Then I
saw that the dog was wearing something blue. My next plan was to try to causally walk in front
of the dog to see what it was. While slowly walking by, I found out that the dog was a service
dog, and was assisting a VCU student.
Later that day, I went to the VCU page to login to do my homework assignments. By
coincidence, I see a picture of a golden retriever on the page. Next to the dog it says, “New leash
on life. Once neglected almost to the point of death, VCU therapy dog Scrappy now spends
much of his time helping humans heal.” While reading this, I was excited. Currently, I have a
border collie named Yuki. I leave her at my apartment when I have classes and when I volunteer
at the hospital. As I read how dogs can volunteer at a hospital I wondered, “Can I get my dog to
volunteer at the hospital with me?” Out of curiosity, I began researching about therapy dogs, and
researching caused more questions to pop up. “What should my dog and I do to help patients?”
This stirred up my interest. Thus, I plan to study how dogs are used in hospitals so that I can find
out why it’s essential or not essential for these hospitals to have these dogs. By studying this, I
might better understand how therapy dogs impact patients.
While researching about dogs working for the medical field. I got confused, because
there are three types of medical dogs: service dog, therapy dog, and the emotional support dog.
Service dogs work with the disabled patient throughout their daily activities. For example, the
VCU student at the gym. For the section of therapy dogs, the page writes, “Their responsibilities
are to provide psychological or physiological therapy to individuals other than their handlers;
who are usually their owners.” Therapy dogs work at various places and socialize with various
people. The last type this page talks about is the emotional support dog. Like the name suggests,
these dogs give emotional support to their disabled owners. Since I would like to volunteer with
my dog, I want to focus on the impact of therapy dogs in the hospital. I asked myself if there is a
hospital that dogs can volunteer in Richmond. The closest hospital that I know is the VCU
Medical Hospital. Therefore, I went on google and searched “Therapy dog for at VCU.” On
VCU’s School of Medicine Site, I found out that therapy dogs volunteered in the “in pediatrics,
oncology, psychology, psychiatry, emergency medicine, rehabilitation, physical therapy and
various other departments at the VCU Medical Center.” By going to this site, I also learned about
VCU’s Center of Human-Animal Interaction (CHAI). Their goal is to “increase knowledge of
the benefits of the human-animal interaction through interdisciplinary research” and to help heal
patients with animal-assisted therapy.
Continuing my search, I went to a page that my teacher suggested, “Therapy Dog
International.” I was interested in how therapy dogs were used in the Psychiatric hospitals until I
tried to search it on google. On google, it shows that only service dogs were allowed to work
with psychiatric patients. After looking through the page, I’m both interested in how dogs impact
the elderly, and the children. I still haven’t decided.
I decided to go back to google and search “therapy dog, what do they do?” I found a
called, “Therapy Animal Information,” and clicked the healing effects of therapy animals.
Therapy animals help mentally and physically. Therapy helps patients mentally by decreasing
stress and anxiety like PTSD, decreasing depression, loneliness, and aggressive behavior.
Therapy dogs also help increase feeling of acceptance, mental stimulation, attention skills, verbal
interactions, and self-esteem. Some physical benefits are, decreasing in blood pressure, heart
rate, and stress hormone cortisol. Furthermore, they help increase level of fitness, and improve
fine motor skills.
The topic of using dogs for medical reasons has been going on since WWII. However, I
believe that it’s been a growing topic lately. There are hospitals that are talking about it. The
news are talking about it as well. Last week I saw a video on Facebook that has been going
around. The video shows a dog named Zena that helped a boy that had autism. People are
starting to talk about it because dogs are impacting people. In the video, the mother talks about
how going to therapy hasn’t worked out, but having the dog did. In the newspaper “Health,” an
article called, “Therapy Dogs Really Do Help, According to Heartwarming Study” was written
on January 20, 2015. Amy Norton, the author, writes “Dogs offer something that even the bestintentioned human caregiver can’t quite match, said Rachel McPherson, executive director of the
New York City-based Good Dog Foundation.” In the article Norton addresses how dogs are
beneficial. There are many other newspapers that are looking into therapy dogs for a solution to
patients.
There are some fact-based questions that I would need to search. Some may be, are
certain dogs more fit to become medical dogs? Around what age range should the dogs be, and
why? How many therapy dogs are registered in the U.S.? Are they used in other countries as
well? What best personality will be suited to become a therapy dog? How was the idea of using
dogs for the medical field come about? Who started having therapy dogs?
There is still a lot of debate on whether dogs should be used for medical purposes. While
walking around VCU, I’ve noticed there are many people who are afraid of dogs. I wonder if that
could cause questions on whether or not dogs should be in the hospital. How about people who
are allergic to dogs? More on just therapy dogs, I’ve seen articles on dogs in general working at
hospitals, schools, libraries, and so on. There is also questioning on whether dogs can give
diseases to people. Are dogs fit to work in the medical field? Why are dogs used more than other
animals?
There is many things I need to do for this essay. First, I need to narrow my range so that I
can focus more on the topic and not get confused. Second, I need to research and organize how
my essay is going to be written. Third, I need to talk to people who either seen therapy dogs in
the hospital, in charge of the therapy dogs at the VCU hospital, or visit and see how therapy dog
works. Furthermore, I need to go to the therapy dog orientation on February 21, 2015 to find out
more information about therapy dogs and how they must be trained. I believe researching on the
internet is important, but if I can ask questions for myself it might be better. Therefore, I need to
list questions I can ask these people. There are three things I’m most worried about for this
essay. First, how should I categorize my questions for this essay? How am I going to back sure
what I write is readable? For this, I could probably go to the writing center for help? Third, is
how do I make it clear and not boring?
Thus, this project matters because it could impact many lives: from children to elders. It
could heal mental and physical disabilities that other people cannot do. If I do not research this
topic, I might miss an opportunity to better the health care system. This could impact not just
Virginia, not just the U.S., but this could impact the world. I am most invested in researching this
project because I believe that dogs can improve the health of humans. There is some things that
dogs can do, that humans cannot. Therefore, I believe it’s important to find the answers of why
there are therapy dogs, and how they are beneficial or not beneficial.
Citations
"Center for Human-Animal Interaction." Center for Human-Animal Interaction. VCU
Medical Center,22 Oct. 2014. Web. 9 Feb.
2015.<http://www.medschool.vcu.edu/community/chai/>.
"Please Don't Pet Me." Please Don't Pet Me. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<http://pleasedontpetme.com/differences.php>.
Norton, Amy. "Therapy Dogs Really Do Help, According to Heartwarming Study." Health News
/ Tips & Trends / Celebrity Health. Health.com, 20 Jan. 2015. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<http://news.health.com/2015/01/20/therapy-dogs-help-cancer-patients-copewith-tough
treatments/>.
"Therapy Dogs International." Therapy Dogs International. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
http://www.tdidog.org/OurPrograms.aspx?Page=Hospitals (General)>.
"Therapy Dog Information." Therapy Dog Information. Therapyinfo.net. Web. 9 Feb. 2015.
<http://www.therapydoginfo.net/>.