DOG THERAPY

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Dogs have always been defined as man's best friends. The relationship that can be established with them is sincere and unconditional, it is a lasting and intense bond. Dogs are sociable and above all do not discriminate against anyone. They love to be touched, caressed and want the affection of anyone without prejudice, a characteristic that unfortunately is often lacking in the human being, for this they immediately arouse spontaneity in those who come into contact with them, they are devoid of any form of fiction. Dogs read body language, such as facial expression and physical attitudes, and perceive, through hormonal secretions, the different emotional states of man.

Anxiety, suffering, depression, worry, nostalgia and sadness. To these states, the dog responds with physical contact, play, cuddles, warmth and closeness. Dogs love to play, making it easier for the patient to rediscover vivacity and related beneficial sensations, as well as the dimension of sociality.

The dog can be used, in TAA therapies, for the purpose of obtaining clinical improvements. For example, for the rehabilitation course of a child suffering from dyslexia, the sessions with the dog will be well planned in agreement with the speech therapist, and steps will be established which, in the opinion of the health worker, the child can and must perform. The Pettherapysta will determine how and what exercises to do to achieve the desired results.

And here the dog transforms a rehabilitation session into a session of education to basic commands. 27 The AAA are instead activities in which the dog becomes a help, a subject that gives pleasant moments, leads to new experiences, amuses, relaxes, reassures, excites. For example, the visit of Pet Therapy operators together with their dogs to the nursing home bring moments of leisure and lightness, emotions and new stimuli, new and very sweet subjects with which to interact. Emotions and moments that elderly people often need in this type of facility. All elderly people, for example, who live in a nursing home, can find in an animal not only the company and the kindness they often lack, but also find good humor and happiness. Pet Therapy is a very important therapy to be used, often, with the classic therapies used to heal or improve the situation of an elderly patient.

A little dog, especially if it is a puppy, is a whirlwind of pampering, games and fun, and every old person, obviously a lover of animals, will be able to get fully involved. Dogs are very important in treating senile dementia.

A study conducted in Italy, in the Alzheimer Amaducci Diurnal Center of Sesto Fiorentino, by the Research Unit in the Medicine of Aging of the University of Florence revealed that the presence of two dogs in the center has decreased the manifestations of anxiety and increased emotions of pleasure and the threshold of interest, two fundamental parameters for assessing the condition and quality of life of these patients. During the sessions with Muffin, a Poodle, and Gynni, a Golden Retriever, the patients also showed an awakening of the 28 motor activities, which are usually minimal until they spend a lot of time in a state of immobility. There have therefore been positive changes in both mood and behavior and, very importantly, the study has shown that these positive changes have not disappeared at the end of the sessions with the two dogs, but have persisted over time, with variations still perceptible after several hours. The conclusion of the study is that Pet Therapy is able to stimulate psychomotor coordination, to provide motivation, to help relate. The results of this research have confirmed once again the power that animals have on human beings. The empathy that is generated between men and dogs has a positive effect that awakens attention and creates an emotional response that would not be easy to achieve with other methods, especially with the exclusive intervention of human beings who often, even involuntarily, they place emotional barriers towards the sick.

The dogs also manage to sniff out the cancer, they could help not only in therapy but also in the diagnosis of cancer. The first case recognized was in 1989: a Dalmatian, after stubbornly sniffing a mole on his mistress's leg for months, allowed her to recognize the malign nature. The description of this event in the Lancet medical journal was followed by a series of similar testimonies that led to scientific validation. The sense of smell of a dog, in fact, exceeds by a hundred thousand times in power the human one. And the cancerous tissues, due to their particular metabolism (which produces hydrocarbons and high concentrations of nitrogen compounds), have a particular odorre that also occurs in the breath and urine of patients. Only dogs with very fine smells, however, are capable of realizing it, as a study has shown that made use of five dogs trained to distinguish breath samples emitted by healthy people and by cancer patients. The dogs evaluated 55 samples of air exhaled from lung cancer patients, 31 tubes of women with breast cancer and 83 of air exhaled from healthy subjects. The experiment, repeated nine times, gave surprising results: the dogs responded with accuracy in 90 percent of the cases. The dog manages to be a transmitter of messages, in other words it manages to act as a link between patient and doctor or between patient and the rest of the world. For those with autism, hyperactive people or those suffering from anger, the company of an animal can naturally stimulate an improvement in the psychophysical condition, especially if you associate Pet Therapy with medical advice. In the 30 owning a pet. The duties towards a dog or another animal become small rituals that do good and help to give themselves strength. It should be remembered that if the mere presence of a dog is enough to make us happier, Pet Therapy does not consist only in this, but to really be such a need for specific professional figures, ranging from the doctor to the rehabilitation therapist to the psychologist to the handler obviously, to the dog, the true protagonist of this type of activity.

It should also be remembered that not all dogs are suitable for dog therapy, in fact, the animals used in these therapies are carefully selected first of all from the health point of view, that is they must be perfectly healthy, then from the psychic point of view. To ensure a successful outcome of Dog Therapy there is a need for balanced subjects without any form of stress. There are no specific selection criteria for the selection of dogs, the therapies are very diversified so from time to time dogs with appropriate characteristics will be chosen.

Obviously, Pet Therapy is not a therapy in itself, in fact, it is associated with traditional therapies in order to enhance them and improve the patient's response, especially when it comes to apathetic or particularly reluctant subjects to open up. The empathy that the dog generates in these people helps the therapists to come into contact with the patient, because the dog easily breaks all those barriers existing between human beings and acts in the depths, this also thanks to the non-verbal language, a communicative characteristic to which we humans are still strongly connected, even if we often fail to manage it properly.

 

(DR. ARIANNA FABBRI)

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