Explore how pets (and other animals) can be used to improve people’s mental and physical health in pet assisted therapy.

Understand the psychological and physical benefits that can be derived from pet therapy.

Why Study Pet Therapy?

• Provide (or improve) animal assisted therapy services
• Learn to supply and manage animals in a therapy context
• Match animals and experiences to the therapeutic needs of clients

Course Content

This course is broken down into eight lessons.

1. Scope and Nature of Pet Therapy
2. Mental Health and Physical Assistance
3. Working with Animals
4. Applications for People with Mental Health Conditions 
5. Applications for People with Disabilities
6. Applications for Children
7. Applications for Older People
8. Establishing a Pet Therapy Service

Course Duration - 100 hours of self paced study

WHAT IS PET THERAPY?

Pet or animal assisted therapy commonly refers to formal, structured sessions which help an individual to reach specific goals in therapy. It is the planned inclusion of a companion animal into a person’s therapy or treatment plan.

Therapy is a term used for the treatment of people with mental or physical health problems. The aim of pet therapy is to help the individual recover from a physical or mental health disorder.  Pet therapy is an interaction between an individual and a trained animal. 

These therapies use of companion animals, such as dogs and cats, to provide the opportunity to improve a person’s quality of life through recreation, motivation, and education.  The intention of the therapy is to improve a person’s emotional, cognitive, social and physical functioning. The animal is an important part of the treatment process. The interventions will usually involve the animal’s handler.  Dogs and cats are most often used in pet therapy, however, other animals can also be involved, such as horses, fish, guinea pigs and more.  The animal involved in the therapy will depend on what works best with the individual concerned.

Some forms of pet therapy include caring for an animal, such as bathing, feeding, and grooming them.  Other forms of therapy can include the animal being brought to the patient to interact. Sessions are usually of a fixed time, like other forms of therapy.

Health professionals, psychologists, counsellors and others are increasingly discovering how this unique human-animal bond can be used for its therapeutic effect.