Do Dogs Enjoy Supporting Human Well-Being?

A therapy dog enjoying a session

Source: F. L. L. Green Photography; used with permission

Providing opportunities for people to interact with therapy dogs is an increasingly popular way to support the well-being of a variety of clients across varied contexts. We most often see therapy dogs in hospitals or on college campuses, but they are also found in after-school programs and in police detachments, among other settings. By and large, programs that afford varied members of the public opportunities to interact with therapy dogs are considered a low-cost, low-barrier, and low-stigmatized way to support human well-being.

Coinciding with this surge in popularity of canine-assisted interventions (CAIs) is research attesting to the benefits of interacting with therapy dogs. Whereas researchers study a whole host of outcome variables to assess the impact of such interactions, we see stress as the most frequently studied outcome. Across studies, from pre-to-post visits, individuals report a significant reduction in stress after having interacted with a therapy dog and their handler.

Despite this robust body of evidence, there remains a lack of research examining the experience or perspective of the therapy dogs themselves. Do therapy dogs enjoy supporting human well-being?

A fearful or wary dog

Source: Michelle Trsemer / Unsplash

New research by Haven-Pross and colleagues sought to explore this very question and studied therapy dogs working as part of animal-assisted services (i.e., activities, education, coaching, or therapeutic sessions). As noted by the authors, "Dogs are widely recognized as sentient beings capable of experiencing a full range of affective states, including fear, joy, frustration, comfort, and pain."

The affective responses of 63 therapy dogs across 837 sessions were analyzed using a canine behavioral ethogram (an inventory of sorts). Sessions were video-recorded and, using their developed ethogram, the researchers were able to observe and code 19 dog affective indicators (think: behaviors like tail wags, panting, yawning, backing up, play behavior).

A dog participating in an on-campus therapy dog program

Source: Freya L. L. Green Photography; used with permission

Do Dogs Enjoy Therapy Work?

The researchers recognized up front that the affective states of therapy dogs "should not be interpreted as fixed emotional categories but as dynamic patterns of behavioral co-occurrence shaped by task demands, interaction roles, and environmental contexts." They also acknowledge that the therapy dog's age, experience, and gender impact the affect they display within a session. Common behaviors identified included playfulness, comfort, anxiety, and uncertainty.

Not surprisingly, older dogs were less playful yet appeared more settled than did younger dogs, and female dogs displayed greater uncertainty and arousal than did male dogs when working in animal-assisted activities and educational sessions. Across the different sessions, when therapy dogs interacted with young clients, they displayed heightened uncertainty or tension.

This innovative research sheds light on the experience of therapy dogs working in sessions to support human well-being and will inform future studies examining the welfare of working dogs. As summarized by researchers Haven-Pross and colleagues, "optimizing dog welfare requires matching dogs to suitable roles, attentive session planning, and managing workload."

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