A History of Pet Therapy and The Value of Animal Companionship

The clinical literature on pets as agents of healing is vast. Boris Levinson, an American child psychiatrist, coined the phrase pet therapy in 1964, following observations he made when he began to use his dog in sessions with severely withdrawn children. The dog, Levinson noted, served as an ice-breaker, softening the children's defenses and provided a focus for communication; with the animal present, Levinson could join in, establish a rapport, and begin therapy. Levinson wasn’t the first scientist to study the use of animals in treating psychological disorders. Interest in the subject dates back to the early twentieth century, but he was the first to write seriously and extensively about it, and he is credited with sparking widespread research into the phenomenon.

Scientist and health care professionals have since put Levinson’s theories into practice in scores of therapeutic settings, and their results consistently showed animals can improve morale and communication, bolster self-esteem, increase quality of life. Psychiatrists Sam and Elizabeth Corson, two of the first to expand on Levinson's work, implemented the first pet-facilitated therapy program at a psychiatric unit at Ohio State University in 1977. In their study, fifty patients were allowed to choose a dog from a nearby kennel and interact with it daily at appointed hours. Three patients withdrew from the program; the remaining forty-seven showed marked improvement: the dogs acted as a social catalyst, forging a positive link between patients and staff; patients reported increased self-respect, independence, and confidence. A 1981 study in Melbourne, Australia evaluated the influence of pets on morale and happiness among nursing home residents. Six months after the arrival of a former guide dog in the ward, a golden retriever named Honey, the sixty residents were rated as happier, more alert and responsive; they smiled and laughed more often and displayed more optimism about life. Members of a control group with no contact with dogs were less relaxed, more withdrawn, and less interested in others.

Study after study has supported such findings. Depressed patients in nursing homes have become more interactive and optimistic when visited by dogs and cats; prison inmates allowed to take care of birds and small animals have become less isolated, less violent, more responsible, and have exhibited increased morale (the pet therapy program implemented in a prison, at the Lima State Hospital, in Lima, OH, in 1975, has become a national model); visits by dogs and cats have helped ease feelings of fear, despair, loneliness, and isolation among terminally ill cancer patients; the presence of a dog at a psychiatric halfway house has helped residents become more social and more adept at communicating; elderly veterans, emotionally disturbed and learning-disabled children, and troubled inner city kids all have benefited from the presence of animals, by becoming more responsive and optimistic, more communicative and responsible, more compassionate.

The profound satisfaction of living with a dog and the therapeutic qualities of their mere presence has been demonstrated in many stories of peoples’ experiences as well as clinical studies. A number of well known studies have shown that petting a dog, in some cases, even being in the same room as a dog, has a calming effect on people, reducing blood pressure and heart rate. But there is also something psychically healing about being with dogs, and you don’t have to be ill, confined, or imprisoned to appreciate the effect.

Pets are excellent social lubricants, and they tend to attract relatively social people. Psychologists at the University of Oklahoma have found that people with affectionate attitudes toward their dogs have proportionately affectionate attitudes toward people; British researchers have reported that people who interact frequently with their pets have a higher desire for affiliation with other people than non-pet owners; a California study reported that elderly pet owners were more self-sufficient, dependable, helpful, optimistic, and socially confident than non-pet owners.

Alan Beck and Aaron Katcher suggest that the component of touch – our ability to touch pets and their ability to touch us – gives the relationship between pets and people a quality of therapeutic intimacy, one that is both like and unlike the kind you might find with a traditional therapist Like a "Rogerian analyst", a pet will not guide your conversation. It will not offer opinions or criticisms or tell you what to do; instead, it will be attentive but silent, observing you with an empathic gaze. Author Jerome K. Jerome put it slightly differently: He wrote, "Dogs never talk about themselves but listen to you while you talk about yourself, and keep up an appearance of being interested in the conversation." The big difference between dogs and therapists, of course, is that the dog can jump up and lick you, nuzzle you with his snout, let you kiss and hug him anytime the impulse strikes. "The difficult art in therapy," write Beck and Katcher, "is achieving a mutual feeling of intimacy without touching." With a dog, this is a piece of cake.

Psychiatrist Eleanora M. Woloy writes, " In no human relationship can we recreate this symbolic vessel of excess love…The relationship (with a pet) becomes the memory of the hope for a magical once-in-a-lifetime bond." Loving and being loved by an attentive, present creature helps one heal the disappointment we felt when we had to cope with the world on our own. The pet serves numerous roles in the life of a human – friend, child, mother, twin, and partner, which pretty much encompasses the potentially strongest bonds within the human life.

"What makes you feel empty and what makes you feel full? Who, or what, makes you feel connected or soothed or joyful? How much companionship do you need, and how much solitude? What feels right, what feels like enough? We all have to feel our way through those questions in life, and although she (dog) cannot provide all the answers, I have the sense that Lucille is gently leading me toward them. I pick up that leash; I go forward", writes Carolyn Knapp in Pack of Two.

Sources

Levinson, B. M., "Pets: A special technique in child psychotherapy," Mental Hygiene, Vol. 48, 1964, pp.243-8.

Corson, S.A., Corson, W.L., Gwynne, P.H. & Arnold, E. L., "Pet dogs as nonverbal communication link in hospital psychiatry," Comprehensive Psychiatry, Vol. 18, 1977.

Salmon, I.M. & Salman, P. W., "A dog in residence: A companion-animal study undertaken at the Caulfield Geriatric Hospital," Melbourne: Joint Advisory Committee on Pets in Society, 1982.

Anderson, R.K., Hart, B.L., & Hart, L.A. (eds.), The Pet Connection (Minneapolis: University of Minnasota Press, 1984), pp. 407-415.

Lee, D., "Pet therapy: Helping patients through troubled times," California Veterinarian, Vol. 37, 1981, pp. 24-5

Muschel, I. J., "Pet therapy with terminal cancer patient," The Latham Letter, Fall, 1985, pp. 8-15.

Allen, L.D. & Burdon, R. D., "The clinical significance of pets in a psychiatric community residence," American Journal of Social Psychiatry, Vol 2(4), 1982, pp. 41-31.

Robb, S.S., Byd, M. & Pristash, C.L., "A wine bottle, plant, and puppy: Catalysts for social behavior," Journal of Gerontological Nursing, Vol. 6 (12), 1980, pp. 722-28.

Cusack, Odean, Pets and Mental Health (New York: The Haworth Press, 1988), P. 14.

Kidd, A.H. & Feldman, B. M., "Pet ownership and self-perceptions of older people," Psychological Reports, Vol. 48, 1981, pp. 867-75.

Beck, Alan & Katcher, Aaron, Between Pets and People: The Importance of Animal Companionship (West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press; revised edition, 1996), p. 92

Woloy, Eleanora M., The Symbol of the Dog in the Human Psyche: A Study of the Human-Dog Bond (Wilmette, Illinois: Chiron Publications, 1990), p. 20.

Knapp, Carolyn, Pack of Two; The Intricate Bond Between People and Dogs (The Dial Press, New York, NY, 1998), p. 177, 205-206, 214, 227, 238.