"Therapy Animals Prove Their Healing Power"

by Times Herald Record

"When Sunny, a 3-year-old golden retriever, began working with school kids last spring, one of her first students was a fourth-grader with cerebral palsy - mobile only with the aid of a walker. As soon as the youngster met Sunny, she was eager to take the dog for a walk, said Andrea Bazer, an adaptive physical education teacher. First with the help of her walker, then with Bazer's help and finally, without any assistance, the youngster successfully took Sunny for a walk.

This transformation took several months, but once the student knew she could accompany Sunny without using her walker, she realized she didn't need a walker at all. "She walks all over school now," says Bazer, who has worked for the San Diego Unified School District for six years. "It's amazing to see. Sunny gets the kids to do many things that they won't do for me. When they're working with Sunny, they forget they can't do things." Therapy animals like Sunny are highly trained and very active in educational or therapy programs.

Today, animals help out in educational and health-care settings in a wide array of roles. For example, within the ranks of assistance animals, there are therapy dogs like Sunny and also visiting animals, which visit the sick in hospitals or nursing homes, providing a warm, soft head to pat. Bazer works with about 45 preschool-to-sixth-grade children with disabilities at five schools, and she said that Sunny is an asset in her class. Sunny recently helped Bazer achieve a breakthrough with a preschool-aged child who was refusing to open up when faced with a stranger - Bazer. "The child's first word during the assessment was 'dog,' as soon as he saw Sunny," Bazer explained.

Sunny is a hard worker as well; she spends 40 hours a week at schools, and then Bazer regularly takes her to the Naval Medical Center in San Diego to give a psychological boost to wounded soldiers receiving treatment. "Interactions with animals can provide emotional and physical health benefits for diverse human populations, including the elderly, children, physically disabled, deaf, blind, emotionally or physically ill, and the incarcerated," according to Dr. Hayden Sears, vice chairman of the American Veterinary Medical Association's Committee on Human-Animal Bond.

While most therapy animals are dogs and cats, therapists have found success using chickens and even small ruminants like goats. "There have been therapy programs that have worked with cattle," says Carol Davis, executive director of Paws'itive Teams, a California organization that trains both therapy and service animals - including Sunny the golden retriever.

Davis says that over the past decade, she's seen the demand for her animals increase and more diversity in the work these animals are asked to do. Today, therapy animals trained by Paws'itive Teams work with foster children during evaluation sessions and with children who have been victimized. "We have one dog that works at a county courthouse with children who have been abused and will have to testify against their abuser," Davis says. "In some cases, the judge will allow the children to take the dog with them onto the stand for support."

- http://www.sott.net/articles/show/204090-Therapy-Animals-Prove-Their-Healing-Power