"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."
--Ben Williams
Many loyal dog owners generously endorsed my recent article about the advantages of owning a dog as opposed to having a facelift. Hundreds of readers offered wonderful anecdotes, advice and direction regarding dog and cat adoption/rescue and the wonders of owning a pet. Each comment contributed mightily to the content and message of the article. I was surprised, however, that the piece garnered little interest or curiosity about canine-assisted therapy or its counterpart, animal-assisted therapy. The ability to volunteer with your loving animal to help another person who is sick, ailing or simply lonely is a special experience that I would like to share with you. I think it is appropriate to consider this form of volunteering for the good of your fellow man during this holiday season. So please allow me to explain what I believe is the most important reason to get a dog instead of a facelift.
Animal-assisted therapy was first described in the ninth century in Belgium to treat people who were handicapped. In 1792, animals were used in psychiatric hospitals in Great Britain to help patients learn to care for a living creature in a form of what we now call behavioral therapy. Over 100 years ago, Florence Nightingale wrote that pets are perfect companions for patients confined to the hospital with chronic illness. Animal-assisted therapy was first used in the United States in 1940 to treat veterans and allowed them to interact with animals as therapy.
The premise of canine-assisted therapy involves a team composed of a dog and an owner/handler who provide physical and psychological therapy through social interaction from canine companionship. Studies have shown that interaction with the dogs, petting them, handling them and just playing with them reduces stress, increases physical activity, relieves depression and anxiety, calms and motivates patients and helps normalize difficult situations. It is used to assist both children and adults in hospitals, nursing facilities, rehabilitation centers, mental health facilities, elder care centers, boarding schools, college and professional schools, schools for special needs children, juvenile jails and prisons. Groups of people that have benefited from canine-assisted therapy include nursing home patients, hospice patients, cancer patients, pediatric patients, autistic children, children with learning or reading disabilities, children with behavioral problems and teenagers and adults with substance abuse problems.
There are several local and national organizations that administer canine-assisted therapy. Not every dog is a candidate for this program because it requires a canine that is fairly even-tempered, well-behaved, comfortable being petted and touched by strangers and gets along with other dogs. The handler and dog team undergo a five- to nine-week training program (one evening per week) to enable them to be comfortable in a hospital- or institution-type situation and teach them the different types of interaction needed. Dogs that demonstrate good basic obedience, obey commands such as "sit" and "stay" and leash-walk calmly require only the five-week therapy-training course. This once-weekly training includes socialization, instruction on safe dog handling in a healthcare facility, role-playing and desensitization to loud noises and medical equipment such as wheelchairs, crutches and IV poles, etc.
I can speak firsthand about the benefits of volunteering, as I have watched and witnessed the trials and tribulations experienced by my wife Valerie and our 120-pound Bullmastiff Lily. Their nickname is "Beauty and the Beast," but Valerie vigorously objects, arguing that Lily is the "Beauty." Over the last several years they have visited public schools where children with reading disabilities read to the dogs and gain confidence in reading out loud because they understand that the dog will never judge them. They have visited troubled teenagers in juvenile jail, anxious and stressed college and medical school students around exam times, lonely elderly people in nursing homes and cancer patients at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital. Every visit is eventful and memorable for all parties involved. I have watched my no-nonsense, born-and-raised-in-New-York-City wife well up with tears while describing the obvious relief and escape experienced by the cancer patient as she curls up with Lily because she misses her dog so. For a short time she is at peace and forgets her pain. Yes, our beast of a dog gets in bed with some patients (when invited!) and usually naps with them! The hospital visits benefit both patients and staff members alike, as caring for people who are sick and dying can obviously be very stressful.
The experiences are also invaluable for the therapy team. Dog and owner bond in an even more special and delightful way, as they both realize and enjoy the fact that they are bringing a small but important amount of sunshine into the lives of people who need it most. It is the purest form of giving, and as Susan Ariel Kennedy observed most eloquently, "dogs are miracles with paws"!
Follow Robert Tornambe, M.D. on Twitter: www.twitter.com/RobertMTornambe
In the end, my grandsons have always known me with the scars that were left from before they were born, and will re-learn my face to accommodate the new ones. My dogs,on the other hand, never missed a beat and loved me before, during and after my surgeries.
I wonder if dogs aren't the solution to both the irrational desire for a facelift AND the solution to self-image issues in plastic reconstruction.
Or perhaps our dogs simply fix many of our insecurities, ... except those about our woodwork and our carpets!
Even more than those visits, devoted pet owners often had photos of their own animals, and some had visits from their pets. So many Americans have pets, and certainly not all of our pets have the temperament to behave appropriately with patients, even when they are their owners. But for those who are calm, the benefits to a visit to a sick owner can be a boon to both. Where Humans seem overwhelmed by the apparatus all around the beds, ... our pets can "sort the wheat from the chaff", and see us amidst all of the stuff of hospitals.
I do not know if my patients whose pets visited did better clinically or not, ... But they seemed appreciative in every case, and for some that would be the last moments they would spend with their pets. Quality of life can include, as pet owners all know, having our pets nearby.
I'm now sitting in my favorite chair and my dog is curled up at my feet, warming them.
This is the kind of devotion I get, day in and day out. It's pure and simple. I return the favor by giving him the best I can of everything, including my time.
I'd rather be old and wrinkled and experience the joy of dogs in my life than be viewed as perfect by others in appearance and be without a dog. As a matter of fact, I can't even imagine my life without loving a dog. It would be like imagining my life without my brain.
dog
Better than a facelift? Ya' think?
And way better than paying someone to cut your face up ...