Therapy dogs have special abilities that help make humans feel better in several ways, they are trained for it and nature has certainly provided them with ways to bring comfort, support, and joy into the lives of those needing help and to make a huge difference in mental and physical health.
From lowering blood pressure and stress and anxiety levels to improving social interaction skills, it would seem like there's tiny a therapy dog can't do. An unconditional, tender pet, like a therapy dog, may help lighten symptoms of depression, reduce stress, and even be part of the road to recovery from trauma.
1. Reduction of Stress
One of therapy dogs' most coveted uses is in lowering stress through their natural sense of calming, the fact that such an animal is endowed with calm gentleness and unconditional love toward people automatically relaxes most individuals, creating a peaceful feeling that may dissipate feelings of tension and worry.
This contact will release oxytocin, considered the love hormone, which causes increased feelings of trust and comfort, a gaze at such a dog will take a person's mind off his distress and refocus the individual's attention from life's miseries.
Padding a therapy dog can even lower cortisol levels associated with stress and elevate the mood, people will eventually render the natural coping mechanism of staying with therapy dogs the entire day in body and mind.
2. Alleviates Anxiety Symptoms
The great capability of a therapy dog lies in putting one's anxiety in a state of calmness, with a calming presence and tender nature, and spending time with them occasionally making their soothing behavior help to reduce feelings of stress and uneasiness.
Interacting with them puts one at ease, creating a relaxed environment that helps considerably in controlling thoughts and feelings related to anxiety, the relationship that develops between a person and a therapy dog is emotionally comforting.
It gives a person a feeling of protection, something that is very important in the reduction of anxiety and you can have improved mental health through this interaction and be able to live a better life.
3. Lowers Blood Pressure
It has been shown that the research into companionship provided by therapy dogs has shown that it lowers blood pressure and has other advantages concerning heart health in general.
It may well be that time with the therapy dog alone would be enough to engage the physiological act of petting and emotional comforting, which may bring about relaxation and thus a lower blood pressure reading.
Lowering the blood pressure is going to be of course very good for heart health and for raising the overall well-being of a human body and a person will be able to lead a normal lifestyle in terms of blood pressure level if the therapy dog becomes a common way of living.
4. Improves Mood
The good thing with therapy dogs is that they are happy and loving, making your mood go high with their playfulness, they can genuinely lift one's spirits with their playfulness and affection, making them great companions for someone battling depression or a bad mood.
A therapy dog will, at times in most cases, be a cure for one's negative emotions and will be a good source of sounds attached to good moments, such as joy and laughter, which most certainly can change the day.
One way that therapy dogs can make a positive mind, a fundamental factor in securing the well-being of one's mental well-being, is through emotional support and the activities it is involved in, such as playing or walking, make the moods of human beings change drastically.
5. Promotes Exercise
This is very obvious in therapy dogs, who they need exercise and usually enjoy the outdoors, playing fetch, walking, or just taking a light workout with a therapy dog can motivate the owner to move more for his physical well-being.
Such increased activity can help provide one with the energy to keep moving when it becomes hard to remain consistent in an exercise routine.
General physical activity is paramount to overall well-being, and one way of adding some fun is through therapy dogs, which will likely be a combination that goes a long way into improving your cardiovascular health, managing your weight, and boosting your energy in addition to tightening the bond between you and your furry best friend.
6. Emotional Support
They are never leaving one lonely and are always present with all the emotional support that one may require from them, these skills turn out to be obvious when one is emotionally down and the dog becomes more affectionate, seeking more time by his side.
The given emotional support helps handle hard emotions and feel stable during a serious time of challenge, this is because the emotional bond exhibited by a therapy dog with its owner goes beyond to provide total comfort that words would not avail.
They allow for an individual experiencing a state of grief, loneliness, or emotional hurts to have a state or feeling of fullness of emotions and feel of relational connection.
7. Improves Social Interaction
They make an immense difference in social interactions and become a social bridging factor in most settings and the attention and interest that other people take in therapeutic dogs create conversation grounds and, to some extent, grounds for bonding.
This even works for a shy person or someone with social phobia, as the dog becomes a common ground for interaction.
They facilitate this by making it a lot less intimidating and a lot more enjoyable, you will probably greatly want to take part in this to build that sense of community and not feel alone actively by joining in the social activities, therapy dog visits, or just passively when you walk your dog.
8. Boosts Immune System
Consequent to the enhanced immune responses developed by exposure to therapy dogs, there are feelings of well-being and resilience in total health that take place, these positive emotions and decreased stress levels caused by contact with a therapy dog could, in themselves, further help boost the immune responses, thereby shielding the body from falling ill.
An immune system in life is crucially important as it keeps one healthy, a fact that therapy dog also supports this narrowing of the levels of stress hormones and stimulation of a relaxation response creates a backdrop for a relatively optimal working immune system.
9. Helps Reduce Depression
Therapy dogs can be invaluable by providing companionship, unconditional love, and a sense of purpose in reducing feelings of depression and just their presence helps to break negative thoughts and bring great comfort through times of sorrow.
This is possible when a therapy dog can build a routine where positive habits and behaviors come into place in regular interaction with the pet because of the relief that the dogs used in this form of treatment bring to the client's feelings of loneliness and isolation, this is bound to be an effect.
With such feelings of fear and loneliness neutralized, the bond created with a therapy dog can make it easier for patients to deal with depression's symptoms, hence an enhanced well-being state.
10. Pain Relief
They can help a lot in being able to allay almost all types of pain, especially in the case of patients with chronic pain, their presence allays the attention of being alone with one's pain, therapy dogs provide basic emotional support, acting as a relaxant to reduce symptoms of varied pain and improve the quality of life for patients in rehabilitation.
Close companionship and affection from a therapy dog may turn one's focus away from the pain and such a shift in focus eventually results in an improved predisposition toward chronic conditions, the comforting presence of a therapy dog can make the whole living-with-pain experience less harsh, and less lonely.
11. Improves Emotional Resilience
Regular companionship with a therapy dog instills coping strategies in people when battling emotional challenges and they find it pretty easy to come out of adversity, such development in the relationship produces security toward well-being, therefore contributing to higher emotional strength.
They can offer unconditional love and acceptance, hence giving room for an individual to make it through and learn how to deal with the emotional challenge with needed space and this drives one to emotional resilience and the ability to go through life on a much more level, healthy, satisfactory existence, with the therapy dog being the show stealer.
12. Helps Cognitive Function
Quite a bit of intellectual stimulation through even simple tasks related to training, commands, or other activities can do well to promote healthy thinking and this is especially true for adults and elders as well, playing games and just interacting with a therapy dog can provide intellectual stimulation and can, overall, be very intellectually stimulating.
These kinds of continuous mental activities constitute the necessary component for keeping one's cognitive function and, hence, a therapy dog poses as a perfect companion for keeping one's mind healthy and sound.
13. Promotes Mindfulness
The activities performed with the therapy dog, such as playing walking or just being, require focused attention with a sense of presence and a person remains focused on the current situation, which inherently results in a decrease in stress and anxiety.
Mindfulness practice in mental health is very necessary, and a therapy dog would make one feel delighted and relaxed at that moment, being with a therapy dog instantly grounds one into the present, thus helping to clean one's mind and overcome any kind of distractions and worries and such mindfulness helps bring emotional balance into one's life and is centered.
14. Fosters Positive Behavior Changes
They help their owners become motivated and develop behaviors of being around them and because of that they go out for a walk and exercise in the outdoor environment, practicing a healthy daily regime, those behavioral changes precede overall well-being and a healthy lifestyle.
This means that the constant presence of therapy dogs can provide a stimulus to make a good choice, be able to embark on a new habit or be more social, and over a while, the development of these changes in behavior may instigate other physical and mental health modifications, literally making the therapy dog an agent for powerful and positive change.
15. Good Quality Sleep
As a person can feel comforted and be with a therapy dog, he becomes relaxed enough for a good sleep pattern, and the nights become restful so this effect, in turn, tends to have a domino effect on overall health and well-being.
Good quality sleep is a virtual necessity for good overall health, whether it be physical or mental and they provide a soothing environment and help one to relax their mind in preparation for rest. A therapy dog is part of a daily routine that may help to encourage healthy sleep patterns, which in and of themselves help with the quality of sleep.
16. Helps in Developing Emotional Awareness
Therapy dogs help in furthering emotional awareness by helping the person to let himself bond with his feelings, for example, giving them unrestricted love and acceptance in finding and learning more about one's feelings.
This deeper emotional awareness might enable one to improve the regulation of emotions and lead to more emotional satisfaction with life and they mirror your psychological changes and help you develop your self-awareness, the experience with them fosters the acquisition of the virtues of empathy and self-compassion which are central to healthy emotional functioning.
17. Aids in Trauma Recovery
The need for comfort is very high in cases of trauma, and this is what makes therapy dogs very valuable to the extent that they help in trauma recovery. The key to healing is safety and if they are there without passing judgment and showing unconditional love, a sense of safety is offered, since the incidents cause feelings of fear and anxiety that can be comforted by therapy dogs, emotional recovery is capable.
Social bonding with a dog in therapy can work therapeutically such that it helps one gain trust and confidence, they provide emotional backing for this and in trauma recovery and they do play a role in the healing process.
18. Reduces Loneliness
The companionship provided gives emotional support associated with easing the feeling of being alone, and this makes the therapy dog a value-added service to respond to people living by themselves or people who feel disconnected from others.
A created bond with a dog of such nature is bound to be huge in strength when it comes to emotional fulfillment, which comes through the sense of purpose and companionship one enjoys. Life with a therapy dog makes one feel less lonely and should therefore be easier and it feels more satisfying, social bonding and relationships with others are a spinoff of this connection with a therapy dog.
