USA Today

Pets, once assigned to the barn or the doghouse, increasingly are being welcomed inside hospitals, nursing homes and hospices, experts say. Pet owners often say their dogs, cats and other animal companions make them feel better, and there’s a growing body of science to back that up, says epidemiologist Maryellen Elcock of the Delta Society, an US non-profit organisation that trains therapy animals for schools, libraries and health facilities.

Recent studies show pet owners live longer and are less lonely than those who do not own pets; children in households with pets have higher self esteem; and heart patients with pets have lower mortality rates. “The connection between humans and animals is a physiological effect, a measurable effect” that results in better overall health, Elcock says. Research suggests that petting or even being around a loved pet relieves stress, causing a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate. Animal companions provide social support for people who are ill or alone, resulting in improved mental health, researchers say. Two small stress-relievers are toy poodles Sophie and Maggie, who with their partners, Dinah Layton and Peggy Lane, are certified Pet Partners with the Denver chapter of the Delta Society.The dogs, who weigh barely five pounds and eight pounds respectively, make rounds at Swedish Medical Center in Englewood every Saturday and visit a patient at a local nursing home on Sundays.

They love their work, Layton says, and nothing sets off a display of canine ecstasy faster than the sight of their little green vests — identifying them as Delta Society therapy dogs — being pulled from the closet.

For Layton, who is a breast cancer survivor, the opportunity to bring the same kind of canine comfort she depended on during her own illness is gratifying. Through six months of chemotherapy and radiation four years ago, Layton says, she took strength from the dogs’ quiet presence.

“In the mornings, sometimes I couldn’t get rolling right away, and the dogs would settle in, one on one side, one on the other,” she says. She wasn’t conscious then of the supportive role they were playing in her recovery, but “I enjoyed them being quiet and still next to me, which they aren’t always. They’re high energy, but during that time, they just let me rest and lay very calmly next to me.” Now, the dogs turn their calming powers on strangers, sometimes with spectacular results. Layton tells of a hospital visit when a nurse approached her and said, “You. Come with me, and bring your dog.” She and Maggie hurried down a corridor as the nurse explained that a cancer patient had come in for treatment and suddenly her heart began to beat erratically. “She said it will not stop, and we want to see if the dog will help,” Layton says.

When they entered the room, “the woman was panicked” and gasping, Layton says. Maggie stretched out on the bed with the struggling patient, who began petting her, and within minutes, the heart palpitations slowed, and the woman began breathing normally. “I looked up at the nurse, and she did a thumbs up. It still makes the hair raise on my arms. That’s the power that an animal has in a scary situation.”

For people with disabilities, animals can be life-altering. Elcock cites as an example the work of a therapy dog named Zorro who is helping a five-year-old boy with cerebral palsy.

Zorro has helped improve the boy’s ability to move around, and the stimulation created by Zorro’s licking his face and hands has helped improve the child’s ability to eat, Elcock says. “Watching this dog, I hate to say this as a scientist, but there’s magic in that room.”

That’s one reason Delta Society chapters have waiting lists of hospitals and other facilities wanting visits, says Diana McQuarrie, who heads the society’s Denver affiliate. She and her dog Shana, a 12-year-old golden retriever, form a pet-therapy team that, like Sophie and Maggie, visits patients at Swedish Medical Center.

The Denver Delta chapter has about 60 Pet Partner teams. Eighty per cent involve dogs, but there also are therapy cats, rabbits, llamas, a donkey, rooster and even a camel.

Delta dogs are obedience trained, and most have passed the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizenship test, which verifies they are well-mannered. The human part of each team also is given a weekend of training, and then the dog and human are observed by a Delta evaluator.

“We introduce hospital equipment, wheelchairs, walkers with squeaky wheels or tennis balls at the feet,” McQuarrie says. “We want to be able to tell these dogs can handle it.” On the Web: www.deltasociety.org