Can all dogs be therapy dogs?

Original research explains the benefits to children and teens who have family dogs, some of which can act as stand-ins for formal therapy dogs. There is lots of research that shows benefits to children and teens, including:

1. Emotional regulation can improve
2. Increases to motivation and focus can result
3. Reducing anxiety and stress is possible
4. A sense of belonging and connection can also result

Let’s look at each of these four benefits further. Keep an eye out for which of these benefits you want for the children and teens in your life. Also notice that three of the benefits do not require a formally training therapy dog. 

Emotional Regulation

Two studies to share show how interactions with pet dogs influence children’s emotional responses to stress. This means that your family pup, not a formal therapy dog, can help with getting this benefit. The findings show that children who experience social stress in the presence of their dog reported greater positive emotions compared to when they experience such stress without their dog present. The studies want us to reflect on how the positive emotions in the presence of our dogs might contribute to better emotional regulation. ​Check out this study and this one as well. 

Increased Motivation and Focus

Many researchers are still perfecting how to study the impact of family dogs on enhancing motivation and focus. Existing studies take place at schools and provide classrooms of students a specific amount of time weekly. For example, in New York City’s “Comfort Dog Program,” trained therapy dogs are introduced to classrooms to help students boost their confidence and improve academic performance. Formal therapy dogs are used in these studies because the pups need to be able to handle a lot of stimulation (e.g. sounds, people coming and going, etc.) when at the schools. Researchers do know that the presence of dogs shifts students’ focus away from anxieties, promoting engagement and motivation through guided activities and emotional connections. Check out this summary of the NYC program. 

Reduced Anxiety and Stress

Researchers also study how our family dogs provide social support to children during stress. The earlier benefit about emotional regulation is repeated here. Because children who have their dog present during stressful activities feel less stress compared to when they have a parent present or no social support, we can understand that our pet dogs can reduce their anxiety and stress. In fact, in that study, cortisol levels sampled from children’s saliva indicated lower stress in the presence of their dogs. ​Here is another study on how pet dogs help with pre-teen stress. 

Sense of Belonging and Connection

Direct studies on family pups fostering a sense of belonging are scarce, but the earlier research examples listed above show benefits that are needed in order to achieve a sense of belonging and connection with another person or animal kin. In fact, indirect research like this one shows the many studies done to understand how children emotionally attach with their pet dogs. So, between the reduction in stress and increase in motivation, adding the long list of research on children attaching to dogs, we can estimate that family pups can encourage belonging and connection where a kiddo might not otherwise find it.