Flipping the script: USask research focuses on therapy dog’s perspective

Research has shown the many benefits people gain while working with therapy dogs, but have you ever stopped to wonder what this work is like from the dog’s perspective?

At the Pawsitive Connections Lab at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr. Colleen Dell is flipping the script and uncovering how dogs feel while performing their therapy tasks.

“All that we’re doing here can also translate to everybody’s home in the relationship that we have with dogs and other pets in our home: really recognizing who they are and what their likes and their wants and their needs are; that they have feelings too,” shared Dell.

The lab has run for more than a decade, focusing on the powerful connection between animals and humans. Recently, the program received a multi-million-dollar investment that will let Dell continue her research on man’s best friend.

“Part of our larger grant is to begin to understand how it is that we account for the animal’s perspective. So, we have the dogs going out, say, to visit in hospice. How I need to be very in tune, as does any other therapy dog handler, of how I know if she’s comfortable, if this is somewhere where she wants to be,” explained Dell.

Another part of the grant will go toward post-doctoral fellow Mackenzie McKeown’s research project on how mental health can be improved for truck drivers with animal companions.

“Truck drivers are constantly battling social isolation, mental health, physical health, and having that animal to provide them support with their mental, their physical health,” said McKeowen of her research. “Exploring how those benefits, or those challenges, are from the human’s perspective, but also the animal’s perspective; just to really figure out how we can work together in a healthy way.”

While every dog is unique, the therapy dogs at the Pawsitive Connections Lab clearly love what they do.

“She loves it. She’s always happy to come to work,” explained Wendi Stoeber, a therapy dog handler for St. John Ambulance. “As soon as the scarf comes out, or as soon as I put the shirt on, she’s so excited and wants to go wherever that we’re gonna go.”

University students can get in on the love too by visiting Dell’s PAWS Your Stress program to meet and play with therapy dogs, all while learning more about the dynamic connections between animals and humans.

Watch the video above to see therapy dogs in action. 

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