Animal Assisted Therapy can include dogs, cats, birds and other animals.
The handler/animal team visits nursing homes, hospitals, schools, prisons,
treatment centers and other facilities to share their time with people in
need. There are a number of national registries that screen, register and
insure animals (typically dogs) for this purpose, as well as campaign to
increase volunteers and awareness for these programs.
Animal-assisted Therapy volunteers can provide opportunity for motivational,
educational, recreational and or theraputic benefits to enhance quality of
life of the individuals visited. Some Animal-Assisted Therapy takes on a
more serious role with a goal-directed intervention that uses the animal to
meet specific criteria as part of the treatment process.
Bark Avenue my local AAT group.
The Dog-play AAT Page Lots of great links
Dog-PlayTherapy Dogs, Animal Assisted Therapy and Animal Assisted Services Links More Links w/ brief reviews of sites