Would a research paper about the use of pet therapy/service animals be considered Psychology?

Not unless it feeds their mental needs as well as their physical needs.

the mental needs of the HUMAN patients.
and trust me when I say that if someone is physically handicap they have special needs psychosocially as well. Animal companions serve a whole host of needs. If you cover that, you’re sure to fulfil the assignment.

It would be if you focused on Autism therapy dogs, or depression therapy service dogs.

I think it would qualify, if you take into account the benefits of greater independence of those using service Dogs and the increase of trust and interactional abilities of emotionally and/or mentally handicapped people (specifically children) that benefit from all sorts of pet therapy.
I have a friend who uses horses in the treatment of children with all sorts of disabilities and it’s very beneficial.

@SpatzieLover I didn’t think about dogs specifically trained to deal with autism. Thanks! I don’t mind focusing my paper on only those emotionally/psychologically handicapped or traumatized, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to find enough sources in the university’s online database.

@JilltheTooth Yes, I think it’s amazing how we have found ways to use animals to promote healing in disabled people. I am especially interested in writing about dogs who have been trained to detect the oncoming of seizures before they happen.

Undoubtedly, we can become very emotionally attached to our pets.

Horses are used in Asperger Syndrome animal therapy. There has to be a lot of articles about that, there summer camps and weekend camps for that type of therapy.

When I was in my coma, my first sign that I was coming out of the coma was my reaction to the therapy animals. After that, my psychologist had me work with therapy animals as a form of therapy. She even had me work with therapy animals and other patients when my injury made it impossible to work. My experiences with them and my interaction with both the animals and other patients helped give me a sense of purpose, a feeling that I was still a valuable part of society. I would say that they defiantly are a part of psychotherapy!

It depends on what angle you take. If you research the relationship owners develop with their service dogs for instance, it would be about psychology. You could look at how a service dog opens up more of the world for a person with a disability and how that impacts the person psychologically and socially. Maybe the way the public reacts to the owner and the dog. You can totally make it about psychology!

Thanks, guys!

If you talked about their relationship as a psychological study, then yes!

Yes, definitely.

“Pet therapy” is usually done with people who need an emotional benefit, not a physical one- developmentally disabled kids, seniors, people in hospitals, hospice patients, victims of disasters (there was a huge pet therapy team supporting the 9–11 workers) etc. There are scores of papers on this.

I agree with what those above have said, but I’d clear it with the prof before starting any real research. Anytime the prof hasn’t given strict parameters, I think it’s best to clear a topic rather than just diving in.

Pet therapy and service animals provide independence for the humans involved. There’s some really neat studies out there about horses and prisoners.

@stemnyjones You mentioned dogs being trained to sense seizures. They don’t need to be trained for that, just trained to alert someone when something is wrong. Example:
My mom has epilepsy and every time that mom would have a warning signal or in the first stages of a seizure, our dog Tessa would go to her and not leave mom’s side until she was “safe”. We never had Tessa trained for any service. She just knew. She did the same thing when I suffered a very painful moment in my life. She stayed with me, she even followed me out of the yard and I couldn’t get her back in, she wanted to stay with me. Man I miss her.
Sorry for the side note, just stating that even untrained dogs are exceptional service animals.

I remember reading about dogs that come to court sometimes, usually to help children who are scared to testify or whose parents are fighting over them in family court.

@stemnyjones, you’re right about training dogs to sense seziures and @dubsrayboo, you’re right about them sensing seziures without training. They can sense other things also. When I was still in my wheelchair my dog never left my side. Even after I came home she was my shadow. Like I’ve said before my seziures were never typical seziures, but still she never left me alone. Even when I just went to get a drink or made any movement at all she came alert to make sure I was ok. I don’t have a dog now, but I’d like to get another when we can. I miss having a dog around!

@dubsrayboo & @GracieT Yes, it’s amazing the things animals can do, especially dogs, since they have been bred away from wild wolves and into loving creatures that spend most of their lives focusing on us and trying to make us happy.

It sounds like you two had some pretty amazing dogs in your lives. :)

Another thing I heard about a looong time ago was these dogs that could smell cancerous cells. They showed this one woman who had cancer but didn’t have a tumor or physical signs. She laid down flat on her back, and this dog (I believe it was a beagle) went around her sniffing along her body until it signaled just where the cancer was.

I think that’s pretty amazing.

They have great positive effect in nursing homes.
absolutely