If you are a pet owner, you don’t need to be told that animals have the power to relax and calm.  Studies find that interacting with pets can actually reduce the rate of healing time for the sick and emotionally stressed.

Pet therapy is becoming a standard in many hospitals, including children’s hospitals.  There are pet therapy volunteer programs that bring dogs and other animals directly to patients and staff alike.   Some children’s hospitals even have “baseball cards” featuring each therapy animal that the children can collect during extended stays.

Touching a pet can lower blood pressure, help a disturbed patient to connect quickly to health care workers and speed healing for both children and adults alike.  Amazingly, interaction with a pet can bring an Alzheimer’s patient back to “the present.”  It can also calm children with attention deficit disorder and reduce depression rates in hospitals and elderly care facilities.

Do you think your dog or other pet would be a good therapy animal?  Hospitals in particular have necessary strict guidelines for animals that enter the facility.

Dogs must usually be at least a year old and have been owned by one person for at least six months.  The dog cannot have any bite history and might be required to graduate from a certified training course.

Your dog or other pet must be calm as many hands come near the animal.  Facilities will also require bathing and grooming to be performed before visits, and certification of health by a veterinarian is a must.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital has a pet therapy program with a straightforward behavior test for potential dog volunteers.  They have an excellent standardized dog therapy test that can give you an idea of whether your dog has the potential to work in therapy situations.

If you think your pet would make an excellent therapy animal, talk to your local hospital or elderly care center about their pet therapy requirements.  The benefit both you and your pet receive will far outweigh the time it takes to complete the pet therapy prerequisites!

If your dog or cat became lost, wouldn’t it be nice to have a 20% greater chance of your pet being returned to you?  Then you may wish to consider having your pet microchipped.

A recent study found that microchipped pets who were brought to an animal shelter were returned to their owners in 3 out of 4 cases.  There were 53 shelters participating in the study, each agreeing to keep records of pets who were found to have a microchip.  Of the pets that had the chip, 73% of the owners were found.

Surprisingly, some animal microchips were not detected during the first scan.  Some required multiple scans, either during a medical exam or prior to euthanasia.  This finding reveals the need for shelters to scan dogs and cats multiple times for the presence of a microchip.

Another important finding of the study?  If your dog or cat has a microchip, it is imperative that you keep your contact information up to date.  If your phone number or address changes at any time, you should make the change in the microchip database immediately.  Sadly, 35% of the owners’ phone numbers were disconnected while 9.8% of the chips weren’t even registered.

So talk to your veterinarian about placing a microchip in your dog or cat.  After all, it only takes a moment for a family pet to become lost.  And your furry friend can only count on you to bring him or her back.