The positive affect that dogs have with patients, both old and young, has long been established - Florence Nightingale, for example, first noted this in the late 1800s.

We should distinguish, however the difference between a therapy dog and an assistance dog: the former is a dog that is trained to provide affection, comfort and support to people, often in settings such as hospitals, retirement homes, schools, hospices, or disaster areas.

The latter are trained to assist specific patients with their day-to-day physical needs. Therapy dogs, on the other hand, are trained to interact with all kinds of people, not just their handlers.

Sigmund Freud began using his own pet dog to improve communication with his psychiatric patients in the 1930s but in more recent times, the first, therapy-dog organisation was established in 1976 by Elaine Smith.

The fact is that dogs have been living with humans for the last 11,000 years, so they have pretty much come to understand us and interpret our moods, etc.

All this brings us to what is happening at the Hospital de La Axarquía, which has reactivated its Programa de Intervención Asistida con Perro (IAP) Huellas en el Corazón. They have done this in cooperation with the Perruneando Association. This programme is used in different areas of paediatrics, such as in hospitals and child-doctors’ surgeries.

According to the medical workers union, SATSE, it has been proven that the presence of such animals is not only beneficial for patients, but also for medical staff; the presence of a dog will often calm a nervous, child patient facing an insulin injection, for example.

(News: Velez-Malaga, Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Malaga, Andalucia)