Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Animal-Assisted Therapy Is Understood And Perceived By Health Care Providers And The General Public In Canada, Healey M. Gardiner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The incorporation of dogs to assist humans with various activities has been documented for centuries. When a dog is included in treatment to meet an individual’s therapeutic goal it is known as Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT). Little is known about how AAT is understood and perceived among healthcare professional and public populations in Canada. Although AAT has increased in popularly, limited research exists regarding its efficacy. Further, variation exists in the understanding and perceptions of AAT among the general pubic and healthcare professionals, possibly due to a lack of awareness of existing operational definitions and distinctions between classifications of “assistance animals.” …