What I Have Learnt About Dog Therapy and Rescue So Far...
Did you know that dogs can help you read? Well, that is only a taste of what they can do, there is a reason why people often choose dogs over other animals as therapy animals.
First of all, there are three types of animal therapy: Animal Assisted Therapy, Animal Assisted Activities, and Animal Assisted Education. The first one, Animal Assisted Therapy or AAT, is the only one I had heard of before doing any research. AAT are animals that help with rehabilitation or people with disabilities like blindness. Next, there is Animal Assisted Activities or AAA which is used to help with mental health and just make people happier in general. Lastly, there is Animal Assisted Education or AAE; I consider this to be the most interesting because when learning about this, I was just told that dogs can help people read. At first I thought it was some kind of spiritual thing, but after some further research, I found out that it has been scientifically proven that reading to dogs, as if you are talking to them, improves literacy.
But the reason why dogs are chosen the most for animals therapy, is because they are best at raising your mood and providing tranquility to humans. If you don't believe me, just stare a dog in the eyes, and try not to smile and laugh or pet it. Not only that, but dogs have been proven to help with anxiety so they are among the most efficient animals in improving people's moods.
In order to educate myself of this knowledge, I visited a dog therapy and rescue shelter in Itami, Japan called Japan Rescue Association. And as well as dog therapy, they do rescue and search dogs. After the Great Hanshin Earthquake in Kobe, Japan and the 2011 Tohoku Fukushima Earthquake and Tsunami, there were a lot of people injured and missing. These rescue dogs find those people by tracking their aromas and notify the handler to lead them towards the lost person. In fact, the dogs that I met went to go rescue and find people after the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
I want to thank you to all of the workers and staff at the Japan Rescue Association for the work they do, as well as meeting with me! I had an amazing time both times I went there, and I learnt so many things. If you wish to learn more, click this link and go visit their social media as well: Japan Rescue Association.
What I Have Done
Paw-print Greeting Cards
Inspired by all the information I had learnt, I created some paw-print cards using stamps that I made of my dogs' hands, and sold in a park near my sister's school on Labor Thanksgiving Day (勤労感謝の日) and Respect-for-the-Aged Day (敬老の日). I later visited the Japan Rescue Association again in December 2022 to give them my donations, as well as to visit the dogs.
