I want to start at the very beginning to understand how animals have such a great connection with human beings. I am grateful I was raised and currently living on the Ktunaxa Peoples’ homelands. Because of this I decided to look into the Ktunaxa Nation website. Here I found the Ktunaxa Peoples’ Creation Story where I found a quote in this story that stood out to me:

“The spirit animals ascended above and are the guiding spirits of the people.”

This quote shows the interconnectedness of animals and people and how much animals have an impact on our wellbeing since time immemorial. I have also included the Ktunaxa creation story video below as a supplement to the website.

The Ktunaxa Creation Story posted by Jaguar Bird https://youtu.be/9Hng5r7Wz7I

In my last post the video explains how a renowned Psychologist by the name of Sigmund Freud introduced animals to his therapy sessions in the 1930s. What I have learned this week is that it was not until the 1960s that research started on the topic of pet therapy. Dr Boris Levinson was the one who discovered the positive relationship between animals and mental health. “It wasn’t until Freud’s findings were translated and published years after his death that Levinson’s findings were considered valid” (Alliance of Therapy Dogs). The website Alliance of Therapy Dogs is a great resource to understand how animal-assisted therapy has been discovered.

To conclude, this week I wanted to look into how therapy dogs are helping children in schools particularly. Sifting through research and media I found this video from 5 News to be the most helpful in answering this question. I love that Damian Hinds (Education Secretary) touches on so many benefits of utilizing dogs in schools. She explains how they are encouraging, non-judgemental, motivators, reduce anxiety, and how research is showing how they increase stress-releasing hormones (Serotonin and oxytocin…) and how if all these things are addressed students will be in a more ready state to learn.

I am so excited to continue to learn and share with you all the benefits of animal’s on human’s well-being as the weeks go by!

Chelsea

References

Call to gather: Ktunaxa creation story: Landscapes & waterways. Search Results creation+story : Ktunaxa Nation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 28, 2022, from https://www.ktunaxa.org/?s=creation%2Bstory 

Dogs, A. of T. (2022, May 2). Therapy dogs for depression & anxiety – alliance of therapy dogs. Alliance of Therapy Dogs Inc. Retrieved September 29, 2022, from https://www.therapydogs.com/animal-therapy/

5NewsYT. (2019, March 25). How therapy dogs are helping kids in schools | 5 news. YouTube. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCD3Yd54hN8