Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
12-2023
Document Type
OTD Capstone
Department
Occupational Therapy
Degree
OTD
Faculty Advisor
Catherine Candler
Site Mentor
Melissa Winkle
Capstone Coordinator
Leslye Morris
Specialization
Clinical Practice Skills
Focus
Animal Assisted Therapy
Abstract
The aim of my capstone project was to advance the field of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) and promote the incorporation of AAT within occupational therapy (OT) services. Existing research notably supports the implementation of AAT in OT practice in many settings and for a wide variety of diagnoses to promote occupational performance, build therapeutic rapport, and encourage motivation and engagement in therapy, but stronger evidence is needed to promote the incorporation of AAT (Andreason et al., 2017; Fine et al., 2019b). Despite the growth of AAT over the past two decades, there are few resources tailored specifically to the implementation of AAT within OT services and there is a lack of published practice protocols available for AAT, which increases the risk of practitioners incorporating animals into practice unethically (Fine, 2019; Shue et al., 2018). I completed my capstone experience at Dogwood Therapy Services, an outpatient OT facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico that provides traditional and animal-assisted OT services for people of all ages and abilities and positive reinforcement, reward, and relationship-based dog training. For my capstone project, I collaborated with Dogwood to revise and publish an updated 4th edition of the Professional Applications of Animal Assisted Interventions: Gray Dog Book. Completing this project allowed me to significantly expand my knowledge in AAT, animal welfare, and dog behavior, communication, training, and handling and has provided practitioners seeking to incorporate dogs into their practice with a valuable treatment resource outlining entry- to intermediate-level knowledge of AAT and over 40 intervention ideas.
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