Introduction: Animal-assisted therapy organizations have proliferated in recent decades in the United States. Each of these organizations has its own criteria for screening, evaluating and instructing dogs and their owners/handlers, but little is currently known about the range of different practices that exist nationwide. The aim of the present project was to conduct a survey of a randomly-selected, national sample of US therapy dog organizations to investigate commonalities and differences in the types of practices in current use.
Methodology: A process comparable to probability-proportional-to-size sampling was used to identify a representative sample of therapy dog organizations from the four different US census regions: West, Midwest, South & Northeast. From each region, 3 organizations were selected at random from the most populous state (CA, IL, TX & NY, respectively), and a further 3 were selected from a second randomly-chosen state in the region, giving a total of 24 local/regional organizations that were invited to complete the survey. In addition, six large national or multi-regional organizations were surveyed. The survey comprises 118 questions addressing, among other things, health screening/vaccination requirements for participating dogs; guidelines and methods used for evaluating dogs, handlers or dog/handler teams; limitations on visiting times and the use of aversive training methods; required vs. optional training for dogs and handlers; provision of liability insurance; reporting of adverse events, and so on.
Results: At the time of writing, invitations to participate in the survey have been distributed to all 30 US therapy dog organizations. The results are expected to be available before the end of April, 2018.
Conclusions and Implications for the Field: The findings will help to inform future discussions regarding acceptable minimum standards, best practices, and professionalization within the therapy dog industry.