Meet the Fairfield Wellness Therapy Dog

Enz0 The therapy dog?

Enzo is a certified therapy dog, his role is  to meet and greet clients and yoga & meditation students and make everyone feel welcome when they come into Fairfield Wellness. The yoga students love saying hello to Enzo when they finish class and check out his latest tricks. 

He sits in on chiropractic consultations with Dr Elena Bacash, Chiropractor for those people who would like him in the treatment room. If people prefer to have an Enzo-free consultation, he gets to play outside! Dr Elena also loves to show the latest tricks he's learning - he's still a baby dog so his obedience and manners are developing well!

So why have a therapy dog in the clinic? Here are just some of the benefits of having a therapy dog:

Studies have shown physical illness & stress moderating effects such as:

• Lowering Blood Pressure & Heart Rate
  •  people are more relaxed and have reduced physiological stress (e.g. blood pressure (BP) or heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate, and peripheral skin conductance) and stress hormones (especially cortisol but also others including epinephrine and nor-epinephrine) when interacting with animals and animal related stimuli
    • (Erika Friedmann, Heesook, & Saleem, 2015)

Reference: Jones, M,G (Ed.) (2020) Visiting Therapy Dog and Handler Certification Course - Foundation. Lead the Way Institute Course Manual. p. 85

• Stress Hormones- Cortisol Levels, Reduction In Anxiety And Depression
  • In General, most studies cite a reduction in blood pressure (BP) and Cortisol when interacting with an animal – typically a therapy dog – as these measures are relatively easy to sample. (Erika Friedmann, 2000: Erika Friedmann et al,. 2015: Odendall, 2000)
  • Having a dog present may also assist with the stress associated with certain events or tasks, such as helping children cope with doctors’ or dentist visits. (Erika Friedmann, Katcher, Thomas, Lynch, & Messent, 1983)

Reference: Jones, M,G (Ed.) (2020) Visiting Therapy Dog and Handler Certification Course - Foundation. Lead the Way Institute Course Manual. p. 85

• Pain Relief
  • Adults with fibromyalgia or chronic pain reported reduced feelings of pain when with a therapy dog, and visiting with therapy dogs may even reduce post-operative pain medication use following joint replacement surgery (Marcus et al. 2013; Marcus, Bernstein, Kunkel, Breuer, & Hanlon, 2012)

Reference: Jones, M,G (Ed.) (2020) Visiting Therapy Dog and Handler Certification Course - Foundation. Lead the Way Institute Course Manual. p. 85-86

• Release Oxytocin- “Love/ Feel Good Hormone”
  • Oxytocin is associated with an increase in social behaviour, and positive relationships. (Julius, Beetz, Kotrschal, Turner, & Uvnasmoberg, 2013b, 2013d)
  • Studies show that both people and dogs will produce oxytocin when interacting (Handlin et al., 2011; Nagasawa et al., 2009; Odendall & Meintjes, 2003)
  • One theory for the impact on stress physiology is that humans produce oxytocin in the presence of animals, and the oxytocin forces the body's stress response to reduce or abate. This is known as the oxytocin hypothesis (Beetz et al., 2012, Julius, Neetz, Kotrschal, Tuner, & Uvnasmoberg, 2013c)

Reference: Jones, M,G (Ed.) (2020) Visiting Therapy Dog and Handler Certification Course - Foundation. Lead the Way Institute Course Manual. p. 86