Kathleen M. Trujillo, PhD Principal Investigator Andrea Munson, Amber Yaddof, Cierra Covington, Lani Lietsch, Kristina Pauley Co-Investigators St. Ambrose University

Therapy Dogs ● What is a therapy dog? ● Training ● Therapy Dogs vs. Service Dogs

Animal-Assisted Activities (AAA) Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) Casual "meet and greet" activities that involve pets visiting people Significant part of treatment for many people who are physically, socially, emotionally or cognitively challenged No specific treatment goals plannedStated goals for each session Visit content is spontaneousVisit scheduled, usually at set intervals Visit can be as long or short as desired Length of visit is pre-determined to best fit needs of patient AAA and AAT

Benefits of AAA Barker, S. B. et al. (March, 2010) ● Showed that positive attitudes towards pets are associated with lowered amounts of stress. Thompson, M. (2010). ● Reduced anxiety significantly in veterans with PTSD Krause-Parello, C. et al.(2012). ● Reduced biological effects of stress that influence human health

Our Study ● Research Question: Can therapy dogs lower the stress levels of patients’ family members? ● Participants: Family members of surgical or cardiac patients ● Setting: Hospital waiting room at Genesis East ● Trimm, D. and Sanford, J. (2010)  Waiting for a family member’s surgery is very stressful.  Physical symptoms

Our Study ● Hypothesis: Family members who interact with a therapy dog will have lower anxiety levels than those who do not interact with a therapy dog.

Participants (N=20) GenderN Female14 Male6 Age GroupN 39 & younger & older2

Materials ● Pulse Oximeter ● State Trait Anxiety Inventory ● Pet Attitude Scale ● Therapy Dog Teams

State Trait Anxiety Inventory Sample Items I feel calm………………… I am tense….………..…… I feel comfortable…...…… I am worried……………… ● TRAIT I feel like a failure…...…… I make decisions easily.… Not at all Somewhat Moderately So Very Much So Almost Never Sometimes Often Almost Always ●STATE

Pet Attitude Scale Sample Items Strongly Disagree Moderately Disagree Slightly Disagree Unsure Slightly Agree Moderately Agree Strongly Agree My pet means more to me than any of my friends I love pets I have occasionally communicated with my pet and understood what it was trying to express House pets add happiness to my life (or would if I had one)

Procedure ● Recruiting ● Data collection procedure Experimental condition protocol Pulse Oximeter Reading Therapy Dog Interaction Pulse Oximeter Reading STAI and Pet Attitude Scales completed Pulse Oximeter Reading Control condition protocol Pulse Oximeter Reading STAI and Pet Attitude Scales completed Pulse Oximeter Reading Therapy Dog Interaction Pulse Oximeter Reading

Pet Attitude Scale Results ControlExperimental MeanSDMeanSDFSig Pet Attitude Scale Note: Highest possible score = 126

Mean “State” Anxiety STAI : MEAN STATE ANXIETY SCORES FOR OUR SAMPLE STAI: MEAN STATE ANXIETY POPULATION NORMS NMeanStd. Deviation Control Experimental Total MaleFemale

One Way ANOVA ControlExperimental MeanSDMeanSDFp STAI Total (ns) STATE (ns) TRAIT (ns)

Mean Pulse ControlExperimental MeanSDMeanSD Pulse Time Pulse Time Pulse Time

Mean Oxygen Saturation ControlExperimental MeanSDMeanSD Oxygen Oxygen Oxygen

Repeated Measures ANOVA PulseOxygen dfFp Fp Time Time x Condition

Challenges Availability of participants Interruptions Consistency of dogs and handlers Previous research suggests longer interactions

Next Steps ● Future Study ● Questions?