At Winchester Terrace, we all absolutely love having visitors! Some of our favorite visitors aren’t what you’d expect them to be either. Having a visit from pets provides extra emotional support that can be incredibly helpful! We are always so blessed when John Todd regularly visits us with his dog to offer pet therapy to our residents.
Animal-assisted therapy is a growing field that uses dogs or other animals to help people recover from or better cope with health problems, such as heart disease, cancer, and mental health disorders. Not only are dogs associated with animal therapy, but equine therapy is a very popular version of this too! Some other common therapy animals are birds and rabbits. The HABRI (The Human Animal Bond Research Institute) wrote, “The game system theory suggests that playing with an animal can increase defense and augment recovery potentialities; furthermore, an effective, emotional, psychological stimulation is known to solve important psychosomatic problems.”
Many people have been drawn towards animal therapy due to the feeling of an animal never judging and accepting you exactly as you are. This is such a beautiful and encouraging sentiment that we can definitely get behind. So not only do we get to love on a sweet doggie, but we get all of these extra benefits too! We’ve also been visited by the Crawford County Lowe Volk Park before, and they brought along a bearded dragon, snakes, and more! Our residents are always excited for any animal to come and visit! That’s why you know it will be a great time full of fun and love when John shows up.
Please let us know if you or someone you know would be interested in visiting all of us at Winchester Terrace with your furry or feathered friends! We would love to see you soon! Call us today to learn more about all of our visiting opportunities at (419) 756-4747.