Dogs and human health/mental health: from the pleasure of their company to the benefits of their assistance.

Abstract

Although we tend to identify the 20th century as the time when dogs and animals in general were first used to provide assistance to people with a variety of physical and mental diagnoses, this actually is not the case. The first documented example of the therapeutic use of animals occurred in 9th century Gheel, Belgium, where animals were part of the therapie naturelle provided for the handicapped by members of the …