A Dog’s Love: Animal-Assisted Therapy and Service to the Community

This year-long service-learning project partnered directly with the Statesboro chapter of Therapy Dogs International. The objective was to shadow therapy dogs as they performed their duties to serve the community and see first-hand the benefits of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) as indicated in research. This project was completed for my University Honors Program First Year Experience and Global Citizens courses, appropriately titled Animal-Assisted Therapy and required 25 hours of service and blogs kept to reflect on our experiences. My blog posts include what my visits were like and the results of my visits, which are some benefits of AAT: lowering heart rate, lowering blood pressure, pain management, and decreasing anxiety and stress. Also included are the challenges and benefits it entailed, the things I have learned, what research I have done, and how the benefits of AAT can affect us all