Assistance dogs have been used greatly for hundreds of years to emotionally help disabled individuals. Recently, many of these individuals have included war veterans such as Lieutenant Luis Carlos Montalvan. Montalvan served in Iraq not long after the 9/11 tragedy. When he returned home his marriage ended and he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Eventually, he discovered a service dogs program for people like him. This is when he became acquainted to Tuesday, a golden retriever service dog. Tuesday helped Montalvan tremendously because she was able to adjust to his mood swings. She had the ability to calm him down if he were ever to start acting violently. Wall Street Journal called Tuesday “a seeing eye dog for the mind” when they discovered what she had done. This is just one of the many examples Donald Altschiller states in this book that prove how amazing the human-animal bond can be.
Dogs and cats have been around for centuries making us feel better emotionally and physically. Originally, in 1964 Boris Levinson, a child psychiatrist, founded the term “pet therapy.” This term is was used to explain the effects of dog
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In 1999, the organization R.E.A.D was founded. Reading Education Assistance Dogs was aimed towards children with reading disorders who would have reading sessions with dogs to encourage and motivate them. This program proved have created improved reading comprehension, higher self-esteem and better relationships with classmates. Dog-assisted therapy has also been show to help children with autism. Researchers have stated that dogs have a “strong impact” on the behaviors of autistic children, this will cause the autistic children to display less symptoms, like jumping, humming and twirling