Josie’s Journey – Brief History about Pet Therapy

Some of the earliest use of animals for therapeutic use was in Belgium in the middle ages, where pets and people were rehabilitated together.  Pets provided natural therapy for humans. 

In the 1940s, the American Red Cross and the Army Air Corps established a farm where recuperating veterans could interact with and take care of animals while they were healing from war injuries and illness. Working with the animals was thought to comfort the recovering veterans, help them forget about the war, and focus on recovery (Fine, 2000).

Dr. Sigmund Freud, used Jo-Fi, his dog, in his clinical practice. Freud believed that Jo-Fi could judge a person’s character. Freud believed that having Jo-Fi present during his therapy sessions had a calming influence on his patients, particularly children (Coren/Walker, 1997).

Formal therapeutic work and research was done by Dr. Boris Levinson. In 1961, while working with a withdrawn and mentally impaired young boy, Dr. Levinson made an “accidental discovery” involving his dog, Jingles. Levinson briefly left Jingles alone with the boy and, when he returned, found the young boy interacting with the dog. During further research Levinson found that the presence of a dog during therapy sessions had a positive effect on impaired young patients. Levinson later used the expression “pet therapy” in reference to Jingles’ beneficial effects on mentally impaired children in a therapeutic setting (Levinson, 1964). 

Therapy animals are nothing new and needed more than ever.  Call us for a cuddle session!

With loving paws,
The Josie’s Journey Team