DJ Pet Assisted Therapy Finds a New Partner at URI

Few things can brighten a hospital room or calm an anxious patient quite like the gentle presence of a loving therapy pet. For more than three decades, Rhode Island based DJ Professional Pet Assisted Therapy founded by Pearl Salotto in honor of her first dog, “DJ” Dog of Joy, has helped provide comfort and connection to clients. Now, through a new partnership with the University of Rhode Island (URI), the program is expanding its reach by offering a Professional Pet Assisted Therapy Certificate.

Pet therapy can offer numerous benefits for patients. Successful programs have been proven to reduce stress and anxiety, improve mood, ease loneliness, and encourage physical activity. Programs can be rewarding for both caregivers and patients, especially older adults, patients with dementia, and children with autism and other developmental differences.

The program is robust. “It’s a total of three courses that educate people and their pets as a team to provide pet therapy,” says Sierra Perez, of URI’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. “URI is excited to partner with them and assist them in a way that perhaps a non-profit animal organization wouldn’t be able to do,” she says. “It’s kind of a new model for universities to be partnering with nonprofits, and that’s something that our office specializes in.”

The intensive curriculum educates pet owners and their family pets as they develop together as pet-assisted therapy teams and create pet therapy programs. Participants first learn the principles of animal-assisted therapy through classroom instruction and guest speakers. They then take what they have learned in the classroom into practice with their pet in a healthcare setting. Finally, they complete a mentored internship at an approved site.

Classes are held in Providence in partnership with the Elmhurst Rehabilitation Center. Graduates serve at locations such as Rhode Island Family Court, schools, veterans centers, and other healthcare and community facilities. Once successfully graduated, the pet assisted therapy teams become credentialed through Windwalker Humane Coalition.

The model emphasizes the ethics and existing relationship between an owner and their pet. Perez says that bond can make the therapeutic connection stronger than pairing handlers with unfamiliar animals. “There are other models where you can just get a random dog and use them,” she notes. “But in this case, we find that the connection and the therapy are better when it’s your own pet. You can kind of take it to the next level.”

The curriculum also places the animal’s comfort and personality at the center of the process. “You might think, ‘This is the setting that I want to be in,’ but your pet, who’s actually providing the work, might like other settings,” Perez explains. “Sometimes the dogs like being around children, and sometimes they like being around the elderly. Not all therapy dogs are the same.”

The certificate program is available to various groups, including retirees, healthcare professionals, educators, occupational and physical therapists as well as social workers. “The Windwalker humane Coalition is the only pet therapy organization approved by the Rhode Island Family Court, and it was recently approved to provide continuing education credits for social workers from the NASW, which is really exciting. It’s also good for teachers. Anyone who wants to bring their pet with them and make others around them happy, this program is a great way of doing that,” says Perez.

The partnership provides a good example of how universities and community nonprofits can work together. For participants, the program’s value is often most visible in the personal stories shared during classes. “It’s very heartwarming, every single time you get together with a group, you hear about their successes – there’s always happy tears every class,” adds Perez. Learn more at Web.Uri.Edu/Osi/Pet.