Do Cats Make Good Therapy Animals? It’s Complicated.

Dogs are sociable, enthusiastic and extensively used to convenience other folks in settings like hospitals, colleges and care properties. But an increasingly well-liked choice is rising: treatment cats.

The time period is continuously used loosely within the media and erratically inside the medical neighborhood. But in its strictest sense, animal-assisted treatment is a structured task delivered by means of well being execs with medical objectives.

Most cats eager about this sort of paintings are a part of broader animal-assisted services and products. For simplicity, we can keep on with “therapy cat” all through this text.

Therapy cats are used to alleviate loneliness and tension. They are utilized in prisons, colleges, hospices, care properties and hospitals and are really helpful for other folks who’re fearful of canines or may combat to engage with huge animals like horses.

The environments treatment cats are continuously taken into, corresponding to nursing properties or colleges, may also be noisy, unpredictable, and stuffed with unfamiliar other folks and setting. These are exactly the types of settings that can unsettle a standard cat.

Cats typically choose predictability and strong setting. Similar to their wildcat ancestors, home cats prioritise territorial safety over social bonds with other folks or different cats.

Cats depend on smell to navigate and really feel safe of their setting. The F3 pheromone is helping them mark spaces as “safe” or “known”, developing a type of olfactory map in their house vary.

Yet fresh social media tendencies recommend a shift in our figuring out. Increasingly, we see cats travelling along their homeowners in a campervan, by way of airplane or even on motorbikes.

These cats seem to tolerate, and every so often even thrive, in environments animal behaviour professionals as soon as assumed have been too traumatic for them. So, what makes those cats other?

Some cats can get pleasure from the presence of a depended on human in unfamiliar or probably traumatic environments. In a 2021 find out about, animal behaviour researcher Alexandra Behnke and co-workers discovered that just about part of the 42 cats they examined confirmed indicators of the safe base impact, a bond that is helping scale back tension and encourages exploration when reunited with their proprietor.

This might be serving to treatment cats deal with new environments.

A fresh find out about led by means of Joni Delanoeije, a Belgian researcher in human-animal interplay, explored how cats decided on for animal-assisted services and products range from the common family puppy.

The find out about analysed survey responses on the subject of 474 cats – 12 of which had participated in such services and products. Cats eager about animal-assisted services and products have been discovered to be extra sociable with each other folks and different cats, have been extra attention-seeking and not more proof against being restrained.

These findings recommend that behavioural characteristics, like sociability and tolerance, would possibly make some cats higher suited for interacting with other folks in unfamiliar settings. However, the small collection of cats in reality eager about carrier paintings on this find out about implies that we’d like extra analysis to attract company conclusions.

These cats even have robust, trusting bonds with their handlers. Early socialisation and sluggish publicity appear to be crucial for making ready cats to deal with the unpredictable nature of carrier paintings.

However, even with those qualities, cats would possibly nonetheless face demanding situations in treatment environments. In a 2023 international find out about of cat-assisted services and products, US psychologists Taylor Griffin and Lori Kogan discovered that even well-adapted cats would possibly combat in apply.

The find out about discovered that 68% of handlers had ended visits early after they deemed it highest for the cat. Handlers on this find out about additionally described robust bonds with their cats – a courting most probably key to the cat’s talent to conform, providing a way of protection and predictability in a probably traumatic atmosphere.

How do treatment cats evaluate to canines?

Cats are other from canines of their social wishes, temperament and tolerance for trade. These variations will have to be moderately thought to be right through variety for treatment paintings – however with their variations come benefits.

For instance, treatment cats would possibly supply extra advantages to folks that see themselves as “cat people”. Research has proven that this self-classification is related to persona characteristics, with cat other folks continuously being extra unbiased, ingenious and self-sufficient.

Dog other folks have a tendency to be extra outgoing, sociable and group-oriented. Cat enthusiasts may really feel extra comfy in one-to-one healing settings, whilst canine enthusiasts may choose group-based actions.

Species personal tastes too can have an effect on emotional responses. In a 2022 find out about, researcher Jovita Lukšaite and co-workers used facial features instrument to analyse members’ reactions to animal pictures.

Both cat and canine pictures caused an identical ranges of happiness on reasonable, but canine pictures evoked considerably extra worry. Fear of canines may scale back the effectiveness of canine-assisted treatment for some, making cats a treasured choice.

Dogs would possibly excel at offering emotional fortify thru bodily interplay however cat purrs are a singular feature that can be offering healing advantages. A 2001 find out about discovered that home cats purr at a frequency between 25 and 50 hertz – a frequency that promotes therapeutic in people.

While there’s a loss of newer analysis to fortify this discovering, a 2021 find out about discovered that cat homeowners reported that their cat’s purrs had a relaxing impact.

So, canines may well be the normal treatment animal, however cats have proven they too have what it takes. With the proper temperament and coaching, cats can be offering one thing other to these short of convenience.

Grace Carroll, Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, School of Psychology, Queen’s University Belfast

This article is republished from The Conversation below a Creative Commons license. Read the unique article.