VISTAS Online is an innovative publication produced for ACA by Dr. Garry R. Walz and Dr. Jeanne C. Bleuer of Counseling Outfitters, LLC. Its purpose is to provide a means of capturing the ideas, information and experiences generated by the annual ACA Conference and selected ACA Division Conferences. Papers on a program or practice that has been validated through research or experience may also be submitted. This digital collection of peer-reviewed articles is authored by counselors, for counselors. VISTAS Online contains the full text of over 900 proprietary counseling articles published from 2004 to 2017.
2017
Bring Your Dog to Work Day: What Animal-Assisted Therapy Is NOT
Erica Schlau
2017
Animal welfare is a component that is largely absent in the dialogue surrounding the emerging field of animal-assisted therapy. This article will promote a deeper understanding of animal-assisted therapy, provide a guide to understanding canine behavior in the therapy room, and offer tools that counselor s can use when working with therapy dogs. Further, methods of selecting and training an appropriate therapy dog will be discussed.
Keywords: animal-assisted therapy, ethics, animal welfare