Animal-assisted interventions use animals to support human health and wellbeing. Ensuring the welfare of participating animals is essential — therapy work can be stressful without proper management.
The welfare of animals participating in human-focused interventions is often overlooked in the focus on human benefit. Therapy animals — particularly dogs visiting hospitals, schools, and disaster sites — interact with many unfamiliar people in stimulating, unpredictable environments. This exposure can be enriching for confident, sociable individuals but stressful for those with lower stress thresholds. Behavioral indicators of stress (lip licking, yawning, whale eye, tucked tail, attempts to move away) should be recognized and respected: animals showing these signs should be removed from the interaction. Session length, recovery time between sessions, and the animal's ability to opt out of unwanted contact are welfare management essentials. Organizations certifying therapy animals are increasingly incorporating welfare assessment into handler training. Animals should never be forced to participate in AAI work, and programs should monitor individual animals longitudinally for signs of cumulative stress.