Dogs used in animal-assisted therapy provide measurable benefits to humans but have their own welfare needs that must be actively managed throughout their working lives.
Therapy dogs provide genuine benefits to human recipients but are often treated as tools whose welfare is secondary to their function. Dogs cannot consent to working in potentially stressful environments and may mask stress through training. Active welfare monitoring including behavioral assessment, appropriate session limits, mandatory rest between visits and choice-based interaction protocols are ethical requirements for any therapy dog program.