Effectiveness of animal assisted intervention: Comparisons among dogs, goats, rabbits, and guinea pigs

Abstract

Dogs are the most common animals used in animal assisted interventions. However, goats, rabbits, and guinea pigs also provide physical, psychological, and social benefits to humans. Dogs are likely to adapt to animal assisted therapy and are suitable for visiting treatment programs with definite purposes in medical facilities because they can respond to excretion control and behavioral training. However, difficulties involved in keeping goats can cause various ripple effects in animal assisted education if they can cope with a situation. Small herbivores such as rabbits and guinea pigs are likely to be useful for animal assisted education with multidimensional purposes in caregiving in classrooms because of their lovely features, characterized as “baby schema,” and mild behavioral traits. Various animal assisted intervention programs can be introduced, depending on the characteristics of an animal species and the environment. Research reports are limited; however, rabbits and guinea pigs, which are commonly used in primary education in Japan, will also be useful for the further development of animal assisted intervention with regard to animal welfare, practice environment, and purpose.