Welcome to the World of Animal-Assisted Therapy and Animal-Assisted Activities

NOW AVAILABLE -- A Distance Learning course in AAT/AAA

AAT and AAA: A Premise and a Promise Definitions How to get started

Publications and Other Resources

Links to Academic Courses and Directories of AAT/AAA and Therapy Dog Programs Survey Course in AAT/AAA at Camden County College in Blackwood, NJ NOW AVAILABLE! -- a Distance Learning course in AAT/AAA through Harcum College

The "Link" Between Animal Abuse, Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

A wide range of human health professionals and practitioners recognize what many people in the animal caregiving fields and everyday pet owners have known for years: that pets can be good for our health and well-being. Companion animals are being introduced into the therapeutic regimens of nursing homes, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, behavioral health programs and others. Therapeutic riding improves the motor skills and coordination of the physically challenged. Pets help inmates in correctional facilities and juvenile offenders to learn empathy and compassion. Dogs can help reluctant readers read. Seniors have discovered that a pet can help them maintain independent living. Military veterans are using therapy dogs and horses to help them cope with ADHD. Canine exercise programs are helping people overcome obesity. In short, wherever people have special needs, someone with passion and an animal with the proper temperament can create an imaginative way to being pets and people together for mutual benefit.

Web site created By Phil Arkow 37 Hillside Road Stratford, NJ 08084 arkowpets@snip.net

Phil Arkow teaches the Survey and Independent Study Certificate courses on Animal-Assisted Therapy and Animal-Assisted Activities at Camden County College in Blackwood, NJ, and the Distance Learning Certificate course in AAT/AAA through Harcum College in Bryn Mawr, PA. He has written "Pet Pals," a biweekly newspaper column on pet care, and has authored or edited 10 key reference books and innumerable articles on animal-assisted therapy, the human-animal bond, humane education, the animal abuse/human violence connection, and animal shelter management. He chairs the Latham Foundation's international Child and Animal Abuse Prevention Project, under whose auspices he wrote three manuals to cross-train employees of animal shelters, child prevention agencies, and domestic violence prevention programs to recognize and report each others' forms of family violence. He also edited three textbooks on the human-animal bond and its therapeutic applications: Animal-Assisted Therapy & Activities: A Study and Research Resource Guide for the Use of Companion Animals in Animal-Assisted Interventions, The Loving Bond and Dynamic Relationships in Practice. He has served on national boards and advisory committees of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Delta Society, the American Association of Human-Animal Bond Veterinarians, the National Animal Control Association, the National Link Coalition, and the American Humane Association. He consults with the ASPCA and the Animals and Society Institute. He owns a business which produces fundraising materials for humane societies nationwide. He lectures and trains internationally at veterinary, humane, judicial, and social services conferences on a variety of topics.

Need more information? E-mail arkowpets@snip.net