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A "Pawsitive" Influence of Animals in Long-Term Care Facilities: Animal-Assisted Therapy at St. Peter Regional Treatment Center
Contributor(s):: Hannah L. Winkler
The St. Peter Regional Treatment Center (SPRTC) provides secure, residential, multi-disciplinary treatment services, including psychosocial rehabilitation and skill enhancement, to individuals civilly committed as Mental Ill and Dangerous by the State of Minnesota. Since the treatment process is...
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Are Companion Animals the Secret to Good Health?
Contributor(s):: Bradley Smith, Petra Bywood
People keep pets for companionship, recreation and protection rather than for the specific purpose of enhancing health. However, a considerable body of literature supports the idea that companion animals can improve overall quality of life, including physical, social and psychological health, yet...
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Dogs: A Prescription for Health Issues?
| Contributor(s):: Denise Magallon
The human-‐animal bond has been seen throughout many generations. Pet owners, especially those who own dogs, are known to live a different lifestyle than non-‐pet owners. However, the individuals who can receive the most benefits from dogs are those with certain psychological and...
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Genetic Canine Agression
| Contributor(s):: Isabella O\'Toole
Canine aggression can pose a serious concern for public and animal welfare. Most of what we know about aggression comes from bite statistics, expert opinions and breed-specific aggressiveness. These sources can often be misleading due to biases toward large or powerful breeds. In this review, I...
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Healthy Paws Doggie Day Camp
| Contributor(s):: Alexandra Salazar
“Healthy Paws Doggie Day Camp” is an event that will help owners and dogs incorporate physical activity into their daily lives. General knowledge of exercise concerning dogs is considerably lacking, obviously observed as they become more obese over time (Fennell, 2005). Between 40-50 percent of...
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Natural Connections: A Recommendation to Implement an Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) Program within the Shakopee MdewakantonSioux Community
| Contributor(s):: Heidi Simon
Currently the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community does not have an Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) program. The purpose of this project was to research AAT programs that exist in First Nation Communities. The ultimate goal was to present evidence to support the implementation of a culturally based...
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PAWS-abilities
| Contributor(s):: Taylor Davis, Madelyn Day, Kendall DuLaney, Jordanne Howard, Cierra Monroe, Jordan Tapp
PAWS-abilities is our non-profit business idea. Our goal for PAWS-abilities is to provide a safe environment for local stray dogs and rehabilitate them to become service or therapy dogs in the future. The trainers will be local inmates who have passed a strict screening process to ensure the...
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Stress Reduction After Visiting Cats in a Cat Café
| Contributor(s):: Nicole L. Beasley
Research has attempted to induce stress and has been unsuccessful at demonstrating the efficacy of stress reduction. This may indicate that animal interaction is more beneficial when reducing longer-term stress rather than short-term stress, like what has been studied in the past. Additionally,...
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The Best Therapist Has Fur and Four Legs
| Contributor(s):: Jordyn Boesch, Sarah Boggs, Mark Campbell, Sarah Elam, Chelsea Hunley
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The Bridge River Dogs: Interpreting aDNA and Stable Isotope Analysis Collected From Dog Remains
| Contributor(s):: Emilia Tifental
Excavations at the Bridge River site have been on-going since 2003, increasing our understanding of the communities that inhabited the Middle Fraser Canyon, British Columbia, over 1,000 years ago. The most recent excavation at Housepit 54 in the summer of 2014 supplied further data regarding...
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The effect of the presence and familiarity of a dog on people's performance of a stressful task
| Contributor(s):: Lyn Brown
The purpose of the current study was to test whether the familiarity of a dog affects a person’s stress and task performance on a stressful task. Pets can improve people’s health mentally, physically, and socially. Dogs can lower people’s stress. This stress-reduction effect...
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The Effects of Pet Ownership on Anxiety and Depression Among Trauma-Exposed College Students
| Contributor(s):: Dung N. Nguyentran, Marlene A. Michniak, James J. Jung, Christine Q. Do
Rates of anxiety and depression are prevalent in college students and can be attributed in part to stress and trauma-related events. However, studies suggest that pet ownership has the possibility of alleviating symptoms of anxiety, depression, negative emotions, and suicide. The purpose of...
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The Human-Animal Bond and Combat-Related Posttraumatic Stress
| Contributor(s):: Melissa White
This study explored the lived experiences of Operational Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) service members with combatrelated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms who had a companion animal postdeployment. Twelve OEF and OIF veterans participated in...
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The Truth about Humans: The Decision to Adopt Dogs & Cats
| Contributor(s):: Leann Stadtlander
Millions of dogs and cats are adopted from animal shelters every year, however, little is known about why specific animals are adopted. This study examines the qualitative comments given by adopters of cats and dogs for selecting specific animals. Differences between the species and insights...
