The impact of Digitally Delivered Dog Assisted Activities on Depression

Dog assisted activities - face to face - arm 1 Dog assisted activities - virtual delivery- arm 2 The investigational product is Dog Assisted Activities delivered by Noosa and Hinterland rural therapy dogs. A trained and registered therapy dog (and handler) will visit each participant for twenty (20) minutes, twice a week, for three (3) consecutive weeks. The visits will be face to face in facility one, delivered digitally in facility two. The third facility will receive no animal assisted activities. For each session, the participants will be given the option to see the dog in their own room or with others in the common area. . Each session will start with a greeting phase, when each participant will have the opportunity to be introduced to the dog and handler and told about the dog ( such as name, breed, age, likes and dislikes). Thereafter, the handler will commence the different activities, which may include any of the following: petting the dog, holding the dogs lead, having the dog sit on the residents bed so they could hug the dog and feel its warmth and throwing a toy for the dog to fetch. The handler would encourage the resident to reminisce about previous animals the resident had owned and to share stories of that experience. However, no activities will be mandatory. A Team Leader with experience with animal assisted intervention, in both face to face delivery and digital interventions, will supervise in each facility during all sessions to ensure adherence to protocol. Digital delivery will be provided through live zoom sessions that will not be recorded.. Team leaders will keep an attendance checklists, as well as keep record of which participant interacted with which individual dog and handler team.