If you live in the Peterborough area and have a well-mannered and friendly dog who loves back scratches and meeting new people, a charity is providing a way for you to give them all the attention they could want while making a “pawsitive” impact on people in the community facing mental health and other challenges.
Toronto-based Sunshine Therapy Dogs is expanding operations into Peterborough and is seeking dog owners who want to volunteer their time for the benefit of both their furry friends and the community.
Volunteers with Sunshine Therapy Dogs will take their dogs to community institutions, organizations, and individual residences to bring joy, companionship, and calming to those experiencing mental or emotional illness or loneliness.
“There are a lot of dog owners who experience the love of their dogs and want to share it,” says Alan Harman, the founder of Sunshine Therapy Dogs. “There’s a lot of research out there about the benefits of animal companionship on a person’s well-being.”
A dog lover his whole life, having been raised by a mother who bred German Shepherds, Harman has always been an active volunteer in his community and started his first charity, a dog rescue called Adopt a Dog Save a Life, at 27 years old.
“Along the way, I experienced this onslaught of mental and emotional disease,” he says. “I personally had gone through times where I struggled and one of my kids was suffering a little bit, and I found that dogs were helpful for me, for my child, and also for other people.”
It was his daughter’s Bernese Mountain Dog Hershey, as well as similar stories from friends and families, which showed Harman how impactful dogs can be on mental health and inspired him to begin the charity. Unfortunately, Hershey passed away before the charity was launched and instead it was Harman’s own dog Tico (a rescue from his charity) who became the first Sunshine Therapy Dog.
“He turned out to be the perfect therapy dog because he loves to be petted, loves to be touched, and he is very patient with kids with erratic behaviours,” Harman says, noting Tico has done more than 150 visits over the past four years. “He’s been really wonderful company to me, but he’s also now spread his love to so many people through his visits.”
While it doesn’t take in-depth research to understand the value of pets in a family, the benefits of human-dog interaction have been proven time and time again. In fact, fossil evidence suggests that humans began domesticating dogs at least 14,000 years ago, and possibly tens of thousands of years earlier.
Today, interactions between dogs and children and young people have been linked to aiding in the development of empathy, in reducing stress, and in reducing symptoms of PTSD and depression. In elderly people, dog interactions enhance quality of life, promote mobility, and reduce loneliness and isolation. The human-canine bond has even been linked to increasing motivation in workplaces.
“For anybody that is suffering, or any school that’s having a wellness-related event or a high-stress situation like an exam, having a dog around might be helpful to bring some peace and calm,” says Harman.
There is also research showing that dogs receive just as much from the companionship and interactions of these interactions as people do.
“In dogs, it’s the same neurons firing that fire in the human brains, so they are receiving the same pleasure,” Harman says. “I liken it to a human experience: when someone simply touches you or strokes you, you do have this response right in your central nervous system, and it’s the same with dogs.”
Sunshine Therapy Dogs regularly attends schools during exam season or after traumatic events, as well as penitentiaries, seniors’ homes, and workplaces, and even does individual home visits.
“We get parents calling us and saying they have a child with special needs and they think it would be helpful,” Harman explains. “Then we’re getting middle-aged people calling and saying they have a parent who would love to get to interact with a dog. When we first started going into schools, every single visit with a student would say this was the highlight of their week, or they’ve been waiting all semester for this.”
Since being founded in 2020, Sunshine Therapy Dogs has grown exponentially, mostly through word-of-mouth, and now has more than 250 volunteer dogs spanning York, Hamilton, Niagara, and Durham Regions. The charity is now seeking volunteers within Peterborough — a place Harman himself has connections to as a Trent University graduate with family still living in the area.
Dogs of any breed can become a Sunshine Therapy Dog, so long as they are more than a year old and do not have physical ailments. All volunteers and their dogs will be seen by a third-party Toronto-based dog training and behaviour specialist, Maggi Burtt at Tailspin Petworx, to ensure the dogs will react appropriately in various situations.
“Seniors, in particular, love small dogs, and love the tricks,” says Harman. “I’ve been really surprised by the breadth of breeds that have come through.”
Volunteers themselves will have a criminal background checks, get interviewed by the charity’s board of directors, and will be observed on two visits before being able to attend events on their own.
VIDEO: Paws ‘N’ Hearts – Sunshine Therapy Dogs
Although there is a process to become a volunteer with Sunshine Therapy Dogs, the actual role itself is not at all onerous.
“You’re not actually doing anything,” Harman explains. “The dogs are doing the heavy lifting and being petted. The person interacting with the dog is benefiting, the dogs are enjoying it, and you’re apart from the transaction and just witnessing and recognizing the love.”
Along with the benefits for their dogs, volunteers will also have the satisfaction of knowing people in their community are getting mental health or emotional support.
“It’s absolutely beautiful and it’s undeniable there’s something going on that’s meaningful and deep,” he says. “It’s therapy that wouldn’t be available otherwise.”
For more information about Sunshine Therapy Dogs, to apply to become a volunteer with your dog, or to book a visit from a Sunshine Therapy Dog, visit www.sunshinetherapydogs.ca.
