” The Parole de Chien association recruits and trains volunteer dog owners and their dogs to visit elderly or handicapped people in hospitals, retirement homes and specialised nursing homes.
Our aim is to make the most of the spontaneous companionship of a dog to comfort and relieve the stress of patients in these establishments.
People respond eagerly to animals, and the therapeutic effect of visiting dogs cheers them up and helps them to communicate.
The visits and interaction with dogs help to stimulate mobility, feeling, speech and memory.
A paper presented at a congress of the American Heart Association
The results confirm the beneficial and therapeutic effects of the presence of an animal on human health – lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and reducing anxiety and agressivity. ”
“It would be dangerous, and disrespectful towards animals to use them in order to treat humans to the detriment of their own development. If we work together, if each of us can bring something to the other, then the mutual aid contract is correct. But if the beneficial effect to one leads to the death of the other then the contact can become abusive.”
Boris Cyrulnik (La Plus Belle Histoire des Animaux)
Isabelle de Tournemire – Founder – Director of the Parole de Chien association.
Parole de Chien makes individual visits and also carries out group activities.
These moments shared with volunteers and their dogs help residents to forget their aches and pains, to regain confidence, to feel useful, to be more self-reliant, and to communicate.