The Quick Answer
Yes!
At Healing Hooves, we work with several friendly barn cats, a dog, and chickens in addition to horses. In the past we have incorporated work with donkeys, rabbits and guinea pigs. This is however stepping into the broader field of Animal Assisted Therapy (AAT) or Animal Assisted Interventions (AAI) which brings with it considerations, responsibilities and requirements, some of which we discuss below.
The Longer Answer
While most EFW certifying bodies (including Pro-EFW) only certify you to work with equines – horses, donkeys and mules – the reality is that most of us have other animals whom our clients may want to meet and interact with. What this means for you and your practice will depend on several factors including the nature of your work, your client base, and the species of animal you choose to include in your work, or to simply have on your premises. Remember that your responsibility for client and animal well being and safety applies as much when a client picks up your barn cat or throws a ball for your dog as it does when they interact with your horses.
If you plan to incorporate non-equines into your equine therapy practice, I recommend you give some thought to the following areas of consideration.
Insurance
Make sure that your insurance (commercial and professional) includes coverage for non-equines which matches your scope of practice, the work you plan to do, and the animals you will be incorporating. We will be talking further about insurance in our next blog post.
Allergies
Incorporating different animals increases the potential for allergies. Be sure to let clients know in advance what species you work with/ have on site, and to ask about any allergies. If you provide allergy medication make sure you have parental consent before giving this to any clients who are minors.
Client comfort level
Not all clients will feel comfortable with all species. I image that snake or spider assisted therapy would be a bit of a hard sell! At Healing Hooves, we communicate with all clients prior to the first session regarding the animals they have the option to work with and ask about their comfort level and preference in each case.
Client Safety (Physical and Emotional)
Different animals present the potential for different risks, and a key part of our responsibility is always to keep our clients physically and emotionally safe during sessions. This means that just as we need to consider client safety within all our equine practices, interactions with other animals also need to be safe for our clients. This impacts species and individual animal selection, training and care, as well as our decisions around who works with which animal.
Pro-EFW have comprehensive requirements around client safety as do most certifying bodies and thus safety is explored and discussed during all trainings at Healing Hooves. While our primary focus is upon equine work we extend this to apply to the other animals worked with at Healing Hooves. At our Exploration training we explore safety through mini case studies drawn from real life examples during which we consider who is at risk (client, animal, facilitator), what the risks are, and how the risk could be mitigated and/ or avoided. These include scenarios with non-equines and we encourage you to bring your own case studies for us to discuss.
Animal Safety and Well being (Physical and Emotional)
As introduced within our prior blog The Role of the Horse in Equine Therapy the Pro-EFW certification program includes a significant focus on the physical and emotional needs and well being of the equines we work with, grounded in the underlying belief that equines are sentient beings.
I believe that this sentience, and thus our responsibility, applies to all the species of animals we work with.
We need to be constantly assessing our animals’ well being and comfort level in, and suitability for, this work, give them lots of time off, allow them to retire when they are ready, and take care of their needs. How we do this is going to be different for different species. For example, most cats will be pretty good at setting their own boundaries about who they interact with and when, while a dog or rabbit may need more support. As with our horses it comes down to knowing the species, knowing the individual animals, listening, and then acting on their behalf as and when needed.
For example, at Healing Hooves, in addition to our horses we have several cats and a border collie. Our border collie, Maggie, loves to meet and greet clients and to chase the occasional ball. We also regularly talk about her antics and have even written one of our therapeutic stories about her. But there is no way Maggie would feel comfortable joining us in the office for a counselling session, and for everyone’s safety we keep her separate when we work with the horses.
Our cats also have preferences. Max starts off most sessions sitting on the client’s feet to make sure they notice him and pick him up, while two of our cats are rarely seen by any client. They are friendly and affectionate family cats but have chosen not to be therapy cats, except on very rare occasions. We honour their boundaries and the possibility that these will change over time.
Certification and Training
As noted in our earlier articles Who Should I Certify With in Equine Therapy and How Long Does it Take to Certify in Equine Therapy and How Much Does it Cost I recommend that you have training, experience and be certified in the approach you plan to follow, with your client population, and with the animal/s you plan to work with.
Most EFW certifying bodies only certify you for your work with equines: horses, donkeys and mules.
If your ‘non-equine’ work will be limited to your clients playing with or cuddling your friendly barn cats at the start or end of their session or reading stories about your dog and building this into your equine work, then the training we provide at Healing Hooves and certification through EFW Canada is likely sufficient to prepare you for this work, provided you screen all animals who will be interacting with your clients and confirm your insurance coverage extends to their involvement. Our facilitators are trained and certified in AAT as well as in EFW, much of what we teach is applicable to non-equines, and we regularly incorporate our barn cats and occasionally our dog, into both our client sessions and training workshops. As noted above, you need to extend the considerations around ethics, care and safety (physical and emotional) to include all the animals that will be interacting with your clients, and check your insurance coverage.
If your ‘non-equine” work will be with a more specialised or exotic species, if it becomes a significant part of your practice, and/ or if you plan to travel with your animal(s) to public facilities (e.g. a school or nursing home) I would recommend you explore an AAT certification program which includes a focus upon working with that specific species and likely also certification for your therapy animal partner. There are many online programs that offer AAT training, and we also highly recommend the training programs from Eileen Bona at Dreamcatcher Nature Assisted Therapy near Edmonton.
Eileen currently has a vlog series which answers similar questions to this FAQ series – but about non-equines – which is well worth watching.
Animal Certification
If you plan to do visitation type programming, to take any of your animals ‘on the road’ with you, or to have significant client interactions with non-equines, you should explore getting these animals certified. There are various programs which will certify animals and their handlers for visitation programs. Again, Eileen Bona at Dreamcatcher Nature Assisted Therapy is a wealth of information in this area. Pet Partners (formerly the Delta Society) is also a good resource.
There are currently no programs in Canada I am aware of that will certify a horse for EFW, however selecting and training your EFW horses, and attending to their physical and emotional needs before, during and after client work, is something that is covered within all Pro-EFW approved training. At Healing Hooves, we introduce this during our exploration training with discussions around the role of the horse, safety, ethics and the impact of this work upon the horse. We then extend this during both weeks of focus training with a whole day of each training dedicated to exploring and applying a horsemanship approach that fits well within Pro-EFW. Pro-EFW have comprehensive requirements in this area, both in terms of what is taught at training workshops and the skills you are required to demonstrate.
Interaction Between Different Species
In addition to considering the individual needs, risks and benefits of each species you also need to think about how they will interact with each other. We are fortunate that our dog, Maggie, gets along well with our cats (the cats are in charge of course) but we soon learned that having free range chickens was not going to work. We also are very cautious with dogs around horses. Many equine insurance policies actually become invalidated if there is a loose dog on the premises. Our policy at Healing Hooves is that our dog is around at the start and end of the session (provided both the client and Maggie are comfortable with this) but she goes into the house or tack room before we bring any horses in.
Relationship Based
Whatever animal you work with, the health and quality of your relationship with that animal is critical – for them, for your clients and for you. Most of this work is relationship based, and most of our clients our struggling with relationship concerns and needs. We need to practice and model good relationships in order to create a healing environment for our clients, and in an equine or animal assisted therapy program this applies to our relationships with our animals. This means spending time with our animals, getting to know them well, admitting and addressing it when we go through times of struggle.
The beauty of this is that it ends up being so good for us; remember all the healing benefits this work and being with animals brings to our clients? We get to experience it too.
Client Animals
At Healing Hooves all our work is done at our facility with our animals who we have long term relationships with. Our work is very relationship based and we have found through experience that trying to do the work with animals we do not have these relationships with is much less effective. It may be different for you, in which case I would suggest that all the above considerations still apply, so it will be finding a way to make that work with your situation. We have supported professionals in the past who have worked with other people’s horses and have a blog specifically on this area of consideration: Do I need My Own Horses or Facility to Work in Equine Therapy. There are certainly lots of ways to make this work!
At Healing Hooves, we do not allow clients to bring their own animals onsite for a variety of safety reasons and due to the nature of our work. Again, this is not a ‘rule’ for all practitioners in the field and if you can keep things safe for all involved you may be able to do things differently.
One way to safely honour and build upon your clients’ relationships with their animals is by encouraging them to share pictures, share stories and talk about their animals. This includes animals they may have lost and can be a hugely powerful and healing aspect of equine and animal assisted therapies.
Other Resources
Healing Hooves does primarily focus upon equine work, thus if you plan to do much work with non-equines I would recommend you access some of the following resources and do some more research specific to the species and nature of therapy you are interested in.
- CCPA Animal Assisted Counselling in Therapy Chapter
- Dream Catcher Nature Assisted Therapy
- Pet Partners (formerly the Delta Society)
- The Chimo Project
- Your Insurance company or advisor
- Your mental health or education professional association
Note: If you are unsure of any of the terminology or acronyms we used above please refer to our earlier blog postwhere we defined and reviewed these terms for you.
If you found this article helpful, please share it!
Next Question in the Series: What insurance is needed in Equine Therapy and where Can I find this?
What about you? If you have any questions you’d like us to answer in this series, or questions on any of the above material, please use the comments section below!
Community( formerly Chestermere) Therapy Dogs Association is well run non profit organization certifying therapy dogs for animal assisted activities (AAA) and coordinating ‘clients’ and ‘ volunteers’, in the Calgary vicinity.
I am also interested in AAT and understand that if I want to pursue this area, that I will need further training and certification in this specialty. I appreciate the respect that you have for all of your animal partners at HH, Sue.
In addition to some of the organizations mentioned here, there is a Facebook page called “animal assisted play therapy”, they have lots of resources and also often training.
yes, that is a great resource too, thanks for sharing this Sarah!
Great information to consider regarding other animals and how their interact with clients.
I want to mostly stick with equine. They just drop my guards faster than any other animals… for me anyways. But you could sell snake therapy to my oldest daughter. She goes into an almost hypnotic state petting one with it draped over her neck.
I saw a girl recently on a Netflix special called `love on the spectrum`that appeared to use a snake as a therapy animal. My daughter is also on the autism spectrum would agree that snakes are quite calming, while I also prefer horses. haha
Its interesting to see how everyone interacts and reacts to different animals
This article brought a lot of clarity to a big question I had around incorporating other animal into my practice. Thank you for all of this information and the links!
I appreciated the resources listed for anyone interested in incorporating other species into their animal wellness practices.
I think I would start with mostly equine and evolve with other animals. That would give me an opportunity to do some planning and see if it makes sense. I have experienced animals interacting well and also not so much. Where I work in a hospital they bring in dogs and other places bring in cats and I know how therapeutic it can be. This will be something to look at another day for myself.
Frank
Growing up our family dog was involved in PALS. I have thought about taking one of my dogs though the training to get her certified. It would be nice to have her trained whether or not we formally do any work. Thank you for all the information another one ear marked for a business plan.
Thank you for the great info. The part about cats setting their own boundaries is spot on! I am interested in AAT as well and am still trying to weigh the two disciplines in terms of fit for myself and practice.
I have attended a St. John’s Ambulance Dog Therapy Program Information Session to determine the suitability of either of my dogs as trained therapy animals. This is something I plan to pursue in the future when my young dog is a little older.
I appreciate all of the great information regarding AAT and incorporating other animals into one’s therapy practice. This is something that I plan on doing in the near future and this article along with the other resources listed have been very helpful on how to go about this.
Snake assisted therapy? lol OMG no thank you. My son is in the process of being certify with his dog with Pet Partners, so I have a better understand of this process now, I have been told that I might be able to offer pet therapy with my miniature horse as well, I am going to explore that route later. Right now we have loose dogs at our property, and after reading this article, I will reconsider that now. I think doing like Sue, having the dog at the beginning and at the end might be the best way of doing it. tks.
Lots of good points to consider in this article. Insurance, allergies, comfort level – great article. Currently i have visitors to my yard to pet dogs and horses, the cats always find their way to the visitors as well. I always keep my dog in the back yard when i’m working with horses in the pasture, for safety reasons. My old dog used to just walk beside us, but the new dog is just a little more active and it’s better to be safe than sorry.
This module has been very informative! I was unaware that there was even AAT training, so that is very useful. I love that you provide information and other resources as well on the topics. You can tell throughout the blog the respect and love you have for all animals, and it transcends throughout the work you do. I am excited for the exploration training to learn more on all of these topics, and meet the different critters!
Thanks again for being so thorough with this information. As I don’t have my own facility these will be important considerations as I look for opportunities to partner.
Very informative post. It provided some important points I hadn’t previously considered when thinking about incorporating other animals in the therapy process. Something to think further about now!
Very helpful post when considering thinking of incorporating other animals in to a counseling practice. There are so many things to consider.
Hmm, this is a helpful article, and answers some of my big questions. I’m just wondering if pursuing one of those other organizations is better then, as HH doesn’t do much training in other species. Food for thought, thanks!
Hi Alida, this is a good consideration to raise. We do a lot of our work with non equines at Healing Hooves (cats, dogs, chickens, rabbits) and incorporate them into all of our trainings, especially when people have an interest in working with non equines. Part of my earliest training was in fact in AAT . BUT – the certification with EFW-Canada certifies you primarily for work with equines. So this is likely more of a certification question rather than a training question.
Your distance ed. manual lists some of the AAT certification programs which are available. If you plan to work primarily with non equines then these may be well worth exploring. If they have a ‘hands on’ component you may find they accept the Healing Hooves training to meet this. If you plan to work mainly with equines with some inclusion of other animals, as we do at Healing Hooves, then the EFW Canada route is likely still your best option. I did both but I realise that can be quite a big undertaking!
I have enjoyed reading about client experiences at Healing Hooves with the other animals and believe there is benefit from these relationships as well. I think providing client with opportunity to work with other animals ideal, if desired, but understand that additional training/certification would be required.
I appreciate all the information on how to integrate other animals into my scope of practice. I would be interested in exploring how I may do that to add to my scope of practice, as the dogs I have owned have been invaluable to my physical and mental wellness, along with the wellness of my family members. Allowing this integration may help my future practice become more well-rounded.
I think it’s nice to have options of animals that can support. If a client is intimidated by horses, maybe a cat or a dog might be able to support the client better. I believe that there is an animal-person partnership that works for everyone, it just so happens that dogs and equines are the most studied and utilized because of their historical connection with humans.
I love the idea to encourage clients to share photos and stories of their own animals!
OOOOO! That would make for an excellent journal entry!!! <3
Big question I had, thanks for the answer! If I get something up and going at my place I’d love to include cats and dogs. My one dog is a therapy dog already. So I’ll have to inquire on insurance for that end of things. We also have a mini donkey. She would be very interesting to include haha 😛
Absolutely – safety is number 1 in all interactions regardless of species.
I started off thinking I would do more work with dogs and looking into that route because I figured a dog was easier to keep and take places than a horse. Now I have 2 horses and no dog and no plan to get one yet. It is still in my plans eventually and I LOVE Dreamcatchers Association but I am definitely more focused on horses now. Safety is definitely something to consider- my mare chases any dogs that go in her field (she’s not even a mule!) .
I love working with horses because of the predator-prey relationship. I used to want to do therapy with my dog, but he’s too crazy haha. Maybe one day!
Hi Steph!
We have a border collie who certainly has lots of crazy moments. She can’t be part of the program in the traditional therapy dog way, but we do take her for walks with clients and we also do lots of ‘one step removed’ work through her antic. You can find an example here: https://healinghooves.ca/life-lessons-from-a-border-collie-e-motion-needs-to-move/
In terms of predator prey stuff – one thing we explore within our horsemanship sessions is that humans can also be prey. This opens up a whole other aspect of the work and the opportunities for learning. More on this in Foundations and focus training and also a little here: https://healinghooves.ca/why-horses-all-we-have-in-common-and-not-part-one/
My initial thought was, “the more animals the merrier!” This article gave me lots to think about, sometimes I get a bit excited and forget to think about the more practical aspects..like how all the animals will get along or how to make sure all are safe.
As I continue to read through these blogs, I realize that EFL along with AAT will be incorporated in my practice. Thank you for sharing the AAT resources. It’s comforting to see that you’re all a community and support each other for the greater well-being of the equines, animals and those in need.
Thanks for sharing all of these resources. Using other animals may be something I look into in the future, but for now I am leaning more towards only horses.
All animals have a healing aspect to them. I think it is considerably important to be open minded to the possibility that a client may find a connection with an animal other than an equine and that depending on the experiences they are trying to work through, their sessions may require working with more than one animal/species throughout their journey.
I have often wondered about different types of animals in therapy and the usefulness of this! I happen to love pigs and think it would be great to do pig assisted therapy, but I’m not sure I would have any clients! I love how people can connect with all sorts of different animals and wonder about whether how effective animal assisted therapy would be with different animals. Does it depend on the type of animal, or could any animal be effective with the right training, therapist and client?
Hi Liz – I think that provided the facilitator has experience and training with the species, and a good relationship with the specific animal, then lots of different animals could be included. Provided it is safe of course (maybe not crocodile assisted therapy!) One of the places I did an internship with had a pig who clients interacted with – he was one of the favourites!
Liz I love pigs! They are very smart. I wonder how they would do in terms of being therapy animals!
Having seen a lot of amazing results with therapy animals (mostly dogs), I certainly have a secondary interest in AAT, but my primary interest is working with horses. I love that there are choices out there… and I could never be without animals around… but for this kind of work, I want my focus to be the horse.
I really look forward to coming to meet not only your horses, but the dogs, cats and even chickens ! I have lived on a farm or acreage most of my life, and can spend hours watching the spontaneous interactions between all the animals living in the same environment. There is always something going on !!
I agree Sandra – sometimes the interactions between different species can be the best!
I was very fortunate to have my undergrad practicum at Dreamcatcher. It was an incredible experience and a huge reality check of the enormous responsibility and the level of knowledge required to ethically practice in partnership with a variety of species. Researching how to provide quality care, and understanding the behaviours of all of the different animals that are often co facilitators in AAT is vital. I used to think that I wanted goats in my practice, and couldn’t have ever imagined getting emotionally attached to a chicken. That all changed once the practicum was completed! Goats would push me into needing therapy myself – which would be perfectly fine if an adorable chicken was on my lap. 🙂
It was truly one of the best experiences of my life, and extremely inspirational.
Thank you for this information and discussion- it answers a question I had in a prior post regarding potential AAT training programs. I have made note to look into Dreamcatcher Nature Assisted Therapy as a possible resource to explore canine AAT. I also appreciate the invitation to consider the interaction between species in programs and had not previously thought about the impact of loose canines on equine insurance companies! I am really sensing into how much learning there is to be done and grateful for the nuggets of information, wisdom, and support to explore this journey of growth and development.
I think it’s really important to be transparent about what animals a client might encounter when they come to a facility for the first time. I think this can really help to reduce fear and anxiety, especially considering that many people are going to already be nervous with the idea of interacting with a horse. Interestingly, when I volunteered for a horsemanship program, often children were more intimidated by the resident dogs than the horses. I guess it just goes back to the Iceberg analogy, you never know what kind of experiences people have had.
I agree! It’s important to let people know what species they may encounter on site for allergy and fear reasons. And to give them some choices in this as much as you can. We have some clients where we will keep our dog in the house during their sessions for these reasons. The cats can be a bit harder to contain! Mostly though I find that people love being greeted by cats and dogs trying to climb in their vehicle to say hello!
I had really thought about working primarily with equines, but am open to the idea of other animals. Shreyasi and I are always watching and interacting with our assortment of animals for future possibilities within our future program.
Really like that the article talks about all animals being sentient beings. I 100% agree with that. Thank you for the recommendations around Animal Assisted therapy!
It is very important to be transparent about the animal onsite. It happened to me one time to showed up in an office with a dog without knowing and I didn’t like the experience, even if I like dogs. It can be a very bad experience for someone not comfortable with a specific animal.
Informative. I planned to originally work with horses however this leads me to become open to working with other animals in the future.
this article captures so many of the necessary considerations to ensure the safety and well being of both person and animal when inviting clients to be supported by our animals, ie. allergies, comfort, interactions between species….
I never thought of working with any animals other than equine but I am starting to become more open to the possibilities….
One of the questions here was about insurance. I have my business insurance through BSM, and they have added a clause which covers small animals and equine. I was advised to ensure that the clause covers you for kicks and bites.
thanks for sharing this Chantal! It is definitely important to know what you are covered for – both in terms of species, specific risks and scope of practice.
I would love the option of including my dogs and cats in my work as well as the horses. I am very curious to move into the learning on insurance as these seem to be ever mounting costs in every aspect of our lives. I am nervous to see the costs related to this field of work.
we have a blog post on insurance. If you are a member of a prof. body and they will extend your scope of practice to incluse AAT and/ or EFW as applicable then this is the most affordable route. Otherwise BFL offer preferred rates to Pro EFW members (once you’ve completed foundation training) or Capris are an option too (but just for EFW)
This is good to know. I also have a dog that I think would love AAA. I’m also interested in learning more as we go.
Thanks, so much good information.
Being one of those people who immediately sits with the dog at any social engagement or party – I can absolutely see how working with non-equine animals can help people open up and increase their level of comfort.
I have also seen how having cats around at the beginning of programming to cuddle or pet can also help someone to open up or engage. The flip side of that, is that I have seen how they can also be very distracting and sometimes even pose a risk. While being in an arena working with horses, it can be hazardous to have a cat running into the middle and even under someone’s feet. Love the cats, but can absolutely see why it is important to recognize boundaries and limitations. I wish I could have my dog Lucy help with therapy, but unfortunately her high anxiety wouldn’t allow it!
So crazy! I had never considered allergies which is ridiculous considering I am a nurse and that is the first question I ask everyone in hospital!!! lol
Again this was great info, I had never considered the possibilities of them bringing their own animals, and am already like no way, to me that poses huge safety concerns.
We are so fortunate to have many animals here on our farm, including our barn cat….shhh don’t tell her she is a barn cat! 🙂 She is always the first greet anyone and loves to be wherever you are, as long as your sharing your attention with her. Although we have farm insurance and I have coach insurance and HCBC membership, I have not made a specific point to make sure that the dogs and cats are part of the client/customer protection policy. Thank you also for these links!
This article is so useful. I think that it raises important points I need to think about in AAT and whether or not my dog and cats might be better suited to being greeters and observers instead of actively involved in the therapeutic process. Thank you.
I really appreciate the reminders that the safety of both client and animal are key, and respecting the capacities and needs of the animals is an important part of the process. I totally agree that the animals in AAT are much more than “tools” and the interaction is actually very sacred. This article is helpful as I think about my own animals and how to draw appropriate boundaries for their and client’s sake.
Our very sociable big yellow dog was a part of our program. He greeted volunteers and riders with a big smile! Sue, I didn’t think to bring this up with our insurance company. I will be doing so now!
I am curious about AAT, and the process for certification of pets, in particular dogs and goats. I also appreciate the boundaries with other people bringing their dogs on my farm. This has been something I have had some mixed feelings about.
Dreamcatcher is a good resource to explore in terms of certification of dogs. I don’t know anyone who certifies goats but the approaches we explore in terms of assessing, training, handling and caring for horses in this work could likely be modified to fit for goats!
Thanks Sue. I will check it out. I have found that when people come to visit my little farm, they come to see my horses and they leave talking about my goats. Both goats were both bottle-fed, so they are exceptionally affectionate, and listen a lot like dogs (they run around the property and “help” me with chores as my dogs do). I think people find them cute and approachable. They do not have any of the same “mirroring” effects as horses, but they do have a calming effect because they are always “popping” around and living life to their best potential. I think they would play a role similar to how a cat might play a role, where they are part of the farm family and a good ice breaker.
Does anyone know the approach and timeframe to certify a dog?? Would be interested, thanks!!
Hi CharMaine – Eileen at Dreamcatcher would be a great person to speak with about this. She trains and certifies the team (thus you and your dog together).
Jacqueline touched on my thoughts. Not that I had a use purpose intended for the dogs and cats at our home, but I loved her comments “meeters/greeters”, a task which comes so naturally to these creatures, I think it is just as impactful to let this interaction grow organically. 🙂
One aspect that also stands out for me is the match between animal and human. Just like the fit of each human to human interaction, never under estimate the importance of the personality match of animal and the human they are supporting. Evaluating the personality fit is crucial to any pairs success.
I truly agree with this! Different people really do connect with different animals.
While I love my cat, when working with my horses I have had a lot of close calls that involved both cats and dogs coming a wee bit too close. I really like having the other animals available at the beginning and end, after the horses are no longer at work, when it is a bit safer for all. Unfortunately we cannot read minds of neither animals or humans, and accidents take seconds. I would not want to put anyone at risk, and I feel this is a risk you can avoid by following the guideline you have at Healing Hooves.
good points Toni!
This is very informative! As I think about this more I may need to look at some AAT training as well. I feel other animals can be a huge benefit along with the horses. Plus not everyone is comfortable with a horse.
I agree Denay!
This is all good to know. Thanks for the links too 🙂
you are very welcome Robin!