Canine are sociable, enthusiastic and broadly used to consolation individuals in settings like hospitals, faculties and care houses. However an more and more standard various is rising: remedy cats.
The time period is commonly used loosely within the media and inconsistently inside the scientific neighborhood. However in its strictest sense, animal-assisted remedy is a structured exercise delivered by well being professionals with scientific targets.
Most cats concerned in this type of work are a part of broader animal-assisted providers. For simplicity, we’ll stick to “remedy cat” all through this text.
Remedy cats are used to alleviate loneliness and stress. They’re utilized in prisons, faculties, hospices, care houses and hospitals and are advisable for individuals who’re afraid of canine or may battle to work together with massive animals like horses.
The environments remedy cats are sometimes taken into, similar to nursing houses or faculties, may be noisy, unpredictable, and crammed with unfamiliar individuals and environment. These are exactly the sorts of settings that can unsettle a typical cat.
Cats normally favor predictability and steady environment. Just like their wildcat ancestors, home cats prioritise territorial safety over social bonds with individuals or different cats.
Cats depend on scent to navigate and really feel safe of their environment. The F3 pheromone helps them mark areas as “protected” or “identified”, making a type of olfactory map of their dwelling vary.
But current social media developments counsel a shift in our understanding. More and more, we see cats travelling alongside their house owners in a campervan, through aircraft or even on motorbikes.
These cats seem to tolerate, and typically even thrive, in environments animal behaviour consultants as soon as assumed had been too demanding for them. So, what makes these cats totally different?
Some cats can profit from the presence of a trusted human in unfamiliar or probably demanding environments. In a 2021 research, animal behaviour researcher Alexandra Behnke and colleagues discovered that just about half of the 42 cats they examined confirmed indicators of the safe base impact, a bond that helps scale back stress and encourages exploration when reunited with their proprietor.
This might be serving to remedy cats address new environments.
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A current research led by Joni Delanoeije, a Belgian researcher in human-animal interplay, explored how cats chosen for animal-assisted providers differ from the common family pet.
The research analysed survey responses referring to 474 cats – 12 of which had participated in such providers. Cats concerned in animal-assisted providers had been discovered to be extra sociable with each individuals and different cats, had been extra attention-seeking and fewer immune to being restrained.
These findings counsel that behavioural traits, like sociability and tolerance, could make some cats higher suited to interacting with individuals in unfamiliar settings. Nonetheless, the small variety of cats truly concerned in service work on this research signifies that we’d like extra analysis to attract agency conclusions.
These cats even have robust, trusting bonds with their handlers. Early socialisation and gradual publicity appear to be important for making ready cats to deal with the unpredictable nature of service work.
Nonetheless, even with these qualities, cats should face challenges in remedy environments. In a 2023 world research of cat-assisted providers, US psychologists Taylor Griffin and Lori Kogan discovered that even well-adapted cats could battle in observe.
The research discovered that 68% of handlers had ended visits early after they deemed it greatest for the cat. Handlers on this research additionally described robust bonds with their cats – a relationship most likely key to the cat’s skill to adapt, providing a way of security and predictability in a probably demanding setting.
How do remedy cats evaluate to canine?
Cats are totally different from canine of their social wants, temperament and tolerance for change. These variations have to be fastidiously thought of throughout choice for remedy work – however with their variations come benefits.
For instance, remedy cats could present extra advantages to people who see themselves as “cat individuals”. Analysis has proven that this self-classification is linked to character traits, with cat individuals typically being extra impartial, inventive and self-sufficient.
Canine individuals are usually extra outgoing, sociable and group-oriented. Cat lovers may really feel extra relaxed in one-to-one therapeutic settings, whereas canine lovers might favor group-based actions.
Species preferences may have an effect on emotional responses. In a 2022 research, researcher Jovita Lukšaite and colleagues used facial features software program to analyse members’ reactions to animal photographs.
Each cat and canine photographs triggered related ranges of happiness on common, but canine photographs evoked considerably extra concern. Concern of canine might scale back the effectiveness of canine-assisted remedy for some, making cats a useful various.
Canine could excel at offering emotional help by bodily interplay however cat purrs are a singular attribute which will supply therapeutic advantages. A 2001 research discovered that home cats purr at a frequency between 25 and 50 hertz – a frequency that promotes therapeutic in people.
Whereas there’s a lack of more moderen analysis to help this discovering, a 2021 research discovered that cat house owners reported that their cat’s purrs had a relaxing impact.
So, canine may be the normal remedy animal, however cats have proven they too have what it takes. With the precise temperament and coaching, cats can supply one thing totally different to these in want of consolation.
Grace Carroll, Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare, Faculty of Psychology, Queen’s College Belfast
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