Pueblo – Staff members at the CBR YouthConnect have known for years that caring for pets can help calm troubled souls.
Now there’s research that appears to back up the theory.
Funded by a three-year $90,000 grant from the Iams Co., CBR YouthConnect – formerly known as Colorado Boys Ranch – and Colorado State University have discovered through a study that caring for pets improves the behavior and social interaction of severely troubled boys in a residential treatment setting.
The study focused on YouthConnect’s New Leash on Life program, in which dogs from area animal shelters are cared for and trained by youth to prepare the pets for adoption.
Program president Chuck Thompson said recently the research is among the first to directly link animal-assisted therapy to improved behavior of adolescents in residential treatment.
“Through formal research, the study reaffirmed what we had already experienced and found to be true, that the human-animal bond or connection does help a boy understand more about relationships and responsibility,” Thompson said.
He also said animal-assisted therapy augments the highly customized psychiatric and educational treatment plan designed for each client.
“(Animal-assisted therapy) helps them understand more about themselves, as the animal serves as a mirror for the boy in terms of their own actions and behaviors. It’s common for a boy to see that the animal has the same problems as they may have,” Thompson said.
The New Leash on Life program matches unwanted dogs from area shelters with program youth who care for and train the dogs for 10 weeks prior to placement in adoptive homes.
Since 1995, the program has enrolled more than 220 boys and 230 dogs and has been featured on “NBC Nightly News” and The Discovery Channel’s “Animal Planet.”
During a three-year period, staff worked with Iams and the CSU School of Social Work and College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences to evaluate the benefits of the program.
The study addressed how participants in the program compare with a control group of other CBRYC youth, and how participants show changes in their levels of positive social interactions, appropriate self-disclosure and empathetic feelings.
Based on the research involving 37 youth, the study found that boys in the New Leash on Life program demonstrated gains in a crucial area of social behavior, including bonding and attachment.
The study revealed that the boys developed significant attachment with the dogs they trained within the 10-week course.
Thompson said boys reported that the dogs helped them through tough times, comforted them when they were upset and helped them relax.
The boys also indicated they felt responsible for the dogs – a characteristic of growing maturity. The study also found significant gains in other social skills.
