While sharing the company of a dog or cat may seem like an ordinary day-to-day experience for most pet owners, it may offer notable mental health benefits for more isolated individuals staying at nursing homes or long-term care facilities.

In order to promote these benefits, Therapy Pet Pals of Texas was founded in Austin in 1984 by Kathryn Lashmit, and has been offering pet visitations to the elderly and infirm in Texas ever since.

The overview

Therapy Pet Pals of Texas is a private nonprofit created with the goal of assisting the elderly, terminally ill and mentally or physically challenged through pet visitations at nursing homes, medical hospitals, rehabilitation centers and other special needs facilities.

“Our volunteers take their dogs to visit people at nursing homes, hospitals, hospice, schools, all kinds of things,” Executive Director Nancy Gray said. “Occasionally, we do special events where businesses invite us in for their employees to relax and pet a dog.”



The benefits

Pet visitations offered by volunteers and their therapy dogs can provide a positive bonding experience for those confined to institutional living facilities, according to the nonprofit’s website.

“The residents just know when you're coming. They remember the dog's name, not always yours. It's all about the dogs for us,” Gray said. “And [the residents] just smile. Sometimes they've told us that they were in pain, but once the dog comes, they feel they don't think about their pain for that few minutes they can hug on the dog, or sometimes they just want to talk to you.”

Some of these residents have had no visitors come to see them aside from Therapy Pet Pals, Gray said.


“[Visiting] really makes you feel good, and just making them happy is what we try to do,” Gray said.

What else?

The nonprofit’s primary goal moving forward is to increase its number of volunteers, Gray said.

Those interested can begin the sign-up process through the organization’s website, choosing from two locations: Austin or Northwest Houston/The Woodlands.


“When someone's interested in volunteering, they will call us and then their dog has to have basic obedience before they come to us,” Gray said.

Once volunteers are in touch with Therapy Pet Pals, their dogs will go through training to become therapy dogs. Following this, they will take a Canine Good Citizen test, and if they pass they may begin volunteering, Gray said.