Training Therapy Chickens

TRAINING THERAPY CHICKENS

When most people think of a therapy animal, the most common one that comes to mind is a dog, not a chicken. Dogs are a big part of animal-assisted therapy and animal-assisted activities, yet I commonly incorporate our feathered foul into our visits. It attracts a lot of attention and curiosity, besides the many other animals that bring joy and improve well-being for patients of all ages.

For 15 years, I have visited thousands of patients with a variety of types of therapy animals: dogs, rabbits, guinea pigs, ducks, pygmy goats, miniature horses, ducks and chickens. Each animal requires training to ensure they have the temperament and behavior suitable to visit patients at hospitals and facilities (Alzheimer's wards, adult day care, convalescent and rehabilitation centers, centers for children and adults with disabilities/special needs, and hospice homes).

A therapy chicken requires training from the day of hatch so that it imprints on humans. The baby chick must be taken from its mother hen, and live with its human parent and receive hours of daily handling and care. This type of imprinting can be some of the most heartwarming bonding between the baby chick and people.  The chick quickly becomes very friendly and attached to its' human parent and associates all humans as friendly and approachable. People enjoy petting the chicken and feeding it by hand.

Here is a partial photo documentary of our chick in training:

2 day old chick
Introduction to an Aquarium
Socializing  to fish and desensitization of bubbling noises

4 days old
Socialization to rabbits

5 days old
Socialization to elderly, guinea pigs, rabbits and hospital setting

9 days old
Socialization to children, animal education class

16 days old
Socialization to dog and hospital visit

24 days old
Smart Phone Interaction
Socialization towards electronic devices

29 days old
Socialization to rooster Mufasa

31 days old
Socialization to pony

38 days old
Socialization to goat

56 days
Socialization to large horse

66 days
Interactions with people

As you can see above, we socialize the chick to a variety of animals, people and situations. Our chick, Lil Piiholo "Lil P" is still growing and presently in its' pullet or cockerel stage. Consider it the stage of being a teenager. They are much more curious and getting into mischief, yet friendly and sweet. Sex is not determined until the adult feathers have come in from molt, but generally by 6 months of age we can determine whether it is a rooster or a hen. 

Both roosters and hens make great therapy chickens!  Please comment with your question or you can arrange a private training instruction through Friendly Tails® Director, Dr. Shannon Dominguez, DCH. $50/hr payable by credit card, cash, check or paypal.

RESEARCH STUDY - Therapy animals as a modality to awakening, consciousness and rehabilitation from severe brain-injury

BIG NEWS!  See what we are doing here: http://aat-research.blogspot.com

Angora bunny: newest therapy animal in training!

by Dr. Shannon Dominguez, DCH
FriendlyTails® - Animals Helping People Heal
"Improving quality of life with friendly tails." © ___________________________________________

Meet Grushenka, my 6 week old ermine eyed Angora. Isn't she just the cutest?! I think baby Angora bunnies are my new sweet spot when it comes to the animal world. I have just fallen head over heels smitten with this ball of fluff and my latest addition to the therapy animal team. (By the way, an ermine eye is a bluish-gray eye, whereas standard show angoras are either blue-eyed or pink-eyed).

Grushenka is not a rescue, which is generally my priority when adopting a new animal for the pet therapy program. Before the animal activists get a kink in their tails, Grushenka is the result of an accidental breeding and the pet guardian of those bunnies donated her to my program knowing that I have my therapy animals spayed/neutered and microchipped and she will have a future touching the lives of patients needing comfort.


Grushenka's training begins with a 30 day quarantine in our home away from the other pet therapy animals at the Center. While she appears to be very healthy and happy, it is always best to separate a new animal from the rest for 30 days to ensure no unseen pathogens (should they arise) be transmitted to the group of working animals. During this time in my home quarantine, Grushenka receives her first steps of socialization in a new environment that includes dogs and cats. She lives in a kennel inside the house, becomes litter box trained, and is turned out for exercise on the living room floor. These steps allows her to become familiar with other animals under a watchful eye (me) while providing reassurance that she is safe at all times.


When you're just 6 weeks old, the world is a pretty big place; especially when our two dogs (Bella, a Cavalier King Charles mix, and, Mana, a Smooth Coat Border Collie/Heeler) tower over her in a space of curiosity and protectiveness of this precious little one. The cats, truthfully, could care less about this new addition to the family. They watch her with an almost indignant attitude that no matter how cute, how fuzzy, furry or fluffy, the bunny is insignificant in their world. Yet, when the cats think I'm not looking, they'll walk over to the bunny and give her a sniff before walking away.

As Grushenka lives in our home, she will be accustomed to the phone ringing, the smell of food being prepared and cooking, sounds of television, the dogs playing, cats roaming, my parrot screaming (something we've never become accustomed to), finches singing, the noise of the vacuum, doors and drawers opening and closing, toilet flushing, water running, and lots of voices from people and handling from myself, husband and friends who drop by to visit. This socialization is preparation for her work, as similar sounds present themselves in the clinical environment when the time comes to visit patients and residents.

Thus begins her training into the world of touching lives and helping people heal. Judging by the reviews of friends so far, she will be bringing a lot of joy, smiles and comfort to many!

Flowers Essenses Helping Animals Heal

by Dr. Shannon Dominguez, DCH
FriendlyTails® - Animals Helping People Heal
"Improving quality of life with friendly tails." ©
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Flower essences helping animals to heal? Why not!

Flower essences are liquid patterned infused solutions (dilute extracts of various types of flowers and/or plants) that have homeopathic qualities that balance physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and universal levels of animals. Originally developed for people, the benefits were found to help animals too. These essences are not a substitute for veterinary diagnosis and treatment. However, they are safe to use alone where circumstances allow, or in conjunction with other forms of treatment.

When there is disease, stress, and/or disharmony within an animal, the flower essences incorporates a system of healing. Flower essence remedies include, but not limited to, correcting and balancing the following:

* unruliness, excessive noisiness, aggression, destructiveness
* mental or physical suffering
* fear, anxiety, apprehension, nervousness
* intolerance
* lack of confidence
* compulsiveness
* toxicity, uncleanliness
* resistance
* stress
* loneliness, despondency, hopelessness, gloom
* adjustment to new environments, circumstances
* shyness
* mental & physical exhaustion
* sulking

While I have named only a handful of symptoms, there are 38 flower remedies developed by Edward Bach (1886-1936), and further essences or combinations of remedies have since been developed. All are based with regard to the plant's specific imprint. This imprint corresponds to the symptom and responds in balancing and repairing it. The term "imprint" was originally explained by Leonardi as follows:

"It's commonly understood that everything in the universe has a vibration to it. What makes something red is its vibration. Scientifically, you'd say red is its vibration. Flowers have a certain frequency, too. If you process a flower into an essence and you take it into your body, it starts to vibrate at that frequency. It starts to create a synchronization of other cells and tissues in your body, causing them to vibrate at that level." (cited Morrison 1995, p85; quoted in Graham & Vlamis 2002, p13)

Do I use flower essences on my animals? The answer is, "Yes." I always have a bottle of Rescue Remedy on hand to calm a stressed animal (in some cases a few stressed out people). My personal library has the reference book, "Bach Flower Remedies for Animals" by Helen Graham and Gregory Vlamis. These two resources have proved valuable and effective in my experience. It can be used with any animal or bird, including dogs, cats, bunnies, guinea pigs, horses, goats, chickens, finches, parrots, injured wild birds and animals.

NEWS BY TOPIC / ANIMAL

by Dr. Shannon Dominguez, DCH
FriendlyTails® - Animals Helping People Heal
"Improving quality of life with friendly tails."©

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On the side bar of the right side of this blog, you will notice a "NEWS - BY TOPIC / ANIMAL" category. This is a very cool news feature that searches world news on the internet and selects the published stories on any of the animals or topics listed in the category of subjects.

If you want to read recent articles on horses or pet therapy, just click the link "horses" or "pet therapy" and the articles will list. Feel free to offer suggestions of other topics or animals you would like to see on this list and please return for new updates.

Wishing everyone a pawsitively wonderful day!

Top 10 Animal Dads via Animal Planet

Happy Father's Day out there to all you fuzzy, feathered, furry, scaley, slimey, above ground, underground, and underwater fatherly creatures... *oh, and to humankind as well.*

Ever wonder what animals on the planet made for the animal version of the top 10 ten list of Dads? Do you suppose that the Jackal or a Seahorse made the list? Find out!!! Animal Planet has done their research... the results are in!

http://animal.discovery.com/tv/a-list/creature-countdowns/dads/dads.html

Vetting animals at 1:44a

by Dr. Shannon Dominguez, DCH
FriendlyTails® - Animals Helping People Heal
"Improving quality of life with friendly tails."©
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I thought about blogging at 1:44a when I couldn't sleep (it's 6:15a now), but instead I decided to check-in on the little animals that I'm giving extra TLC to for health improvement.

My living room has the lovely addition of 2 kennels. In one, Zorra bunny, my little black Holland lop, whose health only seemed to improve after I brought home her guinea pig cage mate, Apple. She's been on a 10 day course of antibiotics without him by her side. I thought she would improve if she were reunited with him. Briefly, it worked. :/

In the other kennel, another Holland Lop bunny named David Bowie (yep this bunny is a rock star and has the eyeliner and groupies to prove it!). How my husband puts up with all the "Shannimals" that come home, never ceases to amaze me, but his heart is as vast and magnificent as our oceans when it comes to the love of animals, despite his suggestions of "shouldn't they be outside in the hutches."

Sure I have hospital hutches in the yard, but I'm better able to monitor their progress if they're in the house. And this turns out to be quite valuable as at 1:44a, perhaps I woke due to a sixth sense nudge as normally I sleep peacefully throughout the night. I noticed that the lettuce, carrots and food put inside Zorra's kennel went untouched. Favorite treats not eaten? Something is wrong. Zorra is exhibiting signs of lethargy and disinterest meaning I must take her back to the vet. Bunny's mask symptoms very well. Apple, looked a little bristly which is out of character for this short-haired guinea pig.

After a closer look at Apple, his eyes looked dull when they should be sparkly. I ran my hands down his body and he seemed slimmer, which surprised me. He seemed to be doing well since I brought him home to be with Zorra. It was a happy reunion between them. Even so, it's not like a guinea pig to avoid a favorite treat.

Guinea pigs have, metaphorically speaking, a bottomless stomach! It's actually amazing how much they can eat. In a one hour pet therapy visit, one guinea pig can eat over 6 romaine lettuce leaves at a single setting. Since these went untouched, I thought I'd take a peek into his mouth, and there it was... the culprit.... long teeth. The length of his teeth have just grown to where the front top and bottom incisors touch perfectly. Imagine yourself trying to eat if your top and bottom front teeth edges aligned perfectly... it leaves a big space preventing your back teeth from touching and chewing anything is out of the question.

While I provide all the therapy bunnies and guinea pigs with water, pellets, toys, hay, and wood to chew... this is the first experience I have had where teeth have overgrown. The toys and wood are there to help them wear the teeth down and provide an activity to prevent boredom. Guinea pigs' teeth grow throughout their lifetime, just like horses. Since his are long enough to prevent him from chewing, I'm going to take the leap that they are too long to drink as well (hence his bristled coat... a sign of not only feeling poorly, but perhaps dehydration as well).

I grabbed the little piggy and brought him into the bathroom where I gave him (5) 1cc syringes of water, apple juice to boost his system and dose him with Vitamin C in case he is deficient, and some Oxbow Critical Care food supplement which provides protein, vitamins and minerals for herbivores (veggie eaters).

Next, Zorra, who's just huddled quietly inside the kennel. She's stopped eating again after seemingly recovering. Darn! This made my stomach sink. I took her out and gave her some Critical Care by syringe as it's important to keep a bunnies digestive system moving. Afterward, I checked on David Bowie.

He looked bright and alert, and begged to get out of the kennel by pawing at the door. I opened up the door and let him out to stretch his legs. He hopped up to me for some petting, did a brodie around the living room, then I looked at the clock and decided at 2:45a that I should get back to sleep. I tucked him away for the remainder of my zzzzz's.

This morning Apple will see the vet for his teeth, Zorra has an appointment as well, David stays home for another 9 days to finish his antibiotics and be closely monitored.

Meanwhile, the other therapy animals, myself and volunteers await a day of working with clients at an Alzheimer day-care center downtown. I just know the whole time I will be preoccupied wondering how Apple and Zorra are as they will dropped off at the vets office for care.

I love these little furry souls, their lives touch people in miraculous ways. In the future I'll blog more about that. It seems since I have started this blog, I'm mostly discussing animal care. I guess that's because it preoccupies my time at present. It's rare that my furry ones get sick, but like people... it happens from time to time. More later...