Ask anybody if they think therapy dogs can reduce anxiety in children, and they’ll probably say well of course they can.
As a group of pet lovers – especially dogs – we’d probably all say something similar.
However, to offer children and adolescents the highest quality, evidence-based support available for mental health conditions such as anxiety, we follow the evidence, rather than our personal preferences, which may, at times, be influenced by our love for our furry, four legged friends.
In this case, however, we suspect our personal preferences and the evidence may coincide. We’ll look at two recent studies – one published in 2022 and another published in 2025 – that examine the impact of the presence of a therapy dog on anxiety in children between age 11 and 14.
The first study involved a group of pre-teens in England participating in group anxiety therapy, while the second study involved children in an emergency room setting participating in life-therapy during their emergency room visit.
We’ll start with the study on pre-teens in England.
Group Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Anxiety: With and Without Dog
In the U.S., we say therapy dogs.
In England, they say pets-as-therapy (PAT).
The study in England – “Exploring the Effect of Therapy Dog (PAT) in a Group for Young People Experiencing Anxiety” – involved a cohort of preteens, age 11-14, participating in a 6-week group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program for anxiety. The research team divided the cohort into two groups: a control group, which participated in six, one-hour group CBT sessions, and an experimental (with dog) group, which participated in the same six, one-hour group CBT sessions with a therapy dog present.
The program, called the Calm Forum, is designed to support youth and teens with anxiety. This essence of this experiment was to gauge the impact of the presence of a therapy dog on the outcomes of the CBT groups. Researchers collected data on anxiety severity with standard psychiatric metrics at the beginning and end of the entire study, collected self-reported before and after data for each individual session, and recorded the rate of completion and/or discharge for each group.
Here’s what they found over the six sessions:
Anxiety Decrease: With and Without Dog
- Session 1-6:
- Without dog: 25% decrease
- With dog: 42% decrease
- Session Two:
- Without dog: 31% decrease
- With dog: 39% decrease
- Session Three:
- Without dog: 30% decrease
- With dog: 40% decrease
- Session Four:
- Without dog: 34% decrease
- With dog: 45% decrease
- Session Five:
- Without dog: 36% decrease
- With dog: 49% decrease
- Session Six:
- Without dog: 33% decrease
- With dog: 53% decrease
Those results show clearly that the presence of a therapy dog leads to greater reductions in self-reported anxiety. Researchers also observed higher completion and discharge rates in the therapy dog group compared to the non-therapy dog group. However, the standard psychiatric metric used to measure anxiety before and after the entire program – the Revised Childhood Anxiety Scale (RCADS) – showed no difference in scores on six standard anxiety subscales.
What these results tell us is that therapy dogs can help reduce anxiety in children in group sessions, but the presence of a therapy dog alone does not – in this context – lead to reductions in anxiety symptoms over time.
Now let’s take a look at that second study.
Therapy Dogs, the Emergency Room, and Anxiety
In the second study we mention above – “Therapy Dogs for Anxiety in Children in the Emergency Department” – published in March 2025, a group of researchers designed a study with the following goal:
“To examine whether adjunctive use of therapy dogs in standard child-life therapy reduces child-reported and parent-reported child anxiety in a pediatric emergency department (ED).”
To conduct the study, research clinicians in the emergency room at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, Indiana, created a cohort of 80 patients, average age 11, made up of roughly half boys and half girls.
Patients arrived at the emergency room for various reasons and were excluded if their condition required immediate intervention or circumstances could clearly confound results, i.e. fear of dogs, violent behavior, cognitive impairment.
Clinicians placed 40 patients in the control group and 40 in the intervention group. Children in both groups received standard child-life therapy delivered by certified child-life specialists. The child-life therapists engaged children in activities and techniques designed to reduce fear and anxiety, including:
- Play therapy
- Visual distractions
- Auditory distractions
Child-life therapists receive training to deliver appropriate techniques at developmentally levels. Their presence in emergency rooms is considered a standard of care in large pediatric medical units and some medium-sized medical units.
In this study, all children received a typical amount of time with a child-life therapist, while children in the intervention group received a typical amount of time with a child-life therapist and roughly ten minutes with a therapy dog and handler.
Clinicians recorded measurements on self-reported anxiety in the children and their parents, and collected salivary samples for cortisol analysis, at the following three time points:
- Baseline: T0
- After 45 minutes: T1
- After 120 minutes: T2
Here’s what they found:
Anxiety Decrease: Parent Self-Report
- T1: significant decrease
- T2: significant decrease
Anxiety Decrease: Child Self-reported, No Dog vs. Dog Group
- T1:
- No dog: 1.5-point decrease in anxiety
- Dog: 2.7-point decrease in anxiety
- T2:
- No dog: 1.5-point reduction in anxiety
- Dog: 2.7-point reduction in anxiety
Salivary Cortisol: Mixed Outcomes
- Both groups – typical life-therapy and typical life-therapy + dog – showed significant decrease in salivary cortisol
- There was no difference in cortisol levels between children in the dog group and children in the no-dog group
- Parental cortisol remained high at all time points for parents of children in both groups
We’ll discuss these results below.
Do Therapy Dogs Reduce Anxiety in Children?
The results of both these studies say yes, therapy dogs can reduce anxiety in children. And preteens too, in the first study. However, both sets of results also show that this reduction is limited to self-reports, and the second study showed no impact on salivary cortisol attributable to the presence of a therapy dog.
What that tells us is that – based on the current evidence – therapy dogs help, but they’re not clinical treatments on their own. If clinical evidence showed we could prescribe one hour of dog time three days a week to reduce symptoms of anxiety, we’d likely find a way to incorporate therapy dogs into our anxiety treatment plans immediately.
Until then, we encourage families of dog lovers to allow their children, teens, and young adults to spend as much time with their furry friends as possible, preferably outdoors: it’s great for everyone.
