Pets are not just pets. More and more people benefiting from the therapeutic contact with them: do you know the zoo therapy? For many years human beings have related to the wolf, at first curious and then by necessity, on the nights we were easy prey for other predators, and even though we had fire, it was not enough for us, and we learned to tame it for our benefit (take care and look after our animals).

And we were also changing its genetics for those who were less aggressive and less dominant were those who were integrated into our society, as they drove by us clans, they flock to them by their leader is the alpha male, and we follow us back to the alpha males and females, as we did need one another and inseparable.

There are now a variety of breeds of dogs, created for hunting, sport, company, fight, guard and end the use of dogs as assistance, to identify drugs, cancer, people buried mines, then to care for people with disabilities , blind, brain damage, muscular dystrophy, schizophrenia, etc..

But today humans were genetically modified so its hard to understand that it is coming from the wolf, there are now so small he harmless dogs that could not survive without intervention from us, they lost their wild nature, while retaining some instincts.

In the current changes with the type of life to live in crowded cities with little space for recreation, and dominated by technology, we have lost many of the capabilities that have animals, such as the ability to understand emotions, to identify the danger loyalty, his ability to learn to communicate, play, altruistic feelings, and now live enveloped in a competitive world where we are full of stress.

We have become selfish, uncommunicative and imaginative, elitist, hypocritical, sedentary, isolated by this type of city life that we have little time with our family, spending much time in transportation, home and work, super etc..

And when we get home we are usually so tired to spend time with our loved ones just want to relax and watch TV. If we add to this that women became housewives to become contributors to the household spending that quality time with our children, and who is responsible for their care.

The city has helped us to learn more easily, moving less, travel more, to communicate less (Internet chat) to make life easier. But it has created new problems, like children isolated, uncommunicative, withdrawn, aggressive, anxious, depressive, with few friends, games with little creativity and a little or no family communication.

What is zooterapia?

This is why in practice in the office I realized the lack of emotional communication in families, as well as the lack of body language, (we lost some of our ancestors and still preserve the livestock), and I remembered Some years ago I had read an article in USA where a dog used for post-traumatic stress disorder, which is a series of disorders that affect the behavior of individual living through a war, and not being able to overcome the pain of not being able to overcome this intense anxiety.

I started with an autistic boy who was wearing, 3 months in therapy and failed to give any sound, much less a word, and it occurred to me to take my dog sausage, which is a dog falter who lives with me and is super affectionate and playful, to see for the first time Henry gave a shout, and started running everywhere.

After a while you explain how to play with the ball, and he learned fast, the second meeting I said that Henry's mother was more cheerful, then take you to all therapies, the majority of my patients that do not lit into a dog in the office, but he caressed and played with, then I was interested in studying ethology, and teach my patients and to train my dog, to read stories, play with the sock and ball and without realizing patients began to evolve faster than normal.

One was Henry which after a few months began to say words, I told the mother that does not interpret the signs to know that although I failed to mention the name of the object, causing anger in Enrique, started slowly but the language was then I asked the mother to buy him a dog and give the child a few obligations, feed, water, take out, this helped a lot because I already had a loyal companion who was always at his side, giving security to enable Approaching and interacting with others. 

zoo therapy and communication

The pet develops in people the need to communicate the power and perfection.

Levinson (1964) and stated that "a child who has great difficulty in explaining their feelings about their relationships or their illusions` loose language 'when talking about their problems with their pets. " Condoret Later (1977) found that children exposed to bond with a pet improved the ability of verbal expression.

But why improves verbal: perhaps the simplest statement, but no less important, because it is practiced. It is not easy to express feelings, emotions and things that have to do with the subjectivity of oneself, but is done with animals. This practice leads to a generalization andalusia own external link to the animal.

When we are in relation to animals, we are entering an altered state of consciousness in which humility and nobility of spirit are part of the interaction and thus "unlearn" the behavior patterns of confrontation with the world.

The contact with nature makes us relive the most noble sentiments and into interaction with the world, making us realize that we are an integral part of it.

What we teach our pets?

To be kind, to be spontaneous, be accountable, to improve the behavior of parents, children and siblings of the family flock.

To know:

The joy and sorrow in its purest form, affection, loyalty, selfless protection, death or separation from a loved one, beauty, gratitude, sacrifice to the death if necessary.