As Alberta Health Services tries to center their outlook on Patient Focused Care, the High River Hospital seems to have gone to the dogs.

Hospital staff have been seeing an increased interest in their Animal Therapy Volunteer program.

The program sees canine volunteers panting, kissing and playing away anxiety and stress for patients.

MaryLou Littler works on the Day Surgery Unit, and sometimes brings her dog Barley with her.

Littler says she sees a massive change for patients when Barley comes to work.

"It makes a huge difference in [patients] anxiety and when we take their vital signs, their blood pressure, their pulse is absolutely normal and I've had several patients say that having the dog there was better than any drug we could give them."

Barley is a young golden retriever and her main job is to give affection and make hospital stays more pleasant for patients.

Littler says she knows her job and does it well.

"She sits with patients from the time they get here until they go down for surgery, so while they're getting their intravenous put in, or any little procedures that have to be done before hand she's been known to jump on the bed and cuddle beside the patient and really they just pet them the whole time and it just relaxes the patient and makes the experience a whole lot better."

Barley is just one of many dog volunteers in the program as many units throughout the hospital take advantage of the health benefits that come along with animal therapy.

Ella Fung is a Recreational Therapist in High River's Long Term Care unit, and says her unit can be challenging.

She works with many patients who suffer from stroke side effects, dementia and Alzheimer so communicating can be a challenge for some.

Fung says when the dogs come in, it's almost like working in a different unit.

"We see everyone light up with a smile when the dogs come into the unit. Some residents tend to get a little restless but as soon as they see the dogs everything calms down so much and they end up smiling, inviting them to sit on their lap and petting them. This can practically last for the rest of the day." Fung explains "They like to reminisce how they used to own a dog as well, and they start to communicate better to the staff and volunteer. Sometimes when the dogs aren't here residents won't talk to anyone. You definitely see a lot of positive outcomes when the dogs are here."

She says it's hard to debate the positive affects of animal therapy when she sees it working so very clearly.

"I'll give an example, I worked with one resident who never spoke to anyone. As soon as the dogs started to come she slowly started communicating. From that point on we realized that she did enjoy conversing with other people. Once the pet started to come back time after time it opened up the resident to be more talkative with everyone, to the staff, family members and volunteers."

Fung theorizes that the difference comes down to the emotions that pets can make people feel.

"I think it has a lot to do with the unconditional love from the pets, they're always so excited to see the residents. They're giving them a kiss and jumping onto their laps so I think it's just a natural response for the resident to return that emotion."

Many staff and patients are hoping the Animal Therapy Volunteer program will only grow from here, as results have been positive in High River's Hospital.