Ellen Kinney opens the barn door for Dahlia and Duncan. Two black-and-silver pygmy goats, each about a year old, prance out. Kinney has trained them to respond to a clicker, so that Dahlia seems to dance while Duncan jumps up and down from a plastic chair.
Those aren’t their best tricks. Dahlia and Duncan work as therapy animals at the Barking C.A.A.T. (Center for Animal-Assisted Therapy) Ranch in Lakewood, Colo. Among the ranch’s clients is a teenage girl with severe social anxiety who works with the goats, getting to know and be comfortable with them, going for walks in the park with them (and a therapist). When others ask her about the goats (and they always do) the girl introduces them, sparking natural, unforced conversations.
“Here she gets to build a whole new confidence and competencies that she didn’t have before,” says Kinney, who manages clinical services at the ranch. “It’s just really changed her personality. Since she’s been working with us she goes out to dinner with her family and has reconnected with her friends.”...Continue reading...
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