What's four-legged, furry and often serves up a mood boost? That's right: dogs. As part of our series Weekly Dose of Wonder, here's how even brief interactions with pups can be good for health.

...to help us unwind during this mental health awareness month, CBS 6 got a visit from a group of therapy dogs from VCU Medical Center today.  These guys and gals are from VCU's Dogs on Call program with the Center for Human-Animal Interaction.

“The child may make more eye contact or generally be gentler in the presence of the animal,” Gee said. “Not all kids on the spectrum will react the same way to animals, so each child needs to be evaluated to see if an animal is a good fit for them. In the cases where there is a good fit between child and animal, the child often becomes more involved with people around them. The animal creates an opportunity for the child to be more socially engaged.”

The emergence of human–animal support services (HASS)—services provided to help keep people and their companion animals together—in the United States has been driven by two global public health crises... Drawing from Ottawa Charter tenets and using the United States as a case study, we: (1) recognize and explicate HASS as public health resources for human and animal well-being and (2) delineate examples of HASS within the three-tiered public health intervention framework. HASS examples situated in the three-tier framework reveal a public health continuum for symbiotic well-being and health.

The APA’s newly released book for mental health practitioners, “The Role of Companion Animals in the Treatment of Mental Disorders,” examines the existing evidence to support animal-based interventions as well as the risks associated with various types of programs. The book provides a thorough analysis of the latest research and explores topics that include protecting the animal’s health and welfare, with an emphasis on understanding applicable laws and regulations.