About Dogs on Call
The Dogs on Call therapy dog program provides complementary therapy to enhance the wellbeing of patients, staff, visitors, and students through animal-assisted services. A Dogs on Call team is a handler and their own trained therapy dog. These teams visit many VCU Health and VCU campuses. They also participate in special VCU and VCU Health-supported events, such as Paws for Stress for students during mid-term and final exams.
Dogs on Call was formally established in early 2001, making it one of the earliest hospital-based therapy dog programs in the United States. Since its inception, Dogs on Call has become recognized as a gold standard in the field of Human-Animal Interaction (HAI), serving as an evidence-based model for therapy dog programs at institutions across the globe.
There is always a need for new dog/handler teams to volunteer with Dogs on Call. If you have a friendly, well-behaved dog and would like to learn more about volunteering as a Dogs on Call team, click here!
