Animal Visitation and Therapy Program
At Children’s National Hospital, we know it takes more than medicine to meet the needs of our patients and families. Our Animal Visitation and Therapy Program is an integral part of a patient’s healing. Animal Visitation and Therapy at Children’s National consists of two programs:
- Our full time facility dogs
- Dedicated volunteers and their registered therapy animals, who visit patients throughout the hospital
While both types of canine friends have an immeasurable impact on our patients and families, their goals are slightly different.
Contact Us
Questions about animal visitation and pet therapy? Email our program coordinator Allison Proctor, MSW, or learn more below.
All three of our facility dogs began training for their jobs at just a few weeks old. Barney and Company are golden retrievers and Sprout is a yellow Labrador retriever.
The Pet Therapy Program provides trained therapeutic dogs that visit patients at Children's National Hospital.