Therapy assistance dogs

With heart & dog for the weaker members of society

Doris Karasek with Abby at Rudi's bedside. He can hardly communicate after a brain haemorrhage, but the dog helps him to formulate words.

(Bild: Charlotte Titz)

It has been scientifically proven that animals - especially dogs - are good for impaired, old and sick people because they calm them down. Sabine Oberhauser from Traiskirchen got to know and love this work with dogs 13 years ago. She passes on her knowledge. 

It has been scientifically proven that animals - especially dogs - are good for impaired, old and sick people because they calm them down. Sabine Oberhauser from Traiskirchen got to know and love this work with dogs 13 years ago. Since 2019, she has been training heart dogs and their people herself as an animal welfare-qualified dog trainer. She works with children and young people, in special schools, with the severely disabled, in geriatrics and on palliative care wards.

In the case of the youngest children, it is a gentle reunification of dog and child. The youngsters learn how to behave properly towards a dog. In the disabled area, the animal is intended to calm, but also to strengthen and give self-confidence, and in geriatric wards, to mobilize the elderly. "But our dogs also do a great job in assisting the dying," says Sabine Oberhauser. "They accompany their people until the last day."

Sabine Oberhauser with her dog Rosie and little Sarah.

(Bild: Oberhauser)

Arthur is Sabine Oberhauser's youngest heart dog. He goes to the palliative care ward with her. He stays with his human until the last day.

(Bild: Sabine Oberhauser)

Any breed is welcome; many of the trained therapy assistance dogs come from animal welfare organizations and meet the same requirements as pedigree dogs. Austria is a pioneer in training. It is the only EU country to have a standardized state certification of the teams. It is also the only country where dogs and humans have to pass a test followed by the awarding of a certificate. This test must then be repeated annually.

Teams from Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland
There are currently 42 active Herzenshunde teams. Most of them are from Lower Austria and Vienna, but there are also teams from Burgenland. Doris Karasek from Hornstein, for example. She works at the care and support center in nearby Pottendorf in Lower Austria. The doctor has two dogs close to her heart. Lilly is a three-year-old dwarf pintscher who has been on duty for a year and Abby is a four-year-old Labrador. She has been working with her owner at the care and support center for two years. She got to know Sabine through Abby's dog trainer and then trained both dogs there. About twice a week she takes a dog with her to the service. When she strolls through the corridors with Lilly or Abby, most of the residents' faces light up.

"You wouldn't believe the wonderful experiences we have just because the dog is with us," says the Burgenland native. She talks about an autistic woman who had only spent her whole life with her mother and was afraid of everything. "When she saw Abby, she relaxed and even smiled," says the doctor.

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The home doctor makes sure that she finds out which residents had animals at home, preferably dogs, and visits them with their four-legged friends. This is because it can happen that some patients are initially skeptical of their counterparts. Here, the dog is often the icebreaker. "First we talk about the animal and perhaps the person's past and only then do I talk about the medical aspects," explains the Burgenland native.

Dogs are not forced to do anything 
What is important to both Sabine Oberhauser and Doris Karasek is that no dog is forced to do anything. If it gets too much for them, they can always leave. "You sometimes notice that they start to pant or yawn. That's a sign that they've had enough," the two explain. Not every client is right for every dog. "That's also a learning phase. But once you've figured that out, dog and human have wonderful moments, like this one, for example," says Doris Karasek, lifting the three-kilo dog Lilly onto an old lady's bed. Her face brightens in an instant and she begins to stroke the dog.

A resident with spastic paralysis becomes much calmer when he can feel Abby, a man who is barely able to move after a brain hemorrhage tries to name the dog treats in animal form and feed them to the dog.

Animals are not judgmental, every person is the same to them
And why does the work with the dogs work so well? "Because animals don't make judgments," explains Sabine Oberhauser. "They don't care at all whether the person has a physical or mental impairment. They approach the person openly." Another essential point with the Herzenshunden: Animal-assisted intervention only happens if everyone involved wants it to.

An intervention lasts up to 40 minutes. That is exhausting for the dog. Then he needs some rest.

(Bild: Charlotte Titz)

Doris Karasek takes her dogs with her on her rounds. "And then I see what happens," she says and immediately loses herself again in beautiful moments with her clients. Listening to her, you notice not only her love for people, but also for her job. And it has to be said here: Respect for all people who work with the disabled, the elderly or the dying. It's great that there are socially committed people like Sabine Oberhauser or Doris Karasek and her dogs. And thank you very much for your work!

You can also find more information about their training at www.team-herzenshunde.at