Pet Partners respects your privacy and understands the importance of protecting your personal information. Our Privacy Policy was created to inform you of how we will use your personal information and how you can communicate with us about your preferences. Information Collection Pet Partners collects certain personal information when you…
Since 2017, Pet Partners has offered a scholarship funded by Dr. Aubrey Fine, named the Magic Award in memory of his therapy dog Magic, to registered volunteers for use in personal/professional development in the field of AAI. In 2022, the scholarship was expanded to include members of our sister organization,…
We began 2021 with an air of hope, as the development of COVID-19 vaccines offered the possibility of being able to return to more typical activities, including in-person therapy animal visits and the important work that supports those visits. Unfortunately, the rise of new COVID-19 variants and continuing high levels…
The first-ever Pet Partners Pet of the Year, a new signature fundraising competition to support Pet Partners, was held February 1–March 15, 2022. And we are so excited at the success of this inaugural event! During the six-week competition, pet candidates (with help from the humans who love them) raised…
Originally published May 19, 2020; updated March 4, 2021 This post was originally published in May 2020, when we had early optimism about the possibility of returning to more typical therapy animal visits. Over the past 10 months we've seen the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic go through recurring waves…
Pet Partners is pleased to present this guest post from one of our therapy cat teams. Stitches and her handler Nikki Christopher became a Pet Partners team in 2017 and Stitches gained attention for her work at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. We asked Stitches (with Nikki's assistance) to share some…
The Pet Partners Therapy Animal Program has been dedicated since the beginning to bringing therapy animals to people who can most benefit. For more than three decades our dedicated volunteer teams have been bringing the power of the human-animal bond to people in healthcare settings of all kinds. As the…
I woke up this morning thinking it was any other day. I ate my breakfast, played with my beloved tennis ball collection, and laid in my favorite sunny spot for a while before my human came over with my brush. Wait a second—I got a bath last night, and now…
The 2019 Pet Partners Conference, Partnering with a Purpose, took place September 20-21 in San Antonio, TX. It was a wonderful opportunity to bring together handlers, professionals in the AAI field, practitioners and facilities, and Pet Partners staff to network, learn, and inspire. The conference was full of informative sessions…
If you’re interested in learning more about the world of animal-assisted interventions, you’re in the right place! The first step to understanding animal-assisted interventions is to have a grasp on the terminology. With animal-assisted interventions gaining popularity, more and more terms have been created to attempt to describe these services.…
There is no doubt that time is one of the most valuable commodities that we have—especially in this era in which it seems the world is spinning faster than ever. Yet even with the culture of hustle that surrounds us, millions of people still choose to give their time to…
This interview was originally published July 15, 2019. There have been changes in some of the laws since this interview was originally published. We held a Facebook Live event with Ellie Wetzel on February 16, 2021 that covers some of this new information. You can view a recording of this…
This post is part of a continuing series on preparing your pet for therapy animal work. You’ve brought a new pet home who you think might be a great therapy animal (perhaps one you adopted from a shelter), and you’ve taken some time to prepare them for experiences they might…
Originally published March 2020; updated November 2020 As the world deals with the effects of COVID-19, one of the most important mitigation strategies is social distancing: having people distance and isolate themselves to help prevent spread of the virus. This important public health measure means that people are staying home…
