Dog-assisted therapy enhances psychosocial health and QoL in autism

Dog-assisted therapy improves psychosocial health and quality of life (QoL) in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Hong Kong, and may serve as an adjunct therapy for those receiving conventional curriculum training, according to an exploratory randomized controlled trial (RCT).

“Dog-assisted therapy has become a promising complementary approach, providing social and emotional support for children with ASD,” wrote the researchers from the University of Hong Kong. However, evidence on its impact on emotional and behavioural problems and QoL were not fully explored. [Eur J Pediatr 2026;185:64]

The researchers therefore conducted an exploratory RCT in children with ASD to evaluate the effectiveness of dog-assisted therapy. From February 2023 to November 2024, 64 children aged 6–15 years with mild or moderate ASD were recruited from eight Hong Kong special educational needs (SEN) schools. These children were randomized 1:1 to receive either dog-assisted therapy (mean age, 10.3 years; male, 78.1 percent) or conventional curriculum training (mean age, 10.8 percent; male, 87.5 percent).

Children in the dog-assisted therapy group received eight consecutive training sessions, each lasting 1 hour and held twice a week. The main approaches included:

• Touching, feeding, brushing, and walking the dog;
• Playing with the dog and drawing for it;
• Guiding the dog through obstacles;
• Attaching labels, stickers, or clips to the dog’s scarf;
• Giving the dog commands;
• Calling the dog’s name.

After eight sessions of dog-assisted therapy, the mean total score of QoL (58.32 vs 61.71; p=0.007) and mean score of total difficulties (15.63 vs 13.16; p=0.003) significantly improved vs baseline.

Significant improvements in several subscales, such as school functioning, psychosocial functioning, externalizing behaviour, conduct problems, and hyperactivity, were also observed (p<0.05 for all).

“The companionship of dogs can stimulate positive emotions in children with ASD, alleviating their anxiety and stress, and capturing their attention,” explained the researchers. “The dogs’ behaviour and reactions can also serve as feedback, helping children with ASD better understand and express their emotions, and promoting their development of social skills.”

A reduction in mean total difficulties score was also observed in the conventional education training group vs baseline (16.47 vs 15.03; p=0.035).

Dog-assisted therapy was noninferior to conventional education training across all domains (p>0.05 for all).

“The focus of conventional education training and dog-assisted therapy was different,” pointed out the researchers. “School-based curriculum in the SEN schools targets promoting cognitive and language development, improving social skills and emotional management, developing self-care abilities, and enhancing behaviour management.”

“Our results showed that dog-assisted therapy could be a useful complementary therapy for children receiving conventional educational training in SEN school settings,” added the researchers.

Further studies should focus on larger-scale, long-term RCTs involving children with ASD at different ages with different severity levels. This approach would enhance generalizability of the therapy and ascertain sustained improvements beyond the designated number of sessions.