Support Partners: Canine Companions will help you understand how your dog can help you cope with depression on a day-to-day basis. It offers practical tips on adding your dog to an existing support network of family and friends.

Just like a human Support Partner, a dog can offer many types of support for someone with depression:

Ways Dogs May Help

• Ensure that you are getting some exercise¹
• Help reduce loneliness and isolation²
• Facilitate positive social interactions¹
• Provide a source for enjoyable activities such as grooming, playing and companionship

Support Partners: Canine Companions offers a downloadable brochure (PDF: 424K) that provides information on the potential benefits of dogs for people with depression and suggested activities to help incorporate your dog into your recovery plan.

Canine Companions is the newest component of the Support Partners program. Be sure to refer back to the Support Partners guidebooks as they can help identify symptoms of depression, offer tips to manage the illness, and give advice on how to ask for, or offer, support.

Support Partners: Canine Companions is not a program of Canine Companions for Independence^®, a national provider of trained assistance dogs for adults and children with physical disabilities.

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Canine Companions for Independence is a registered trademark of the nonprofit organization Canine Companions for Independence, Inc.