Pet Therapy Visits
The mission of the Pet Therapy Society of Northern Alberta (PeTS) is to provide safe, meaningful animal-assisted activities and pet therapy visits to people who live and work throughout our community and surrounding area. These visits are offered at no cost to our facility partners, made possible by the dedication of our volunteers and the generosity of our donors.
Our therapy animals are well-loved family pets who have the right temperament for this special work. Each animal is carefully evaluated for obedience, behaviour, and overall health, with veterinary screening as part of the process. Volunteer teams are then supported and observed in both practice settings and real visit environments before being approved to carry out visits independently.
Visitation Options
Ongoing Visits
Facilities can request ongoing pet therapy visits from PeTS volunteers using the form below.
Some important information to know:
Compassionate Care End-of-Life Visits
Compassionate Care is a special visit, at the request from a Facility or directly from a family member, to work with a family dealing with an end-0f-life situation (either through a single visit or a series of visits)
Some important information to know about Pet Therapy Visits:
If you are interested in booking a Compassionate Visit, please reach out to our facilities Director at Facilities@pettherapysociety.com, she will help you organize a visit.
Stress Buster (One Time Only) Visits
Stress Busters are one-time pet therapy events requested by a facility, workplace, or organization. They’re a great way to experience the benefits of therapy animals firsthand, whether you’re exploring the idea of ongoing visits or looking to support staff, clients, or students with a meaningful opportunity to relax, reset, and recharge.
These visits are perfect for appreciation days, wellness initiatives, special events, or simply bringing a moment of comfort and connection into a busy environment.
Special Event Visits
We work with companies and groups to bring pet therapy to festivals, fundraising events, health and wellness fairs, as well as corporate VIP events.
Pet therapy may be a small portion of the schedule, or offered throughout the day. Depending on size and duration, multiple teams may be scheduled.
There is absolutely no charge for our services.
Visit FAQ
We have ratified teams with dogs and cats, though the majority of our teams are with dogs.
No, our volunteers pick the facility they wish to visit. When you submit a Pet Therapy Request Form, you can set requirements such as “no cats” or “no animals on raw food diets”, which lets our teams filter out the facilities they don’t qualify for.
Please contact us at facilities@pettherapysociety.com with your concerns.
Pet therapy visits are typically 60 minutes long, though visit lengths may vary slightly by pet. With newer teams, the pet may be tired after 45 minutes. Some seasoned teams can happily visit for 90 minutes.
You can request visits weekly, biweekly, monthly, semi-annually, and annually. If you would like multiple visits in the same week, we may be able to accommodate using multiple teams.
Yes, you can choose the dates & times when you would like pet therapy teams to visit. When a team is interested in visiting, they will contact you to confirm the schedule.
We can’t promise when a team will select your facility to visit, as it is up to our volunteers to choose. We promote all new facilities to our volunteers.
Our therapy pets are tested for temperament in a variety of situations with a variety of people before they are ratified. We evaluate how they respond to people of different ages, sizes, genders, and even different types of outfits. While a pet may be surprised if a new condition arises during a pet therapy visit, we are confident that their reactions will not be negative and that their handler will be able to manage the situation to reassure their pet that the something new is also something good.
To ensure the safety of our teams, we ask that our teams not be scheduled to visit when you have other animals scheduled to visit in the same room.
Our volunteers will be able to display a dated membership card, either in paper form, or from their mobile device. The membership card will have the volunteer’s name ( which should match their government issued ID), their pet’s picture, name and breed. The therapy animal will be wearing a bandana featuring the PeTS logo.
We were incorporated in 1995 as a not for profit organization, and are proud to be starting our 25th year of service.
We do not charge for our visits, and our volunteers will not accept remuneration for their visits. If desired, you are welcome to make a charitable donation to PeTS. Donations of $20 or more will receive a tax receipt.
No, our society does not provide service animals, which are specially trained to support a single handler. Our therapy animals are personal pets that have friendly personalities that help many people by easing loneliness, stress, and anxiety.
No, our visits are only conducted at public or corporate facilities, when event or facility staff are onsite.
Our pets are assessed by veterinarians annually, tested for parasites, and vaccinated according to recommendations from the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (CVMA). We require our teams to pause visits if their pets are sick and/or on antibiotics.
PeTS doesn’t require our volunteers to be vaccinated to perform pet therapy visits. We do ask that they be in good health, and not taking antibiotics before visiting. If your facility requires specific vaccinations, we can highlight that for our volunteers, so that they can bring proof of their vaccination during orientation.
Yes, subject to the availability of volunteers. The majority of our volunteers work full time, so it can be difficult to fill the daytime volunteer shifts.
Yes, we provide teams at large events, where there are 50 or more people attending, such as Homeless Connect, the City of Edmonton’s Health and Wellness Fair, and exam week at a local post-secondary institution. We have also supplied therapy pets for quiet rooms at large conventions. The time and dates of the events will determine if teams are available. It’s best to request pet therapy visits 4 - 6 weeks before the event.
Yes, we provide teams for smaller events, where they are fewer than 50 people expected. Some examples of this might be visiting an accounting office after year-end or a fire station for a mental health initiative.
HAVE QUESTIONS?
Contact Us
If you have questions about getting pet therapy visits for your facilities,
please fill out the form below and a volunteer will respond within 72 hours.