Special opportunities with the Pets As Therapy charity

29 September 2025

In the November edition of BSAVA Companion there is a feature on Pets As Therapy, the UK-wide charity which is a community of pet owners and amazing pets brightening days and bringing joy to people in hospitals, care homes, schools and more. Vet Claire Nicholls shares with us the joys of volunteering with PAT.

I’ve been a vet all my life. I don’t mean that in a flippant way. I mean that when I was a child, there was nothing else I ever wanted to be. We always had dogs in the family, and I grew up with our dogs being my closest friends. I remember the first time that I worked out how many years of education I would need before I qualified, the answer was 17. I must have been so small, but I was always going to be this person that I am now. And I have loved it. I love animals, I love to help my patients, and I love the connection I feel with their families. It’s a fabulous profession, and I am very grateful. But it is getting harder. The job is more complicated, the costs are so difficult to balance and pet owners are more anxious. As I am planning for my retirement I looked for a way to replace that fulfilment that my job always brought me, and I found Pets As Therapy.

I own three gorgeous Cocker Spaniels, and I know how much love and joy they have to give, and what they can bring to people in need. And for me, it’s an instant win, every time. We visit two schools and an assisted living facility regularly. At the primary school, Millie and I were first shown around by a young boy, who chatted to us about his own pets, about Millie, and about the school. After we dropped him off back in his own classroom, the teacher accompanying us shook her head in disbelief. He’s severely autistic, she explained, we hardly ever hear him speak. It’s easy to see the effect the dogs have on primary school children. I watched one young girl rolling on the floor with Hannah and whispering to her, “Are you a teddy bear, brought to life?” Another told Daisy, “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” One time a child told me that my dogs were the first dogs they have ever touched, and the admission brought tears to my eyes!

Claire Nicholls with her PAT volunteers.

In secondary school we help pupils with attendance problems. Our session is early morning, so it provides a motivational draw for the pupils to come in on time. I hear that they send messages to each other, reminders, so that they don’t miss their PAT sessions. I see their faces light up, and I love the way that they remember each of my dogs, where they like to be petted and which tricks they know. (My dogs each have their own repertoires.) Before the GCSEs we did Wellbeing visits, helping students feel calm before their exams, giving them something to smile about, relieving their anxiety. Our in-school organizer has a queue of pupils waiting for their turns with the PAT dogs. We could do with more help, more time. At the care home, we meet adults with physical, emotional and mental incapacities. They are either incapable or not allowed their own pets, and some have had to leave family pets behind in order to move in. I see the joy my dogs can bring them, how the touch of a warm spaniel can melt through the hardest barriers. At one hospital visit, an elderly gentleman lit up with delight when I told him the dog he was holding was called Daisy. “That was my wife’s name,” he smiled, and pulled her to his chest, closing his eyes to embrace her warmth and softness. For me, being a PAT Team with my beautiful dogs is a no-brainer. You can give up as much or as little time as you can spare, and the rewards are simple and endless.

Find out more about Pets As Therapy, the UK-wide charity that brightens lives and brings comfort to those who need it most, and to find out how you can get involved, visit the PAT website at: https://www.petsastherapy.org/

Claire’s dogs (L-R) Daisy, Millie and Charlie.