I know a therapy program for ADHD patients in Germany using dogs in order to achieve certain improvements. Therefore I suggest there must be something like empirical evidence. I honestly do not know any study about it but I will keep my eyes open and will post any new findings right here. Okay!? -- From my personal experience I just can tell you that dogs will improve your live. I think having a dog is very good in order to experience loyality, 'deep friendship' and the best thing is a dog loves you the way you are. So even if I do not know any study by now I can recommend everybody who loves animals to have a dog, especially if you have got ADHD.

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I completely agree with you assessment. I am surprised the subject has not been researched.

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I don't know of any of research being done with dogs or any animals and it impact on ADHD; but in personal experience having animal particulary dogs did help on may levels from organization , exercise to just sounding off to a interest group. I love having the animal around it tends to keep focus on something other than myself.They give unconditional love so it doesn't matter if I lose the keys or forget to pay the bill even though I have the money for example I am sure I will forget to pay my parking ticket because it just leave my mind. But I never forgot to pick up dog food or take them to the beach to run and swim Judi

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As I promised some weeks ago I will watch out for scientific evidence on this topic...fortunately I found information about it. An Austrian study found out that patients suffering from PTSD, BPD and ADHD can extend their social and personal skills working with dogs.

(1) The obvious benefits are: learning responsibility, accepting physical contact, trust, the feeling of being loved. So far so good... (2) Dogs in a therapy setting as well as at home enabled extremely introverted patients to talk about their problems, traumas, etc. It is worth mentioning that a drug treatment aiming to reach the same circumstance was less successful than working with a dog in therapy. I was surprised by these results. (3) Another aspect worth mentioning is that fact that dogs often seem to recognize mood changes in humans and show certain reactions to it. These reactions support people with various mental dispositions in expressing and working on their feelings. (4) All in all the therapy program is successful and it is very often used among people that are extremely traumatized.

Source: Sendara, A. et al. (2007): Skillstraining among patients with BPD and PTSD, p. 209, Vienna (Austria). => Source is only available in German as far as I know.

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