SOCIETY Special Feature 1 – Living with Pets Special ReportThe power of hospital facility dogs: Doing what humans can’t Hospital facility dogs are a special type of companion animal that are hand-picked while they are puppies and undergo two years of advanced training at a dedicated facility. Only then can they carry out their role. Working at hospitals and the like, hospital facility dogs provide comfort to everyone at the facility, especially to the patients. Providing support in situations involving a particularly substantial psychological burden is an important job that only hospital facility dogs can do, and the positive effects they have are steadily increasing. However, as only a very limited number of Japanese hospitals have introduced hospital facility dogs to date, more widespread support is needed.