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You may worry that service dogs or therapy dogs are not hygienic enough for the hospitals and other medical facilities they’re allowed in, especially since they may put their paws on the bed of a patient they’re trying to comfort. But research conducted at Utrecht University in the Netherlands shows that dogs’ paws are cleaner than the soles of our shoes.
Taking samples from the paws of 25 dogs and the bottoms of their owners’ walking gear, the investigators looked at such things as counts for bacteria in poop (which are very common outdoors) and other harmful pathogens. The upshot, reported in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health: dogs’ paws turned out to be cleaner than shoe soles. Thus, if you see a dog in a medical facility cheering someone up or helping them get around, you don’t need to worry that the animal is too dirty to be there.
