DR. SHANNON DOMINGUEZ, DCH

Shannon Dominguez, DCH is the Director of the Pet Therapy and Animal Education program for the Haku Baldwin Center in Maui, Hawaii, USA.  She began her AAT/Animal Education career in 2001 as a volunteer for the Maui Animal Aloha Center's Animal Education program where she began formally researching and publishing the benefits of AAT in the clinical environment. Considered an expert in her field, she specializes in the training and use of small animals (rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens and ducks) for pet therapy, animal-assisted therapy, animal-assisted activities and social therapy.  In addition to visiting up to 800 patients in Maui's care facilities each month, she offers classes in humane animal education at the Center.  The love for her work inspired the creations of FriendlyTails.net and the web page, Maui Pet Therapy, on MySpace.com to attract more attention to the field of Animal-Assisted Therapy and recruit volunteers, interns and donations for the Haku Baldwin Center.

Dr. Dominguez holds a Doctorate degree in Clinical Hypnotherapy (specializing in medical hypnosis by physician referral) from the American Institute of Hypnotherapy and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of California, Irvine. She maintains an active private practice in hypnosis that is completely separate from her full-time passion of working for the Haku Baldwin Center. No animals are used in the hypnosis session, nor does she hypnotize animals and patients when practicing AAT/AAA. Any people barking like dogs, clucking like chickens or making animal noises in her presence is completely coincidental.

Most often, there's some new fuzzy, feathered or furry animal living in her home that she's imprinting or working with for the program. When asked about it, she replied, "Yes, I do bring my work home with me (sometimes I keep them)! These special little beings touch lives in many miraculous ways and I'm so blessed to be a part of it all. I've loved animals for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory is just learning how to walk ... focused on being able to get my awkward toddling self to touch the fluffy soft tail of our family cat."  Once she got a hold of that cat tail, there was never a moment after that in her life where she wasn't involved with animals.

She's been the guardian (does not like the word owner) of dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, mice, rats, parrot, exotic finches, canaries, cockatiels, snakes, lizards, horses, pony, turtles, goats, and tropical fish. A love for animals blended with her therapeutic background made a natural transition for her career in the pet therapy field.

Dr. Dominguez publishes an online newsletter, "Friendly Tails^® Newsletter - True Stories of Animals Helping People Heal"©  (formerly Shannimal's Friendly Tails _^©).  Many of the stories are available here at FriendlyTails.net.

Dr. Dominguez is available for lectures, workshops, seminars, consulting, and continues researching and publishing her findings on the health benefits of human-animals interaction in various journals. 

"The kindness you show today can transcend a lifetime."

Shannon volunteers for the United Animal Nations (UAN.org) Emergency Animal Rescue Service (EARS). As a volunteer she educates families with pets about emergency disaster planning and is on stand-by to deploy in the event of a disaster.

Her personal certified therapy dogs are tested and certified through Therapy Dogs Incorporated and Tails of Aloha. She is First Aid and CPR certified.

Her visits to facilities with the animals are insured and bonded.

The small animals utilized in her pet therapy program are primarily rescues. Animal rescue is very important to her, as she believes animals deserve a second chance. She adopts whenever possible from the Maui Humane Society and the Maui Animal Rescue and Sanctuary (MARS).

  Betty Blue (mare), Baby Blue (colt) and Gizmo with Dr. Shannon
Miniature Therapy Horse in Training.