Programs that help emotionally disturbed or isolated individuals improve their personal and social functioning by giving them an opportunity to care for and relate to a domestic animal that is kept as a pet. Also included are programs that bring dogs or other small pets to visit people residing in a nursing facility or another institutional setting who are ill or elderly or have disabilities; and those that employ R.E.A.D. dogs who volunteer with their owner/handler as a team, going to schools, libraries and many other settings as reading companions for children.