PUPS, Pets Uplifting People Society, is the Delaware point of contact for Animal Assisted Activities. We promote the training, testing and registering of Visiting Pet/Handler teams. We work with facilities (state hospitals, long-term-care facilities, nursing homes, medical centers, doctor offices, maturity centers, daycares and more), as well as with members of our community who are interested in this volunteer activity of sharing the joy of our animals with others. PUPS is a volunteer, no financial reimbursement allowed, community service for the joy of sharing your animals with others.

We can assist interested facilities with creating or updating their current Visiting Pet program in compliance with the recommendations of both JCAHO and CDC. We have facility self-assessment tools, resident / patient preference questionnaires, and samples of Policies & Procedures which include visiting pet profiles, consent forms, animal history forms and temperament profiles.

PUPS offer opportunities for the general public to learn about Animal Assisted Activities (Therapy Dogs), Registered Pet Visitation, how and why we visit facilities, the unique needs of facilities requesting Visiting Pets, and the requirements of the various evaluations. We introduce the national Visiting Pet organizations, discuss the importance of registering, and how one could begin visitation as a PUPS team member.

Pets Uplifting People Society (PUPS) teams are not limited to dogs - we already have two Delta Society Pet Partner Guinea Pigs (Cavy) involved in active visitation. We look forward to new members with Cavy, rabbits, cats, birds and even ponies, llama or horses as their Visiting Pet of choice.