The nursing home resident receives 12 10-minute visits in their own room. The visitor is accompanied with a dog, and the resident can touch the dog. Apart from the visitor, an observer is present.

The nursing home resident receives 12 10-minute visits in their own room. The visitor is accompanied with a dog, and the resident can touch the dog. During the visit, the visitor offers the resident to participate in an activity that involves interacting with the dog.

Apart from the visitor, an observer is present.

The nursing home resident receives 12 10-minute visits in their own room. During the visit, the visitor offers the resident to participate in an activity.

Apart from the visitor, an observer is present, but no dog is present..

An visitor visits the participant with a dog

The behaviour of the residents is recorded by direct observation using continuous recording. In all visits, the frequency and duration of talk and physical contact to the persons present are recorded. Talk is classified into talk about the dog and/or activity, depending on the visit type. In visits with dogs (D, DA), the frequency and duration of physical contact and talk directed to the dog are recorded, and in visits involving an activity (DA, A), the frequency and duration of the residents' involvement in the activity are recorded.

All participants were scored on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), which gives information about the participants' cognitive status.The MMSE score has a minimum and maximum value of 0 and 30, respectively. The lower the score, the more severe the cognitively impairment level.