The experimental group carried out a total of 14 one-hour group sessions, on a weekly basis for 14 consecutive weeks. The groups were formed by 8 participants. Sessions included the participation of one certified therapy dog, one technician specialized in AAT and a psychologist. Participants received their usual treatment (pharmacological and/or individual and family cognitive-behavioral treatment).

Intervention:

All sessions: Establishment of structured routines and schedules to help the child organize and manage daily responsibilities. Positive reinforcement to reward and motivate desirable behaviors.

Sessions 1-7: Impulsivity management techniques. Social skills training. Self-control techniques to identify and manage moments of impulsivity.

Sessions 8-14: Reinforcement of attention and concentration through strategies such as dividing tasks into smaller, more manageable parts. Cognitive-behavioral therapy to work on self-esteem, self-control and problem solving.

Treatment as usual (pharmacological and/or individual and family cognitive-behavioral treatment).

A structured AAT program and usual treatment in Experimental group.

It is a numerical scale to rate the overall functioning of young people under 18 years of age. Scores range from 1 to 100. A higher score indicates better functioning.

Is an instrument for measuring symptom severity of patients with mental disorders. Uses a single item on a Likert scale of seven values from 1= "Normal, not at all ill" to 7= "Among the most extremely ill patients".

This instrument measures intellectual ability of children from 6 to 16 years. It was developed to provide an overall measure of general cognitive ability, and measures of intellectual functioning in Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed. The full version of the WISC-IV has 15 subtests, only ten are considered core, and used more often when testing intelligence.

In this study we used the short parents' version (27 items) and teachers' version (28 items). The scale is divided into 4 subscales: oppositional, inattention, hyperactivity -impulsivity and ADHD Index. Each item is scored from 0 to 3 (0= not true, 3= is always true). A typical score ≥70 indicates the presence of alterations in the subscale.