There are certifications for Therapy Dog (or pet) in the U.S. There are also specially trained animals that assist the disabled. Seeing Eye Dogs are the best known, but there are also Hearing Ear Dogs for the Deaf (notify owners of phone calls, doorbells, sirens and alarms and the like), as well as different types of assistive aniimals for the physically disabled, like the monkeys that do stuff for paraplegics. We have Pet Therapy at the nuthouse. The dogs are as therapeutic for the staff as for the patients. When they are in we make a point of going back to the Chart Room and getting our facelicking. Spanky is the one on the left.
The animal in question in this story may or may not have been a trained pet therapy animal ... the article may be using that terminology to evoke an emotional response from the reader, when the dog was really just a good listener in the home of a loney child.