Dogs do indeed help with your recovery. This is Tango. He's a big gentle 80 lb, mixed breed (hound-golden retriever) rescue dog, who is soon to celebrate his 11th birthday. In the winter he loves to lay on my lap. At the end of October I had my 2nd knee replacement. Tango is very polite. He would stand in front of my recliner, waiting for me to invite him up. It killed me that for the first 2 months I was afraid to have him on my lap. At 9 weeks, I said to him, "Want to come up boy?" He slowly and carefully climbed onto my lap, and moved into position. When he laid down, he put his big head next to my surgical knee, not across it.
It was such a comfort to have the big warm furry body close to me again, not to mention the warmth he shared with me on those cold winter nights.