The Rewarding Experience
of the Therapy Dog
What is a therapy dog?
A therapy dog's job is to provide comfort and companionship through
contact with animals. Animal-assisted therapy is accepted as therapeutic
intervention which promotes positive and beneficial health effects.
A therapy dog can often work wonders in bringing happiness or
comfort where other therapies have failed. People who have shown
no interest for living can suddenly and without provocation, reach
out for the friendly paw of man's best friend. Pet visitations
by the therapy dog are a particularly rewarding experience for
the aged, chronically-ill, psychiatric patients, the disabled
or emotionally challenged, as well as inmates of correctional
facilities. Therapy dogs also make hospital and long-term care
institutions more home-like.
What makes a good therapy dog?
1) First and foremost, is the therapy dogs interest and willingness
to socialize with humans.
2) Second, a therapy dog must demonstrate a tolerance to a variety
of people; seniors with unsteady gait, people with physical and/or
emotional handicaps, children and adolescents.
3) This third factor involves the use of specific training which
will allow an animal to be reliable under numerous different circumstances.
These skills can also produce effective therapeutic results.
4) A dog who is very calm and very gentle with strangers and
children.
5) Last but not least, what all these animals must show is their
ability to be loving and forgiving, as this is the door to a human
being’s heart, and once that door has been opened, the healing
process is set in motion and miracles can, and do occur!
A truly rewarding story of one such therapy
dog named "Hank" and his wonderful owner William.
Jolynn,
I can’t thank you
enough for the dog you sent us. “Hank” was eight weeks old when
he bounded from his crate at the airport exactly one year ago
today. Hank has been a smart dog from the beginning, including
being housebroken a week later (we were too stupid to know he
already knew to go outside). As you recall, we made a decision
early on to enroll Hank in a training program to help others,
which led to his certification as a animal assisted
activities/animal assisted therapy dog just two months ago. Yet
because of his size, temperament and calm demeanor, people forget
that he is still very much a puppy.
He has been an
outstanding AAA/T graduate, so I wanted to share the following
with you:
We arrived early today
at the hospital for regular duty, and as usual went over the
assignments (participating wards) and various “requests.”
Requests are last-minute requests from someone on staff who has
asked for a dog team to come by for one reason or another.
Today, we were
assigned to work two wards, including several requests.
One of the requests
involved a young man that they were attempting to “revive” from a
coma, and they wanted a dog to assist. The medical staff, the
wife and his mother were all around his bed, talking to him as if
he was alert. He had an obvious head injury and even though he
was non responsive, they explained every step that was about to
happen, including that a dog was in the room and would soon be at
his bedside.
Because he had owned a
dog when he was younger, their goal was to use Hank to help bring
him out of his coma. Even though I was very skeptical, I said,
“Sure, tell us what to do and we would be more than willing to
assist.”
So they lowered the
bed and raised the patient almost to a sitting position. I
brought Hank to the bedside where I gave him a “sit/stay”
command. At their instruction, I lifted his front paws onto the
bed, as if he were kneeling for “prayers.” I also braced his back
with my knees so he would be comfortable and stay put. They then
moved the patient’s hand closer to Hank, placed his paw in the
palm of the patient’s hand and closed it. They told him that the
dog was there to help him “wake up.” They told him if he would
close his hand, he could feel the Hank’s paw. His mother was at
the end of the bed telling him, “Open your eyes, he looks just
like (name of dog).” Yet nothing happened. No response.
They took the
patient’s hand and rubbed it all over Hank’s nose and ears. Hank
was a real trouper through it all, staying there, getting “petted”
in this unusual manner for what seemed like an eternity. I
remember thinking, “This isn’t going to work, my back hurts and
I’m sure Hank is uncomfortable, too,” when suddenly the patient’s
eyes popped wide open, as clear as they could possibly be. He
looked down right at Hank because he could feel him, then looked
at his wife and mother at the end of the bed and then again at
Hank. He just smiled. He was disoriented, of course, but kept
looking around the room, mainly fixating right on Hank, as if
“what are you doing here?”
Within a few minutes,
we backed away while they continued to talk to him and work with
him, explaining over and over again where he was, what was going
on, etc. He never spoke while we were there, but clearly he was
coming around.
Kleenex was passed out
to everyone and I could hear “The dog did it. The dog did it. The
dog got him to wake up.”
With everyone now
busier than ever and the room bustling with activity, Hank and I
quietly left for our next “request.”
William
++++++++++++++++++++++
William
We would like to thank Hank and William for sending us this touching
story, and allowing us to feel as if we were a part of this wonderful
experience. Thought of the Day: Spell "DOG" Backwards.
http://www.tdi-dog.org/ Therapy
Dog International, Inc
http://www.therapydogs.com/
Therapy Dog Inc.
http://www.sja.ca/english/volunteer/therapy_dog_program/index.asp
St. John Ambulance Therapy Dog Program (Canada)
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Other service dogs:
