For instance, a dog that works visiting patients in a hospital will meet and greet with patients and provide warmth, loving attention, and distraction to patients as a part of his work. Another dog visiting a hospital might only go to the physical therapy department and, working in tandem with a professional, have one client with a specific goal in mind. That goal might be for the client to raise his or her hand above the waist. The dog encourages this by fetching balls the client is throwing. Therefore, the interaction with the dog promotes the goal of the physical therapist with the client.

 

Therapy dogs can be almost any breed as the most important aspects for a great therapy dog are:

1. they understand and respond to basic commands and are under the handler’s control

2. they have an easy going and tolerant temperament and enjoy interacting with people, and

3. their handler also has the right personality for therapy work and can appropriately support the canine.

 

To determine whether a canine and his handler are appropriate for therapy work, they will undergo some training and testing, usually through organizations like Pet Partners (www.petpartners.org) or through Therapy Dogs International (www.tdi-dog.org ).

 

Once a dog passes these programs, they are registered and carry insurance so that facilities can feel comfortable welcoming the dogs for service, knowing they have the right level of training and carry liability insurance. My Australian Shepherd, Callie, first became a therapy dog in 2005 through Pet Partners (then known as the Delta Society). We worked in schools with autistic and disabled children and in a crisis shelter for children. Later, we began to do AAT work with children at high risk in residential treatment facilities, working with the child’s therapist to help the child reach specific goals. Many of the high-risk children we have worked with have witnessed, or even participated in, animal abuse. By developing an emotional relationship with a loving dog, we hope to break this cycle of violence. Research shows us that domestic abuse often has its roots in animal abuse.

 

I remember one young child we worked with who had a history of animal abuse. After a number of weeks working with Callie, the boy brought her a bowl of water after declaring that she must be thirsty. As she drank, he looked up proudly and said “ I used to hurt animals, but NOW I am an animal helper!”

 

In 2010, we underwent additional training to become a crisis-response therapy team through HOPE Animal-Assisted Crisis Response (www.hopeaacr.org). Several times per year, we are deployed to areas where disasters have occurred. So far in 2013, we served at the memorial for a victim of a shooting in Phoenix, at Santa Monica College after the campus shooting, and in the communities of Prescott and Yarnell, Arizona after the devastating fire that resulted in 19 firefighter deaths. These past 8 years have been such a blessing as I watch my dog bring comfort and pleasure to so many people. She has an instinct as to who needs her most and I mostly follow her lead. In a roomful of children in a children’s crisis shelter, she seems to find the one that needs her most. Even when she is not “on duty” she seeks out interactions with people. She loves children and is so tolerant of curious, and sometimes rough, little hands. This is Callie’s “work” and Aussies need work to do. When her working vest is pulled out of the drawer, she does her “happy wiggle-butt dance”! And once it is on, she runs out to the car and waits by the door to be let in. She knows she is going to work and she can’t wait! Therapy work is not for every dog…and not for every person. But if you and your canine have the “right stuff”, you can make a difference in many lives while enriching your own.

 

Here are some personal stories.... In October 2010 Callie and I had just finished 3 days of intensive training and testing for crisis response work in California and we had just been handed our HOPE certification, when we were asked to deploy to Carlsbad, California to Kelly Elementary School. The day before, a gunman had climbed the fence and began shooting indiscriminately into the children on the playground. Several children were wounded before the gunman was taken down by construction workers nearby. While school resumed the next day, the children were now afraid to go out onto their playground. Callie and I, along with several other HOPE teams, went to the school and positioned ourselves outside the playground doors. The kids were eager to see and pet the dogs. We came for every recess and for lunchtime for two weeks. Each time we arrived, we slowly moved ourselves farther onto the playground and ultimately to the shooting site. As the days passed, the kids began to laugh and play again and when they began to flit in and out of our HOPE teams and resume their normal play, we knew our work had been done. They had reclaimed their playground and developed new positive associations with their space.

 

Months later, when the shooter went to trial, which was highly publicized, the school district asked us to return to help the kids who were showing sign of traumatic stress. This time, the dogs visited in small groups with the children and their counselors so that they had a safe place and a “familiar friend’ to help they open up to their counselors. On January 8, 2011 Gabriel Giffords and 18 others were shot and six were killed at a public meeting in Tucson, AZ. Among the dead were a federal judge and a young girl. Callie and I attended the memorial of Christina Taylor-Green, age 9, and Chief Judge Roll. We were welcomed by the sheriff’s office, the FBI and the US Marshals. At Christina’s memorial, Callie sat with two children for a big part of the event. Both were classmates and good friends of Christina’s.

 

At Judge Roll’s memorial, the US Marshals insisted that we be admitted to the highly secured area so that we could have better access to the mourners who wanted to visit with us. An FBI officer and his wife, who were close friends of Judge Roll also spent a significant amount of time with Callie after his service. Later, they sent honorary FBI badges for Callie’s vest as they saw the US Marshals had already “adopted” her with their honorary badge.

 

In August of 2011, Callie and I served at Camp Operation Purple in California, a camp for the children of active duty deployed military. When children were in distress, we got a radio call for “the dog lady” and we would go to that child and let them walk Callie through the forest paths while they talked or sit on a bench with them while they cried. Usually within 30 minutes or so they had calmed down enough to rejoin their fellow campers. We attended evening meetings in the cabins along with counselors as kids discussed their anxieties and fears for their deployed parents. We were the first HOPE team to do this and each year HOPE teams are now being asked to come to camp again.

 

February 2013: Local attorney and respected community leader, Mark Hummels, was shot January 30th in a mediation dispute. His law firm, Osborn Maledon, requested support at the Memorial Reception, which was to be held at Phoenix City Hall, directly following the services at the Orpheum Theatre Callie and I arrived at City Hall one hour before the guests to tour the venue and determine a suitable place to provide services. I was told to expect 500-1,000 mourners. A flood of mourners arrived all at once. The caterer, whom I spoke to earlier, soon brought me a young boy in tears. He was the 8-year-old son of the attorney. He sat with me and Callie on the floor, and his teen-aged cousins, who were keeping a very watchful eye on him and his sister, filled the benches around us. Soon, he was smiling, petting and brushing Callie and telling me stories of his own dogs and his Dad. His cousins joined in periodically and his older sister kept flitting in and out of our circle with her friend. Dozens of adults kept a distance, but were watching all the interaction very carefully. I showed him my book on Callie and he read it to me. His sister came back with her friend and a camera and wanted to take a photo of Callie and Henry. Her friend told her to get in the photo too. Just as her friend clicked the shutter of the two smiling faces nestled against Callie, Callie gave him a big lick on his ear. The “Awww” from the crowd resonated through the cavernous City Hall.