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Healing Paws
By Jean Lundquist
Photo by Katie Sauck
“I’ve never had a bad experience with the people we visit with therapy dogs,” says Bev Cox explaining her 20 years with The Helping Paw Therapy Dog International group in Mankato, Minnesota. Rather, Bev, president of the group, says she has come home exhausted after a day of substitute teaching, taken her therapy dogs out on a visit and witnessed miracles.
On one visit to a nursing home in Mankato, the visiting therapy dogs went to the chapel where residents came to see them. Bev says they were told one man had suffered a stroke earlier and had not spoken or made eye contact with anyone since. After a while, she noticed the man was making eye contact with the dogs. When it was time to leave, he spoke, saying good-bye to the dogs and calling them each by name. Remembering that day can still bring tears to Bev’s eyes.
Linda Murray, the vice president of The Helping Paw group, was also present that day with her Samoyed therapy dog. “We call them little miracles instead of little dogs,” she says. Linda recalls another day when she witnessed something miraculous with her therapy dog.
Linda was at a hospital in Mankato and a nurse asked her to visit a woman who had been in a coma for two months. The nurse took the woman’s hand and ran it over the dog’s head, helping her pet the animal. Soon, the woman began to smile. Then she opened her eyes and started speaking to the dog. “The nurse ran to find the doctor,” Linda remembers, while she and her dog stayed with the woman. She says the elation was exhausting, “The dog came home and slept for three days.”
Although Barb Maher of Mankato has been a member of The Helping Paw group for only a few years, she says she has been involved informally with therapy dogs for several years. For Barb, the healing power of dogs became apparent when a neighbor had a stroke many years ago. Barb says when she’d visit, it was hard to tell if the neighbor was even aware of her presence. She told the nurses that her neighbor had always liked her dog and received permission to bring the dog along. Before long, the neighbor began responding to the dog, reaching out to try to pet it.
Bev says she became involved with therapy dogs accidentally. Her 12-year-old daughter had a Beagle and wanted to test to become a therapy dog. Because her daughter was so young, Bev went with her to trainings and tests and before long, she was hooked. She gave up her other volunteer work and her new hobby was therapy dogs, “I maybe fell into it but I’m so grateful I did.” Bev currently has four dogs, three of which are therapy dogs.
There are no breed restrictions for therapy dogs. Any breed and all mixed breeds are welcome as long as they can pass the tests. Bev says members have ranged from a Great Dane weighing well over 100 pounds, to a three-pound Chihuahua. “The dogs are the members of Therapy Dogs International, not the people. We’re the associate members,” she explains. “After all, the dogs need a chauffeur.”
Linda Murray is an evaluator for Therapy Dogs International (TDI), and believes temperament is the most important aspect of determining whether a dog will make a good therapy dog. Next comes obedience training, which she recommends for all dogs, not just therapy dogs.
Dogs cannot show fear or aggression with other dogs, Linda explains. They also have to be comfortable around medical equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, canes and crutches. Perhaps the most important test is the one she calls “The Crazy Lady Test.”
In this test, Linda says, the dogs may have their tails tugged on, their fur pulled and their eyes poked at. All of that does happen when visiting nursing homes, daycares, schools, assisted living facilities and hospitals. On one visit, Linda remembers, a young man took off his hat and hit her dog over the head with it. Because the dogs must be able to react calmly to such things, Linda says during “The Crazy Lady Test,” the dogs experience some strange behavior from people assisting in the testing. The energy and noise levels are quite different in nursing homes and daycare centers. Therapy dogs have to enjoy it all.
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