Friends Fur-ever
When it’s time for Gracie to go to work, her eyes brighten, her head perks up and she even wags her tail.
Gracie, a German shepherd mix, is a certified therapy dog through the Delta Society, an organization that trains volunteers and pets for animal visiting and therapy programs in hospitals, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers and schools.
Currently Gracie visits the Logan Regional Hospital and the Cache Valley Youth Center with her owner Diana Toth. At each place, she is there to interact with children and teenagers as they undergo therapy of all kinds.
“The thing with dogs is that they aren’t very critical. They love the company,” Toth said, who owns two therapy dogs, Gracie and an Akita named Klee. “With abused children, some are able to show affection to a dog and not to a person. And with a trained therapist, an animal may help children articulate something that they normally wouldn’t.”
She spoke about an abused 9-year-old boy who had particular affection for a therapy dog. As he held it, he began to talk about how some people shouldn’t own animals and how his father had killed his own dog in front of him. It was a story he had never told his therapist and possibly had never been able to talk about.
People with physical, emotional or mental challenges often benefit from animal-assisted therapy, according to www.tailsofjoy.org, a Web site maintained by Tails of Joy, an affiliate group with Delta Society based out of Massachusetts and Connecticut.
Among children who live in homeless shelters or are institutionalized, animal therapy teaches gentleness, caring and responsibility and allows them to love and interact safely with a pet, according to Paws and Heart’s Web site, www.pawsandhearts.org.
“Dogs offer immediate interaction. They are casual, gentle, nice to touch and warm,” Toth said. “Severely handicapped children may look into the face of a dog and try to make contact.”
Every week Toth makes sure Gracie is washed, groomed, has her teeth brushed and nails clipped before they enter the buildings where children can pet, play and intermingle with a furry friend.
Dogs are the most popular animals used in therapy. However, Toth said any domestic animal that can be trained and certified for therapy visits can be used. She said she’s heard of cats, birds and rabbits being able to assist people in therapy. According to the Intermountain Therapy Animals Web site, www.therapyanimals.org, goats, domestic rats, guinea pigs, ducks and chickens, horses, llamas and cows can also be eligible as therapy animals.
To become certified like Gracie and Klee, animals must pass a basic obedience test where they must know to sit, stay, walk and heel. Then they must complete an aptitude test where the animal is placed in different situations to see how it reacts. For instance, people may shout, pull the animal’s tail, drop a book behind it or have someone come in with a wheelchair. They see how the animal responds to the situations and if it’s still friendly to humans.
Along with the animal being certified, handlers are also evaluated, and if both pass, they are called Pet Partners and are certified through the Delta Society.
After being trained and certified, animals and their Pet Partners are used in animal-assisted activities or therapy. At Logan Regional Hospital, Gracie mostly participates in the assisted activities. She sits by patients’ beds, who can give her a treat and pet her. Sometimes they can even take her for walks down the hall, Toth said.
When Gracie goes to the youth center, she usually participates in assisted therapy where health care professionals use animals to address an issue and facilitate therapeutic goals, Toth said. Throughout the last eight years of animal therapy, Toth said she has seen some amazing progress with her patients.
“My favorite part about being involved in pet therapy is watching young people interact and watching their progression little by little,” Toth said. “For some kids, this is the only thing they can look forward to. It’s important to them. We’re just helping them along.”
Pet therapy is not only for children, teenagers and hospital patients. At USU, some may recognize a couple furry faces that greet students and faculty at the Counseling Center. According to www.usu.edu/counseling/services, the center has been using therapeutic animals since 1997, when the program was started by a protectoral intern and center Director Mary Doty.
Doty said her black dog Griffin comes to work with her every day. Oftentimes he will be in the waiting area to meet and greet students, making them feel a little more at ease, Doty said. Sometimes she will bring in her cat, Tango Bob, who is there for the same reasons.
“Animals are very in tune with human emotion,” she said. “They gravitate to people who like to pet them.”
Doty said Griffin sometimes tries to comfort clients if he is in the room with them. She said he once was sitting in the corner, and when the client she was talking to began to express really intense feelings, he walked over and put his head in her lap so she could pet him.
Sometimes the animals can express feelings for Doty as well, she said.
“I can’t come over and hug the clients, but the animals can,” she said. “I love that. I love that students will drop by to see the animals. Students come who would never come in otherwise.”
Doty said USU faculty knows the animals well. Some even keep treats for them, and Griffin knows exactly where to go to get them.
Sometimes students will just drop by to see Griffin and Tango Bob, Doty said, and the interaction with the animals can help them in times of loneliness, homesickness, depression or anxiety.
During finals week, the center traditionally has a “Finals First Aid: Pet-A-Pet” table set up where students can stop by for a few minutes and spend time with the animals during a week of stress and tests.
“It’s consoling to have a dog or an animal around,” Toth said. “The psychological benefits of pet therapy are very complex and are different for each person. Sometimes they just bring comfort to someone who is very ill. Animals don’t care if you are sick.”
Both Toth and Doty said they love sharing their animals and will keep bringing them along for a long time.
“At the level that I’m doing (animal therapy), I’ll do it for as long as I can and as long as Gracie and Klee are comfortable with it,” Toth said. “I would like to see a lot more people involved. It’s an extra opportunity to help a child, and that’s important.”
For more information about animal therapy in Utah and information on how to get involved, visit www.therapyanimals.org. Also, for more information on the Delta Society, visit www.deltasociety.org.
-mnewbold@cc.usu.edu