Healer's Best Friend

Are you a dog love
or a cat friend? If you are, then you have first-hand knowledge of the benefits of having animals in our home and lives. But what if you aren’t? What might you be missing out on? How about lower overall stress levels, reduced risk of heart attacks, improved memory function, or a better balanced lifestyle!

Owning a dog gets you walking every day. Owning a dog gets you to play every day. Owning a dog gets you an enormous amount of unconditional kisses and love every day. Who wouldn’t want that kind of life? I know I do, which is why I own two dogs and a cat! My dogs are large dogs: Tucker, the black lab mix, weighs in at 90 pounds; Aine, the brown and tan Dobie mix, weighs in at 78 pounds. That is a lot of love; so much love, in fact, that they will knock me over just to cover me in kisses after I've been away for even just a few minutes. Not feeling well? Got the flu? Make room for Aine and Tucker (insert your dog’s name here) while you recover. They become magnets, offering without condition their love and energy to support you to get better quickly. Their motive? You + better = walking and playing.

So what makes pet therapy successful in supporting individuals during difficult times? Animals have boundless love and do not make judgments toward their humans. And while you do not have to feel compelled to say anything while interacting with them, if you need or want to chat, then they are all ears! Aine and Tucker are both working toward their certification as Pet Therapists. Their goal—yes, it their goal—is to support individuals during times of difficult change and transition. Of course, their interaction with their clients will be combined with life coaching and Reiki work to make sure the client’s mind, body and spirit are working together towards success.

So what type of training does it entail to become a pet therapy dog? Aine and Tucker have gone through three levels of dog training and are working on their first designation of being a Good Canine Citizens through the American Kennel Club. Here are some of the tasks they need to be able to do:

1. Accepting a friendly stranger: allow a friendly stranger to approach and speak to the handler
2. Sitting politely for petting: allow a friendly stranger to touch while out with the handler
3. Appearance and grooming: welcome being groomed and examined by another, such as a veterinarian, groomer, etc.
4. Out for a walk: handler is in control of the dog
5. Walking through a crowd: can move about politely in pedestrian traffic and is under control
6. Sit and down on command; staying in place: respond to handler’s commands to sit and down while remaining in place until released
7. Coming when called: will come when called by handler
8. Reaction to another dog: behave politely around other dogs
9. Reaction to distraction: confident at all times when faced with common distracting situations
10. Supervised separation: can be left with a trusted person and will maintain training and good manners

Once dogs have been awarded this designation, they move on to training for the certification of Pet Therapy. One of the main organizations is Therapy Dogs International (www.tdi-dog.org), which is a volunteer organization dedicated to regulating, testing and registration of therapy dogs and their volunteer handlers for the purpose of visiting nursing homes, hospitals, and wherever else therapy dogs are needed. To date there are over 19,000 registered dog-and-handler teams with TDI.

I love animals, and when I lost Tito to bone cancer in 2006 it was like a piece of me passed away with him. The grief and pain was unimaginable, but when Aine arrived just a few weeks later the benefit of her presence cannot be described in words. If you have ever experienced depression or a deepened sense of sadness for a prolonged period of time, the best medicine to support you to get back into life is allowing the healing kisses from a pooch to cover you head to toe. The pooch will thank you for the opportunity, and so will your heart.
Until next time, embrace your inner wisdom.

Namaste,
Karen