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Jim Wiesmueller and his rescued Beagle, “Millie,” faithfully patrol the halls of Innova Fairfax Hospital in Virginia each week, performing what many people would consider small miracles. The petite tricolor hound comforts the terminally ill, encourages the weak to regain strength and elicits physical movement from nearly comatose patients.
“Millie loves her work like so many other therapy dogs,” explains Wiesmueller. “She has a special talent of brightening the days of people who are in dire straights. She can usually bring a smile to the faces of people even in intensive care.”
A lover of Beagles, Wiesmueller was looking for a therapy dog when he spotted Millie on an Internet adoption site. “She was being housed at a nearby county animal shelter so I went that day to see her,” he says. “We went for a walk and she had the right temperament, so I took her home right then and there.”
Wiesmueller and Millie are just one of many specially trained Delta Society® Pet Partners® teams who cheer up hospitalized patients, work side by side with physical therapists and help schoolchildren learn to read.
Based in Bellevue, Wash., Delta Society was established 30 years ago by a psychiatrist, Dr. Michael McCulloch, and veterinarian Dr. Leo Bustad. Their goal was to fund research showing how animals improve the health and well-being of people — something they had both seen firsthand in their own practices.
At the time, society’s view of animals was dramatically different from today. Pets were perceived as either a luxury item or disposable property. Studies funded by the Delta Society started a shift in human-animal relationships by documenting that pets are both emotionally and physically beneficial to people. Positive interactions with animals were shown to help reduce blood pressure, lower anxiety and produce mood-lifting endorphins in the brain.
In the 1990s the organization offered the first national multi-species animal-assisted therapy program. Findings from Delta Society-funded studies were incorporated into the curriculum and led to the development of the Pet Partners program. Today more than 10,000 registered Pet Partners teams operate in all 50 states and 13 countries, including Belgium, Korea and Mexico.
Helping to Enrich Lives
In America’s heartland, Barbara Smith and her rescued Greyhound-Borzoi mix, named “Buddy,” help elementary school students improve their literary skills at Williams Magnet School in Topeka, Kan. For about 20 minutes each week the children practice reading aloud to Buddy. The dog’s patient, nonjudgmental presence helps boost students’ self-confidence and reading ability.
Smith and Buddy spend extra time each week with one student. These precious minutes have not only sparked the boy’s interest in books but also given him a reliable friend during a turbulent time in his life. In the two years that Smith has visited the school, the boy’s life has been turned practically upside down: His divorced mother began dating, his teenage sister had a baby, and his older brother was convicted of murder and sent to prison.
“These changes in his life took a huge emotional toll,” wrote his teacher in a letter to the Delta Society. “Buddy was his steadfast friend through all these upheavals. Despite the type of day he was having, when it was time to read to Buddy his smile would light up the room.”
Smith first learned of Delta Society about 15 years ago when she was put in charge of incorporating animals into the retirement community where she worked. Smith began to work as a handler on a canine-assisted therapy team. She and her Golden Retriever “Topaz” visited schools for many years before the dog died.
When Smith was ready for a new Pet Partner, she went to the animal shelter looking for a Golden Retriever. “One of the employees suggested Buddy. I took him outside on a leash and went through some of the requirements for the Pet Partners program. He was so wonderful I took him home.”
Today Smith not only volunteers as a Pet Partner but also is a Delta Society team evaluator, screening prospective volunteers to make sure both ends of the leash work well together so there’s a safe, effective and beneficial outcome for all involved — the handler, animal and clients.
Becoming a registered Pet Partners team requires completing a 12-hour training workshop or an at-home study course. Handlers learn how to prepare for a visit, interact with clients and prevent disease transmission. Next handlers undergo a skills and aptitude test with their animal, given by an evaluator in their area.
The animal is put through a series of possible real life situations, such as a person hugging him, being bumped from behind or several people crowding around him for petting. If the animal growls or hisses during the evaluation, the team won’t pass. Dogs also need to prove they can sit, stay and come when called. Unlike formal obedience competitions, owners are encouraged to speak to their pet during these exercises. Good candidates are well-behaved, friendly and confident.
“Basically when we evaluate dogs, we look to see if the dog is enjoying the work and not showing signs of stress,” explains Smith. Those signs include lip licking, excessive panting and nervous scratching.
Feline Pet Partners Teams
The vast majority of Pet Partners are dog-handler teams but a few —- like Keith and Pam Phillips — volunteer with their friendly felines. The couple takes “Studley,” their stunning Turkish Angora with one blue eye and one green, on twice monthly visits to psychiatric unit at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Wash.
“Studley is very calm and serene while we’re at the hospital and people are petting him,” says Keith Phillips of the cat they adopted two and a half years ago. As a volunteer at the local pound, Pam Phillips couldn’t bear to see the sweet-natured yet emaciated stray euthanized so she brought him home, and they nursed him back to health. Not only did they tend to him physically but emotionally too.
Shortly thereafter Keith Phillips learned through a co-worker about the Delta Society’s Pet Partners program. After discussing it with his wife, they decided to put their name on the waiting list for training.
Several months passed before the next Delta Society workshop was held in their area. The Phillipses also had to meet the hospital’s volunteer requirements. It took more than a year before they could begin volunteering. When they see a patient’s face light up while stroking Studley’s snowy white coat, they agree the long wait and hours spent in training were worth it.
“For a lot of patients — particularly those we visit — it helps them to be in the moment,” explains Keith Phillips. “When they’re with Studley, it takes them away from their problems. There’s no better therapy tool than that.”
Molly DePrekel couldn’t agree more. As a licensed psychologist and clinical director of Minnesota Linking Individuals, Nature and Critters, she relies on her therapy dog “Mariah” to help heal troubled clients. The facility, located on a 30-acre farm outside Minneapolis-St. Paul, offers a program in which animals and nature help to inspire wellness. Mariah also works with DePrekel at a traditional mental health office.
DePrekel believes that people can reclaim their lives and begin to thrive though the compassion and wisdom of animals. Mariah, a 9-year-old American Pit Bull Terrier mix, works her magic with both children and adults experiencing emotional issues, behavioral problems and histories of abuse.
“Mariah has personal relationships with everybody who comes through the door, and it’s different with every person,” explains DePrekel.
Mariah’s presence during individual and group sessions helps to calm clients, allowing them to reveal painful past traumas while stroking her ebony coat, taking her for a walk or throwing her a flying disc.
Much like the people seeking help, Mariah’s life hasn’t always been easy. As a puppy, she was returned to the shelter by three families because they thought she was untrainable. Luckily DePrekel came along, but only reluctantly did she agree to take home the pooch after friends insisted the match was the right one.
The next day DePrekel suffered a broken foot in a horse-riding accident. Without a fenced backyard, she had no choice but to try walking Mariah on a leash. To her surprise the rambunctious, “untrainable” puppy knew exactly what to do.
“She took one step, sat down, turned and waited for me,” recalls DePrekel. “I crutched a step. Then she took another step, and we did that the whole way around the block.”
At that moment DePrekel knew Mariah could be much more than just a loving pet. She began working hard to socialize her and signed up for a Pet Partners training class. Shelly Freed, a longtime Yorkshire Terrier rescuer living in Scottsdale, Ariz., had always wanted to become a Pet Partner but didn’t pursue it until a crippled puppy with a survivor’s spirit came into her life. In the summer of 2001 Freed attended a dog show in Denver, where a breeder pleaded for her to take a 5-month-old puppy that she couldn’t sell.
Freed agreed to find the pup a new home.
The next day the breeder dropped off the 1 ½-pound Yorkie that was born with a crooked spine and lame hind legs. It was love at first sight.
Today Freed and Thumbelina make weekly visits to a hospice, the same one that had cared for Freed’s father years earlier when he was dying of cancer. The time spent going to the hospice has been immensely rewarding, Freed says. On a recent visit an elderly woman, who had been unresponsive since arriving days earlier, began petting Thumbelina, and tears of joy streamed down her face.
It’s moments like those that keep them going back week after week.
“I would like to think that we’ve touched some lives,” says Freed, pausing for just a moment. “I think we have. I know that there are a lot of people who we visited who have certainly touched our lives.” ©
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