From 'For the Sick and the Distraught, "Therapy Dogs" Spread Smiles', VetCentric.com, 2000

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For the Sick and the Distraught, "Therapy Dogs" Spread Smiles

Written by: Justin D. Honsch, Staff Writer

It's just an ordinary Monday evening, but suddenly the Clinical Center at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, seems somehow more alive. The cold hospital silence is interrupted by conversation, laughter, and the sound of dozens of paws marching across the linoleum floor.

On this evening, the people from National Capital Therapy Dogs, an organization that provides animal-assisted therapy to healthcare facilities in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area, have arrived with a number of their canine friends in tow. The group will visit patients all across the clinic that vary in age and are affected by a variety of conditions.

The group, founded in 1990 by six volunteer dog handler teams, is a part of the Pet Partners Program of the Delta Society, a national organization dedicated to establishing bonds between humans and animals. This visit is one of several regular stops for National Capital Therapy Dogs, which also visits Johns Hopkins University Hospital, the Johns Hopkins Children’s House, as well as a number of other hospitals and rest homes.

Safety first

"My two dogs cannot wait to go out for visits," said Marlene Truesdell, the group’s president. "When I get out the leash, they know where we are going and get very excited."

Before Ms. Truesdell’s dogs, or any other dogs or pets for that matter, are allowed to enter a health care facility, they must pass a number of tests to become eligible. The organization strictly follows the "Standards of Practice in Animal Assisted Activities and Animal Assisted Therapy" put forth by the Delta Society.

According to Ms. Truesdell, dogs must meet a number of criteria to be considered for the program. Good temperament and obedience are essential qualities of all National Capital Therapy Dogs.

"The dogs have to be okay with clumsy petting or a restraining hug, because not everyone knows the right way to handle a dog," Ms. Truesdell said. "They have to listen and respond to commands even though there are distractions like other dogs and people."

While "auditioning" prospective canine candidates, she added, "we bump them from behind and also make sure that yelling doesn’t upset them. The three most important things our dogs must be is reliable, controllable, and predictable."

Another major qualification is that the dog be in good health. All dogs are bathed within 24 hours before visiting a healthcare center, and at the NIH facility, they are checked by a veterinarian when they arrive.

"My job is easy," said Mark Haines, DVM, the animal program director at the Clinical Center. The dogs in the organization, he continued, are so well cared for that his examinations are "almost a formality. My job is really just to come out, have fun and play with the dogs."

Still, to ensure the safety of hospital patients and staff, Dr. Haines checks for parasites, infections, and signs of zoonotic pathogens.

Despite these precautions, Ann Howie, a social worker and the director of the Delta Society’s animal-assisted therapy services, believes that the Pet Partners Program is very safe. "I would say that it is right for people to pay attention to those kinds of possibilities," Ms. Howie said. "But when a program is well-managed, the risks are minimal."

In fact, said Ms. Truesdell, in the 10 years National Capital Therapy Dogs has been making visits to healthcare facilities, there has not been a single reported illness due to possible infections brought in by the animals.

Pet Therapy

According to studies provided by the Delta Society, there is evidence that suggests that animal companionship provides tangible physical health benefits such as lowered heart rates and blood pressure. Although those findings are very important, members of the Delta Society also stress the broader benefits of animal companionship and therapy. "We aren't just physical beings," said Ms. Howie. "We also have a cognitive and spiritual part. We want to be close to nature. That is why we do things like bring plants into our houses. Animals accept us for who we are."

"We're an organization that works for people," said Susan Duncan, program director of the Delta Society’s National Service Dog Center. "The things we have found [about animal companionship] can help people in their everyday lives; it's not limited to a certain group."

The Delta Society believes that contact with animals brings empathy, outward focus, nurturing, acceptance, socialization and mental stimulation to both the sick and the healthy. Ms. Howie said that she witnessed a woman who had been caught in a deep depression—refusing, even, to leave her hospital room—make great progress and eventually rejoin society with the help of animal-assisted therapy.

"The staff had worked with her for six weeks," she said. "We were making no progress. We were having to use hand signals because she would not speak. Eventually, she began to whisper to get the dog’s attention, and eventually she began talking." Ms. Howie joked that all the credit in the woman's rehabilitation did not belong to her, but rather the dog. "She wouldn't come to therapy to see me," laughed Ms. Howie,"but she would come in to see that dog. She was eventually well enough to get a part-time job."

Similarly, Ms. Truesdell saw an elderly woman in a nursing home who had not spoken in a long time tell a dog that had been visiting her "good-bye."

"All of the nurses were shocked," she remembered.

Both women said that their stories are just one of many that they, as well as just about anyone else involved in animal-assisted therapy and activities, could tell.

Miracle dogs

Monday evening is a tense time on the adult oncology floor of the Clinical Center of the National Institute of Health. Tuesday is a big surgery day.

Jesse, a whippet, and Maggie, a black lab, pad down the hall next to their respective owners, looking for someone who would like to play with them.

Jesse enters a room as a woman sits up in her bed, her eyes lighting up, and welcomes him. A sheet is put down so Jesse can have a "bed visit," the name given to the occasions when a dog climbs into the bed with the patient.

It is difficult to tell just who is enjoying the time together more, as the woman laughs and strokes the dog, who has placed her head on the woman’s lap, looking like it could stay there for an eternity.

Maggie ventures further down the hall and finds herself in the room of Marla Appel, a woman who has recently been released from the intensive care unit and is set to return to her Orlando, Florida, home in just a few days.

This is Mrs. Appel's first visit from a therapy dog. She smiles and pats Maggie's thick black coat.

"I found it very relaxing," she said afterward. "I think that the best thing was just being able to see something from the outside."

"My mom was so sad earlier today," said Mrs. Appel’s daughter, Nicole. "I'm glad that the dogs came in because she is a lot happier now."

At the end of the evening, members of National Capital Therapy Dogs gather with their dogs to share their experiences with the patients. Holly Parker, a recreational therapist at the Clinical Center and the woman responsible for helping coordinate the organization’s visits, takes notes on the different reports.

"People react in different ways to the dogs," Ms. Parker said.

"Our main objective is to use the dogs as a tool in our treatment of people."

Finally, Ms. Parker reads from a letter sent to one of the organization's members. It's from a relative of a patient who has since passed away, but who had a great deal of contact with National Capital Therapy Dogs. The letter thanks the organization, adding that although its members may not be MDs, they are all Doctors of Humanity.

"We enjoy what we do. We provide a positive coping mechanism," said Ms. Truesdell. "You have to have patience, because miracles don't happen all the time." Perhaps there were no bona fide miracles to be found in the National Institute of Health's Clinical Center on this particular occasion. Nonetheless, it was pretty amazing for just an average Monday evening.

A therapy dog pads into the National Institute of Health, ready to work its calming magic.