What a great idea! Basil, the handsome Beagle pictured here, assists people while planning their loved ones’ funerals and mourning their losses.
Basil works at the Clive Pugh Funeral Home in Shrewsbury, UK.
I’m wondering if there are other funeral homes who have therapy dogs? Seems like an idea who’s time has come.
From the Clive Pugh Twitter page: Continue reading Basil, the Funeral Therapy Dog
From The Columbus Dispatch: The Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center has launched a new therapy dog program. Many hospitals have therapy dogs to visit patients, although most such programs have been suspended due to COVID19. What makes Wexner’s program different is that these dogs are there for the caregivers, not the patients.
Four dogs, each of whom has a family member who works at Wexner, are currently involved, although they hope to expand the program to 12 dogs. The dogs and their handlers wander the halls and visit nursing units, giving hugs and comfort to employees who are experiencing unprecedented levels of stress due to the heavy workload associated with Corona on top of their normal duties.
If you’re thinking you’ve heard of the program before, you may be right if you are on Twitter. The photo of Shiloh (above) was posted by Dr. Shari Dunaway in November with the caption, “My hospital hired an employee whose only job is to go around saying hi to other employees while they work.”
Such a great idea at a much needed time.
Point of personal privilege: Congrats to Ohio State on making it to the national football championship! Go Bucks!
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
“Monson,” officially known as CH Yankee Sebago & Patch Mt Miles To Go Monson CGCU, BN, RA, TDIAOV, THDX, TKP, OAP, OJP, NFP, CC, RD is a nine-year-old Dalmatian owned by Melissa MacWilliams of Buxton, ME. Monson has competed in various AKC sports, including Conformation, Agility, Rally, and Obedience, but his work as a therapy dog is where he truly stands out.
As part of his extensive list of therapy work, Monson visits a teen shelter to provide love and comfort to homeless adolescents struggling with mental illness, abuse, addiction, PTSD, and gender identity. Monson also provides comfort at an organization for adults who are transitioning from homelessness and struggling with alcoholism, drug addiction and mental health issues. Continue reading 2020 AKC Humane Fund ACE Winner: Therapy Dog / Monson the Dalmatian
If you follow this blog fairly regularly, you know I have a soft spot for dogs and veterans. The US House of Representatives has now passed a resolution (#4305) that includes both. Here’s the bill summary from the congressional website:
Puppies Assisting Wounded Service Members for Veterans Therapy Act or the PAWS for Veterans Therapy Act
This bill requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to implement a pilot program to assess the effectiveness of addressing post-deployment mental health and post-traumatic stress disorder through a method where veterans train service dogs for veterans with disabilities.
Read the full text, if you’d like, then call your Senators and ask them to make sure the bill comes up for a vote in the Senate.
Let’s get this bill passed, as it helps both the dogs and the vets.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
This week, doggies.com is featuring the winners of the 20th AKC Humane Annual ACE Awards.
Part one: Uniformed Service K-9 Summer
Today’s post features Polly, a Labrador Retriever who lives with Rachel Husband in Sparks, Nevada. “Polly,” officially known as Candylabs’ Pocket Queen CD PCDX RM2 RAE2 CGCA CGCU, is a five-year-old Labrador Retriever owned by Rachel Husband of Sparks, Nevada. Rachel has a rare health condition called Dysautonomia, a disorder of the autonomic nervous system which causes fainting, leaving her wheelchair-bound. Continue reading 20th Annual ACE Award Winner: Service Dog Polly
Would the story of your life shock the therapist?
Happy weekend, everybody.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
I couldn’t get Twitter to let me post the video here, but click to watch Brian Williams talk about how the students at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas included their therapy dogs in their yearbook.
The Animal Rescue Foundation pairs veterans with shelter dogs, letting the vets train their own dogs to meet their own needs.
What a great idea!
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
After last week’s terrorist attack in Toronto, where a van crashed into a crowd killing 10 people, The Star is reporting that comfort dogs have converged on Mel Lastman Square where the tragedy took place. Nearly 20 dogs from St. John’s Ambulance were on hand to allow those affected by the attack a chance to decompress with unconditional love.
Dogs are great in this role because they don’t judge, and they don’t even mind if you get your tears on them.
With apologies for this being a little delayed. Your erstwhile blogger has been a bit snowed under after taking in three orphaned kittens who must be bottle fed every three hours!
Doggies.com and breeders.net offers our sincerest condolences to all those who lost loved ones in Toronto.
#TorontoStrong
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!
Although the LAX PUPs (Pets Unstressing Passengers) program has been in operation for a while, they are adding shifts, knowing that at least some passengers going through their terminals will have been affected by the massacre in Las Vegas.
“Due to senseless shooting in Las Vegas, there are extra #LAXPUPs (Pets Unstressing Passengers) in terminals to comfort & visit w/ passengers,” LAX Tweeted.
Kudos to them for recognizing the healing power of dogs. You can find out more about these certified therapy dogs on the LAX website.
Until next time,
Good day, and good dog!