pet therapy Archives

Emmett’s last day of pet therapy

08•06•13

For three years, in his role as a therapy dog, Emmett visited with a group of kids who were residents at a mental health hospital near town. Once a week, we’d spend an hour with 15 kids aged 8 to 11. They snuggled him, hugged him, kissed him, requested trick after trick after trick. He doled out high fives until he was too tired to lift his arm! They trained him to jump through a hula hoop (confession: I taught it to him at home first because I thought it might devastate the kids if he didn’t “get it” during their session…).

On many occasions, Emmett stood in the middle of the room while 5 or 6 girls took turns doing Emmett cheers – they were learning chants with claps, and they changed every other word to “Emmett.” He would wag and wag, knowing that all their attention was on him.

They played this game where they would take his favorite toy, toss it in the air, and he would leap up to catch it. They loved that game. But it was that game that gave me the first indication that Emmett was nearing retirement.

He stopped leaping.

He would stand and wait. The kid would toss the toy. He’d wait for it to arc downward, then snatch it. He still played the game. He was still excited to go see the kids, collect their hugs and kisses, get massive amounts of belly rubs… but then he would go home and zonk out, pretty much until the next day. If they had him doing much leaping or running, he’d be stiff in the morning.

All part of the aging process, of course. But the last thing I would ever want would be to push him into doing something that he really didn’t want to do… and I knew I had to be super conscious of that because Emmett is steady and sturdy and, above all else, dedicated. He would keep working and leaping for as long as I asked him to, even if his joints hurt.

So, his therapy dog registration expired shortly after we moved to Louisiana, and instead of retesting, I let it go.

Emmett is officially retired from pet therapy.

Emmett is a retired therapy dog — “Should I learn to play golf?”

Sure, it’s sad. It’s sad because he loved the work, and I loved doing it with him. Mostly, it’s sad for me because it’s a stark reminder that he’s getting to be an old boy.

But every minute was worth it. There were some rough moments – kids getting into fist fights over who got to spend more time patting him, small children having massive meltdowns over minor and sometimes nonexistent slights, a couple instances in which I had to remove a child’s hands from grabbing him or pulling him or pushing him too roughly – but even in those moments, Emmett maintained his cool, like he knew what his job was and nothing was going to stop him from doing it.

I had hoped Cooper would pick up where Emmett left off, but Cooper isn’t as solid as Emmett. Someday, if I end up with another steady boy like him, I’d definitely train for this again. It’s incredibly rewarding – for him and for me!

Have you trained your dog to work in some capacity? Any tips for Emmett for enjoying his retirement?

Therapy dog recertification test. Gulp.

03•14•11

I rarely write about Emmett’s therapy dog work. I should. It’s wonderful and touching and fulfilling. It’s also a little draining – for me, not him. That might be why I don’t write about it, I suppose.

This is his serious pet therapy face. Actually, this is how tired he looks after "working." 🙂

In addition to reading at the library and other public-education events, Emmett works with a group of children who are residents of a mental-health facility. We visit with the adolescent group on Fridays. All the kids are under 12, and they’re there for a whole host of reasons, reasons that are so complex, it’s really hard for me to understand.

His “job” is the pet therapist. In his mind, it’s the best job a dog could ask for! For an hour, he has 15 kids rub him, play with him, feed him treat after treat, kiss his head, and wrap their arms around his big neck. They profess their love every single time and shower him with as much affection as they can muster. And, oh boy, does he reciprocate! Emmett spends the entire hour wagging his tail. He gives kisses when they ask, he performs tricks on their commands – which, by the way, I’m always so impressed because they’re not super clear in their words or hand signals, but somehow when a kid is jumping up and down waving his arm in a circle, Emmett knows to roll over! (Or he’s just guessing. But he usually gets it right.)

Anyway, our visit a few weeks ago was particularly rough. We met a new child who had seen two of his family members kill puppies. He was so little, only 12, but he had seen things that even adults shouldn’t have to handle. But the little darling sat and scratched Emmett and said over and over what a good boy he was. He told me that Emmett was cute, and he told Emmett he was cute. He really started to connect with Emmett.

I kept thinking how unfair it is that these kids haven’t been given a chance. But that’s why we do this, to give them at least a little chance. Hopefully that boy remembers his encounters with Emmett, to hopefully overshadow his bad experiences.

All this is to say, Emmett has to re-test. His two-year registration expires soon.

Gulp.

He barely passed the first test. It was the skin of his teeth, I think. One of my New Year’s goals for him is to pass this test. We really need to train – the test itself is harder than what he does at the actual visits, and you can’t use treats – but because Emmett is usually so well behaved, I tend to focus my training efforts on Lucas and Cooper. Emmett proved this to me on Friday.

We were invited to speak to a group of social workers about our experiences with this group of kids, and when we got there, Emmett proceeded to pull me from the front of the room, down the aisle past all the social workers, to the buffet table in the back of the room.

Great start to the event! Sigh.

We’re not signed up for the test yet, and we’re going to start attending every-other-week prep classes. In the meantime… training starts tonight!

Wish Emmett luck!

Or me.

I’m not sure which one of us needs it most! 🙂

Emmett jumps through hoops – literally – to teach teamwork

07•12•10

After "work" Emmett enjoys a puppy latte!

Every other Friday, Emmett and I participate in the pet therapy program at a mental health facility near our town. We primarily work with the children who live at the facility and fall between the ages of 6 and 13 or so. Occasionally we’ll spend time with the younger or older groups, but there’s a core bunch we see every time.

And, man, do these kids love Emmett.

Every other Friday, when we walk through the door of their gymnasium, the kids rush Emmett. “I missed you, Emmett!” they cry. “Did you miss me?”

The thing about Emmett is that he can not get enough attention. He is basically a bottomless pit of need, which means that these kids who want to just pour all their affection all over him are the perfect kids for Emmett to work with. While 15 to 20 kids throw their arms around his neck, plant big fat kisses on the top of his head, beg for high fives, rub his belly, and sprint circles around him, darling Emmett just basks in it all. I swear he thinks that I ferry him from place to place to allow his loyal subjects to devote themselves to him.

While we face the occasional challenge, with this particular group of kids, the biggest struggle is doling out our energy equally. Some of the kids push themselves against us, making us notice them, and begging to be the first one to give Emmett a treat or whatever. Others sit quietly, patiently waiting their turn. While others sort of hide, desperately wanting a turn with Emmett, but not sure how to proceed.

So after I discovered that Emmett is a hoop-jumping fiend, I decided to incorporate some agility into our visits. The first week, I took along a hula hoop and short tunnel. I explained to the kids the idea of agility and asked if they’d be willing to help me train Emmett to tunnel. They enthusiastically agreed and immediately began discussing the best way to teach him. “Just tell him to run through it.” “He won’t know what that means. We need to crawl through with him.” “That’s dumb. Stand at the end and call him.” In the end, we decided to toss a treat through the tunnel while the kids stood around and yelled, “tunnel!”

Luckily, Emmett already knew the tunnel command. 😉

Last Friday, I took two hula hoops. I figured the kids could work together to set up a mini obstacle course, deciding where to position the jumps, how to hold them up, who should lure him, etc. I thought this would build on the teamwork exercises from the previous session. We could work together to figure out how best to get Emmett to follow the course and jump through the hoops.

But those kids had a whole other idea!

They wanted to run around.

Run with Emmett, race Emmett, fling the hula hoops around, chase each other in circles. So that’s what we did because, really, the whole goal of our pet therapy program is to make these kids happy. They wanted to run, so Emmett ran, wagging his tail the entire time.

Therapy Dog Work at Girl Power

11•15•09

Yesterday, Emmett and I volunteered at Girl Power, an event designed to promote leadership and self-esteem in grils age 9 to 14. Our booth focused on responsible pet care and animal advocacy. It was an awesome event, and I was incredibly impressed with all the girls who stopped by our booth.

In addition to Emmett, the booth was staffed with a cat and a ferret. Ferrets look an awful lot like chipmunks and squirrels. Emmett loves to chase chipmunks and squirrels. However, Emmett is so incredibly food-motivated that as far as the ferret was concerned, all Emmett really wanted was to eat the ferret’s bowl of food. If I looked away, he tried licking the food bowl through the ferret’s cage. Only once did he perk up as the ferret dashed by, but I diverted his attention and that was that. Same thing with the cat. Mr. Blue the cat was getting Chex Mix as a treat, which Emmett just could not understand. He tried everything to get the cat’s handler to look at him, sitting pretty, wagging his tail, licking his lips, even waving hi at a couple points. The only time he paid the cat any attention was when a little girl accidentally dropped the cat mere inches from Emmett’s face. He lunged a bit then, but can you blame the guy?

The girls who stopped by were excited to pat Emmett, the cat, and the ferret. We’ve done similar events before where, after a good scratching and a few questions about Emmett, the kids would move on. At this event, though, the girls engaged in the booth, asking intelligent questions, and grabbing the literature and bookmarks. Part of the booth included a poster about dog fighting, puppy mills, and Brownie the cat. Some of the girls had seen Brownie on the Today Show, most of the girls easily identified the pit bulls in the anti-dog fighting posters, but almost none of them had heard of puppy mills. The great part about the booth was that these messages were secondary to the fun parts of patting the animals and watching Emmett do tricks, but most of the girls really engaged, looking at the posters, and asking great questions.

After the three-hour round-trip drive and the two hours at the event, Emmett zonked out, though he did perk up when I stopped at the Starbucks drive through and got him a puppy latte, his favorite after-work treat!