February marks our fourth month as Charleston residents. I’ve purposely and cautiously waited to find the pawfect therapy program for Harley. Today I am thrilled to announce that we’ve set our sights on Pet Therapy at MUSC…
The Medical University of South Carolina has a new and innovative pet therapy program that I believe pairs well with Harley’s gift and purpose. #andhesgottouseit
TWO TYPES OF PET THERAPY –
- Animal Assisted Activities – a “meet & greet” type of program which Harley has done before.
- Animal Assisted Therapy – utilizes therapy dogs to personally assist the patients.
EXAMPLE –
An AAT dog (animal assisted therapy) can be requested to visit with a patient as a calming technique to help bring the patient’s BP down. Meet Lucky who is one of many MUSC “Hairy Heroes”…
Photo courtesy of Lucky Hoffman’s FB page
AAT dogs are also often used in their children’s hospital. I hope to volunteer there with Harley. I think he would do extremely well giving out GOLDEN hugs & DOODLE kisses to little humans #likeLucky…
Photo courtesy of Lucky Hoffman’s FB page
The 2016 Spring Volunteer Application will be available Monday, February 22nd. I plan to submit Harley’s application so we can begin the process. Paws crossed we are accepted. 🐾
In the meantime, I decided to teach Harley simple sign language commands in the event we meet a special human who is not able to speak.
Here are the signs he’s learned so far –
COME –
SIT –
STAY –
JUMP –
Jaxson is still a little too young #mindbodyandsoul
Therefore I will wait another year before training for certification. He shows great promise though, he’s picked up the sign language commands just as fast as Harley #smartdoodle
Click here if you’d like to learn more about MUSC’s pet therapy program.
We pawmise to keep you posted #punintended as we go through this process.
Have a wonderful weekend – We’ll be back here on Monday
February 19, 2016
Aw, they are both too adorable. They look like fluffy stuffies. As half of a pet therapy team I know how much it means to patients to receive visits from from these wonderful fur helpers. Kudos to you and your boys.
February 19, 2016
Thanks Monika – I am anxious to get Harley into this program, and super excited to start working with Jax now in the hopes of getting him ready for early next year.
February 19, 2016
Therapy dogs help so many people! You guys rock
Lily & Edward
February 19, 2016
Thanks Two French Bulldogs! We think you’re pretty special too!
February 19, 2016
Thanks for doing what you do. I miss my therapy work now that I have pups.
February 19, 2016
Well before you know it – they will no longer be pups 🙁 and you can get back to therapy work 🙂 Have a great weekend!
February 19, 2016
Mom has used our own hand signals with commands since we were little which is now coming in handy with Katie being almost deaf. Dogs tend to pick up on hand signals much faster than verbal commands. Good luck in your therapy dog endeavors.
February 19, 2016
Thanks Emma – I figure a few signs will be helpful if the patients can’t talk or if I have him in an environment where I need to be silent! Have a great weekend 🙂
February 21, 2016
That’s so cool. I would love to do something like this with our dogs, but they’re too high strung. Practicing the hand singles would be good for any dog; a fun training exercise.
February 24, 2016
I agree – teaching them hand signals is good “quality time” for the three of us. They are a challenge to train together – takes much longer but we’ve got time. You may want to consider one of your dogs for therapy as he/she gets older. It’s nice to see other people enjoy what you love so much. Give it a thought 🙂
February 22, 2016
Awesome! I hope you guys are accepted and it’s cool that Harley is learning sign language!
February 24, 2016
Thanks Mr. N. – We will definitely keep you posted.