pet connection

The dog that began my therapy dog volunteer work was an Australian Shepherd named Bear. My sister Mary renamed him Care Bear because he was so affectionate. Care Bear had such a loving soul that I felt the need to share that and therapy dog work seemed the perfect outlet.  Care Bear’s career began in 1984 and continued for ten years.

He was followed by several other dogs who were very good therapy dogs. Chocho, a Papillon, made people laugh. Dax, an Australian Shepherd, took her job seriously and gave love just as seriously. Riker, another Aussie,  is just as affectionate as Care Bear was and I semi-jokingly say that he is Care Bear reincarnated.

With the experience of training and handling several therapy dogs, I’ve had fun watching Archer on his first few visits as he learns what his new job is and how to handle himself. His first visit went very well; his second visit was great; and during his third visit this week I realized that I’m going to have another awesome therapy dog.

Archer is very intuitive and is quickly learning what persona to use with different people. I watched him become happy and bouncy with some people; calm and quiet with others; and serious with a few other people. He’s also figured out how to get people to pet him using a variety of techniques. With some people he rests his head on their knees and then stares at them until they pet him. With a few other people he stands sideways to the wheelchair and leans close. When people are unresponsive he has nosed a hand until the hand is resting on top of his head. And once during this week’s visit, I saw him play bow (head and forequarters low and hips high) and bounce in front of a man in a wheelchair until the man laughed and agreed to pet Archer.

So far, though, Archer is only visited two different facilities. One is a skilled nursing facility and the other is a day care center for seniors. After a few more visits, I’ll begin taking him to other types of facilities so I can see where he really feels comfortable.

Riker, my ten year old Australian Shepherd, visits with kids at an after school day care center for kids. He has a tendency to be a ‘bull in a china shop’ so is too rough for senior citizens or very young kids, but he does great with grade school age kids. He can take their rough play yet will also snuggle and cuddle if one child needs that. He will lie quietly next to a child if someone wants to practice their reading skills by reading to him. But then he’s always more than happy to play ball.

Bashir, my now five year old Aussie, began his therapy dog career when he was young but then I stopped because he didn’t appear to enjoy it. I won’t force a dog to do this work so stopped bringing him on visits. However, this past April a good friend of mine died of cancer and Bashir and I made a last visit to her (that post is the beginning of this series). Bashir made it very clear that he was grown up now and very willing and eager to do therapy dog work so we’ve resumed. I have found that he’s particularly attracted to older people so we’ll be visiting that population; probably at retirement or nursing facilities.

Who knows where Archer’s talents will lead him? I don’t know, and it will be an adventure to watch him grow up. He is obviously very good with senior citizens. He likes kids but I’m not sure how well he can control himself right now if kids get rowdy. That’s something we’ll have to discover. Archer does like to be the center of attention so I’m not sure he would be happy to lie still next to a reading child. Our group visits a physical therapy health center where the dogs take an active part in physical therapy and I think Archer might enjoy that so we’ll check that out.

This is the last of the weekly posts about Archer’s new therapy dog career, but I will post occasionally, especially if something exciting or different happens.  The adventure continues!

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