Today, I have the great pleasure of inviting one of my dear friends from when I was in the legislature. Shannon Anderson is an attorney who specializes in public advocacy and risk management. Her dog Neely, though, could care less about all of that. Shannon keeps a steady supply of wholesome treats on hand, and is committed not only to regular walks but adventure walks and, most importantly, has arranged for important therapy work opportunities. Neely with her handler Shannon has been recognized as an angel dog at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Nebraska, and Shannon has volunteered with him since 2014 and is retiring this summer. Neely will also share with you that, as a standard poodle, she has found her human to be at times a bit yippy and hyper but she will keep her nonetheless.
Today, I have the great pleasure of inviting one of my dear friends from when I was in the legislature. Shannon Anderson is an attorney who specializes in public advocacy and risk management. Her dog Neely, though, could care less about all of that. Shannon keeps a steady supply of wholesome treats on hand, and is committed not only to regular walks but adventure walks and, most importantly, has arranged for important therapy work opportunities. Neely with her handler Shannon has been recognized as an angel dog at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Nebraska, and Shannon has volunteered with him since 2014 and is retiring this summer. Neely will also share with you that, as a standard poodle, she has found her human to be at times a bit yippy and hyper but she will keep her nonetheless.
Episode 13
Rights and Responsibilities of Therapy Animals
Hello and thank you for joining us today. My name is Abbie Cornett, and I am the patient advocate for IG Living magazine. This podcast is brought to you by IG Living magazine to give readers an opportunity to hear from healthcare experts on topics important to them.
In this episode, we will discuss the rights and responsibilities associated with different types of therapy animals.
Today, I have the great pleasure of inviting one of my dear friends from when I was in the legislature. Shannon Anderson is an attorney who specializes in public advocacy and risk management. Her dog Neely, though, could care less about all of that. Shannon keeps a steady supply of wholesome treats on hand, and is committed not only to regular walks but adventure walks and, most importantly, has arranged for important therapy work opportunities. Neely with her handler Shannon has been recognized as an angel dog at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital in Nebraska, and Shannon has volunteered with him since 2014 and is retiring this summer. Neely will also share with you that, as a standard poodle, she has found her human to be at times a bit yippy and hyper but she will keep her nonetheless.
To give you a little context about today's topic: I have been working with a trainer for several months to get our dog certified as a service dog. When we started the process, I didn't understand the different classifications, the legal requirements or the amount of training involved. Throughout the journey, I learned a lot and decided to write a blog to inform patients about these classifications. After I published the blog, Shannon pointed out I missed something because I only wrote in the blog about service animals and emotional support animals. As I mentioned in her biography, Shannon works with therapy dogs, and knowing Shannon has a therapy dog, I gave her a call and invited her to be our guest today. With her legal expertise and personal experience, I thought she'd be an excellent guest. So, Shannon, thank you for being here today.
Shannon: Well, you're welcome, Abbie. It's a very exciting topic, and probably the one thing that we should talk a little bit about is that you and I are just big time over-the-moon dog lovers.
Abbie: Oh, without a doubt.
Shannon: But we want to make certain that people understand many types of animals are therapy animals: cats and birds and rabbits and you've heard of horses ponies.
Abbie: Yeah, when I was reading federal statute, I was like horses, OK. So, can you tell our listeners or explain to them how you got working with therapy dogs? What was your driving reason?
Shannon: It’s very common, you know. It's always a referral isn't it? It's always a friend doing something or that you find out about some of the most interesting hobbies in your life that become a passion. I was visiting a patient at the Madonna Rehab Hospital and a family friend was the CEO at the time at the hospital. I just ran into her in the hallway, and she had just received a presentation from their therapy dog volunteer program. She asked me: “Why aren't you doing that?” Because she had met my dog and, at that time, it was a different dog than this one, than Neely. And that got me thinking about the therapy dog program. It would be another three or four years before I got into the program and primarily because of this. My dog Bridget was a miniature silver poodle and she was gorgeous and people were drawn to her being gorgeous. Bridget wasn't drawn to people. And so the first lesson I had to learn and really consider is that you can have a great dog, but it may not be great for therapy. And in your presentation, Abbie, in all fairness is that the emotional service dog and the service dog belong together categorically because they are both for one person. And they're going to address one category of needs of that person or maybe several different needs within that, but they are for one person. A therapy dog belongs to the world. So the first thing you look for in a dog is that they initiate contact with other animals, particularly with humans though, and that they react to them and they engage with them. And not every dog does that. So it was from that point, it was the very first 24 hours, I knew Neely, who is a standard poodle, was cut out to be a therapy dog. And from there, you could just tell that she was meant for it.
Abbie: My dog is meant for what she does, so I understand that, And I've had dogs my entire life, and I've had them where they absolutely did not care one way or the other about people.
Shannon: Yeah, and that's great. They used to tease me about Bridget, that she thought that unconditional love was overrated.
Abbie: Now with the legal status for service dogs and therapy dogs, I learned quite a bit. A service dog particularly has certain legal protections under the ADA. So they can go into most public places, they can go into restaurants and they're trained to perform specific tasks for their handler. While they require no specific certification or registration by law, they must be well-behaved and controlled in public. Emotional support dogs don't have the same legal protections. They have some when it comes to housing, but not exactly the same. What legal protections do therapy dogs have? And where can they go? What are the requirements for that?
Shannon: Excellent questions. Now we want to make certain that everybody should check with their local ordinances for the city and statutes for the state. And you can do that through an organization that is either working with therapy dogs, working with service dogs or licensed mental health professionals who are familiar with emotional support. So this is going to be very high level sorts of things to look at. As we first mentioned and talked about is that our therapy dogs belong to the world. And I say that because their appointments, their engagement in this world, if you will, with humans is by invitation. It's not a service dog. It's where you want to go for emotional support. I have a friend whose daughter is on campus, and the university that she's attending allows emotional support animals. They got the correct documentation together, and then it just comes down to making certain you don't have a roommate with allergies or, you know, those kinds of things — like living with others — that you look for. And as you pointed out that service dogs are covered by the ADA, therapy dogs really aren't covered either.
So this is what path you take. You take a certification path. There are vests that you can buy online everywhere, and just watch that because the number one rule when you decide that you're going to share the gifts of your dog as a therapy dog is that you have to be the advocate for your dog. You have to protect your dog; you have to put your dog in places for success.
Abbie: My dog has her service vest, and it's amazing when I pass people with other dogs with service vests; the dogs are out of control, they bark, they try and attack. And I don't think people realize that to actually get certified, it was thousands of dollars and two years of training.
Shannon: You know, right now there's an organization in Nebraska called Domesti-PUPS, and they're fully engaged with the whole spectrum of services for dogs. I received our initial training through them for therapy dogs. But they do service dogs, and they have a prison program for dogs so the prisoners learn how to train dogs. And then there's a weekend warrior program where those of us on the outside can take them for the weekend and take them to places that the prisoners can't. And then they're put up for adoption. You've got these beautifully trained dogs through that program. And so this week, we're right in the middle of a 12-day period where four people from around the country … they said this time the four are from the Midwest; one is a person I have known for years — a little girl I watched grow up with disabilities. They're in training; they've got their service dogs. The reveal was this weekend, and now they'll spend 12-hour days for the next eight days learning about that dog. Hamilton, is the dog's name, cost $28,000.
Abbie: Well, Fiona was a free dog from a rescue as a puppy. Training is expensive.
Shannon: There are special programs that Domesti-PUPS has that they interview and train persons who will take that dog for their first year and do a very rigid program that first year. Then it moves to another program to get refined. Then, there's the other side of it where the applicants submit their information, and if they're accepted, they have to give additional information — everything from she had to give cotton swabs from the inside of her mouth so that when she has a seizure, the dog will know what to look for. The dog will recognize the smell, right. And I mean it's just a very thorough program and so, in a lot of ways, for $28,000 you're getting a good deal.
OK, very simply, there are organizations around the country and then they have local chapters. And I highly suggest that they go into a program that they can affiliate with, and I'll tell you why. Each program for therapy dogs basically has the same requirements: You have to pass both the canine good citizenship courses from the AKC — both parts one and two — and then you have to show that the dog has actually adopted those good practices. Not just show the certificates and you still have a wild dog on your hands. So you show them the certificates, and then a lot of the programs will have separate classes or they will have the testing date and then they'll have test prep for you. So they can help you. For example, the reason joining an organization makes so much sense is that they know who they will send you to. So, there's one organization in Nebraska that really caters to teachers. And so they know the school; they know what the school's requirements are. You go in and the teachers are familiar with the program, the students are familiar, and that makes for such a better program and better outcomes I should say for that relationship. There's some that do nursing homes exclusively — nursing homes, assisted living — and those facilities are comfortable with the therapy dog program.
And, so, they'll train you then. For example, we were certified through Domesti-PUPs originally for nursing homes. And there was a lot of work with narrow spaces, loud noises, things like that. One of the neat things about therapy dogs — a little bit of trivia here I suppose — is that you're discouraged as a handler to teach them tricks. And the reason why is because you do not want to take anything away from the patient you're visiting. And so, particularly at the rehab hospitals, and this is acute rehab, where people are seriously ill and compromised, the standard for a successful visit is the patient had one minute where they weren't thinking of their pain — that they got so absorbed in that dog and that connection and their memories of dogs or their tactile sensations. And, that’s it: one minute. And you might be there 15 minutes, you might be there five minutes. But you'll know when it clicks and so will the dog. And the dog will let you know my work is done here. It's very very sweet.
But you take those two AKC courses, and then you work directly with the organization to find what else do we need. In my organization, there is a separate policy manual that you had to learn and be tested on. Then you had a rigorous test because they wanted you to be familiar with some of the high-end equipment that you'll find in rooms — the wheelchairs, loud noises, sudden noises, lots of people. One of the worst things that happens: Therapy dogs may or may not have some identification on when they're in that facility because there isn't a service dog vest. We have little bandanas, but the people will just swarm your dog and you're tested on that pretty extensively because that could be very frightening for a dog to have four or five humans hovering. Everybody means well. The organization we were with was Pet Partners, and they were actually out of Seattle, Washington. They had different levels of certification, and we received the highest designation so we could do pediatrics. And I'm telling you, Abbie, you know what I'm talking about with your girls. The worst fear is that 3-year-old toddler who's swaying like they used to say — the drunken sailor — with their index finger pointed out, and it will hit the corner of the dog's eye every time. And I mean that's severe pain, so you got to kind of sweep the dog away from the toddler, and the toddler's just happy coming at you like the Michelin Tire man swaying back and forth. And that goes back to being that dog's advocate and really protecting them, because you're there on invitation. You're not given any special legal right except for whatever your statutes are and your ordinances are about if a dog is treated as property or not. Obviously, the big concern is to have a dog be reactive and bite. I find it cute, because people always ask me: Does she bite? And I'll say, well you kind of get thrown out of the program if you do that. But I think that people don't realize how much training we go through — that we wouldn't bring a dog into a hospital that had any predisposition to biting or jumping or snapping at somebody. You just can't do that. So that's what these organizations make certain of. And then you have regular training and testing available in my programs every four years. Some programs are sooner than that.
One of the other things I want to get out there is there are people who may not like hospitals, you know, and that's fair. There's a sweet sweet very engaging program that's reading to students. Libraries will have it, schools will have it in their classroom. You take your dog in, you have a mat, the dog lays down on a mat. You may have another mat for the student. It just depends on what the school or the library provides. You get all lined up, even on the floor. Or, if you're going to be at a table then the dog should be able to see over the table. And the child begins to read. Typically these programs are in third and fourth grade, because the reading curriculum in the United States ends in third grade and when you're in fourth grade you're expected to read. And so for those children that didn't quite get all of it done in third grade, they're at quite a disadvantage in fourth grade or can be. And that's a very general statement because schools have tremendous reading curriculums. But that's how they target it. And so what happens is the child picks out a book, sits between you and next to the dog and starts to read. When the child hits a word that they don't understand, they'll obviously look at you. And then you'll say, hmm and you sound it out or whatever you feel comfortable doing. And then you know what happens? The child oftentimes will look at the dog and say: “Neely, didn't you know that?” And that's just confidence they don't have. These are children that can't read in front of the class because of fear or lack of confidence. These are children that just have some shyness. But, boy, to the dog, they're like, “Oh come on.” And then we'll reward Neely for getting the word right. And then they're like, okay let's keep reading.
Abbie: That's amazing, and you know, one of my children had dyslexia. She’s an excellent reader now. She's in college with great grades, but she still doesn't like reading out loud in public. And that takes that stigma away because the dog's not going to make fun of you.
Shannon: And the dog will look at the child, just because they can hear the change of tone of voice. And a lot of times, they're sitting on the floor, the dog will have their leg over their leg. It just really gets cozy, and you can just watch that develop between them — that relationship and that confidence.
Abbie: So you've told us what Neely does or where she goes. Give us an idea what Neely's typical day out is working.
Shannon: Okay, well curiously, a good visit is no more than an hour long because it's so exhausting for the dog. The worst trap in any facility is leaving because people want to know the people that were involved in that reading session or in that wing of the hospital. They want to be able to pet the dog and to know if can you come see my people. So, you know, so it's just like leaving is always like: “Needly has left the auditorium!” It's like, “No more!”
So you walk in. I mentioned that we have a bandana, we have a backpack that has to be carried with all of your necessities in the event of an accident. In a first-aid situation, you always have a brush with you, you always have a water bowl with you and a water source. You carry that in with you and your badges — your identifications — you check in with the facility and they'll tell you if certain rooms had requested a dog that week or who's expecting you. And then you go off to do that. You enter the room cautiously or courteously. You want to say hello to the children that are going to read with you or you're going to. As I mentioned with reading, you have some little set-up — some mats and that for yourself — and you introduce the dog and what you're going to do. Similarly in a hospital one-on-one, you will say “I'm a volunteer here, Madonna. I understand you have requested to see a dog. Is this a good time?” And you go in the hospital setting. You ask no questions of anybody while you're here, and that's wise to do with children as well. You just keep focused on the task at hand.
Neely has an interesting tell, if you will, and that is she goes to each caregiver in the room first. So if the grandparents are there or you know the husband and wife and whatnot, she goes to them first to thank them for being a caregiver. And so she gets them all relaxed and then it's all focus on the patient. And as I said, we did children so she'd oftentimes hop up on the bed and spoon with them or lay her head on their chest so they could see them. And then that just gets the child in a zone, you know. They've got a dog that's just looking at them and they only see their beautiful eyes. And it's just, it's almost magical what happens. You'll get them talking about their dogs. It'll get them talking about the happier stories. And you look for that one minute where they've just relaxed and realize, for one minute, we're not in a hospital hooked up to tubes. You do a lot of handwashing when you enter a room and you leave a room. You're always washing your hands to go to the next room and even between children. We're always encouraged to carry everything from the wipes to the gel.
The other thing you do is you're mindful of staff. So the librarians, you walk over to the librarians, maybe take the dog around the counter and say, “Do you want to pet the dog?” And they're relieved; they love doing it. You ask the nurses, the physical therapists. You can take it to the next level in the hospitals. For example, we've actually participated in individual therapy sessions. There was a child, 18 months old, that wasn't speaking but had been speaking before her incident, and when Neely came around the corner one day, she yelled out, “Puppy, oh come here, come here.” And so we started coming three times a week to help her through her therapy sessions. We did that on the other end for a 19-year-old who was in a serious injury and wasn't responding. And so she saw the dog outside and asked. And we started going to her appointments. A lot of times, it's just getting them to move differently. So you put the dog on their left side because they have some weakness on their right side and have them feed the treats to the dog so they're doing a crossbody motion.
Abbie: Shannon, we're running out of time for the amount we're allotted, but I have one last thing to ask you. When someone's interested in maybe looking at a therapy dog program, you said go to their local organization.
Shannon: Right, you're going to see it online. Type in therapy dogs Lincoln, Nebraska, or Sacramento, California, and start there. Ask your veterinarian. Ask nursing if you have a relationship to nursing homes. Do you have therapy dogs come and visit you? And they'll tell you who they go through. Look to see if the libraries have a reading program. Ask them who they go through to get readers to come. Sometimes there's fees related because they do provide a test and some training, but it's so reasonable to have that resource, Abbie. Anytime something happens that you're unsure of, call the organization and say, “What would you recommend that I should have done in that situation?”
Abbie: I was going say when I started the service dog training, it was kind of flying blind. I started with looking at the federal ADA law and then looking for a trainer, but there's a ton of paperwork involved.
Shannon: Yes, for sure. For therapy dogs, they will do a criminal background check, and they will have a policy book that you have to learn depending on the organization you're with. But, it's so rewarding. You just have to look for that dog that belongs to the world.
Abbie: That’s the one problem I've had with my dog. She's a service dog, but if somebody says, “Oh look at the puppy,” she was like, “hi!”
So, I wanted to thank you again for joining me today. I know a lot of our listeners have different types of animals that work as support animals, and I thought touching on the therapy animal program would be of interest. Everybody sees therapy dogs, but I didn't really understand what the qualifications were.
Abbie: Listeners, thank you again for joining us today. Additional information regarding this podcast can be found on our website at www.igliving.com. If you have a question that was not answered, please contact me at acornett@igliving.com.
Look for the next IG Living podcast announcement on our website for the opportunity to submit your questions.
IG Living Advocate is a copywrite production of IG Living magazine, published by FFF Enterprises, the only magazine for the immune globulin community comprised of patients who suffer from chronic illness and their caregivers.