Hospital's popular dog therapy program ready for expansion

[TribalRats]

Hospital's popular dog therapy program ready for expansion

By Susan Dibble
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Wednesday, February 14, 2007


Naperville resident Bob Jaynes will never forget the first animal-assisted therapy visit he received a few years ago when he was in Edward Hospital with heart problems.

A large black poodle put its chin on the side of the bed and looked up to be petted. Another volunteer pulling her two Yorkies in a red wagon asked if he wanted them on the bed and he did.

“I was in seventh heaven, believe me, because I love dogs,” Jaynes said.

Jaynes, who hadn’t owned a dog in 40 years, vowed that if he ever had one again it would be part of the animal-assisted therapy program.

Then he and his wife, Joanne, inherited Molly, a Cavalier King Charles spaniel with a pug nose, from a relative who was going away to college. The three of them have been visiting Edward Hospital, 801 S. Washington St., twice monthly for the past year-and-a-half to the enjoyment of everyone involved.


Edward Hospital animal-assisted therapy volunteers gather with their dogs to make their rounds of patient visits. Dog therapy visits are available seven days a week at the Naperville hospital. (Marcelle Bright/Daily Herald)
Molly does circles on the floor when she knows its time to go the hospital. Patients smile and hospital staff members give Molly pats and treats.

“I can’t tell you adequately the satisfaction this has given us with our little Molly,” Jaynes said. “I think it’s the finest program that has come down the pike in years.”

Joanne Jaynes recalled visiting a stroke patient who reached out and rubbed Molly’s chest.

“The daughter started to cry and said her mother hadn’t moved that arm for two weeks,” she said.

The popular animal-assisted therapy program, which celebrated its fifth anniversary on Tuesday in the Naperville hospital lobby, has grown from 15 to 78 dogs and partners. Already one of the largest animal-assisted therapy hospital programs in the country, it’s looking to expand.

With the 42-bed addition to Edward Heart Hospital scheduled to open by the end of the year, the program is anticipating more requests for patient visits.

Patty Kaplan, the program’s director, said she’ll take however many new dogs that qualify. Therapy dogs must be well-schooled in obedience training, enjoy people and get along with other dogs. Breed doesn’t matter, she said.

“We have everything from a 3¨-pound Yorkie to 180-pound mastiff,” Kaplan said.

Admission to the program doesn’t come easily. Interested dog owners must submit a registration form available at www.edward.org/services/pet_therapy.asp by Saturday. Temperament testing will be done March 3 at Edward Sleep Center, 27555 Diehl Road, Warrenville.

Kaplan said she may test as many as 50 dogs to find 10 that qualify. Dogs and handlers admitted to the program must attend training from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 14, 15, 21 and 22 at Edward Hospital.

Canine volunteers and their partners are expected to be able to make three-hour visits to the hospital twice a month. Some volunteers come once a week, although that’s not required.

The dogs must be bathed within 24 hours before their visit.

“It’s a huge commitment,” Kaplan said. “You have a team that’s counting on you to be there. You have patients counting on you to be there.”

Dogs are available seven days a week to visit patients who would welcome their furry touch, as long as their doctors approve.

Linda Nemeth of Naperville goes once a week with one of the two dogs she has in the program. Amelia, an 11-year-old yellow Labrador, was one of the program’s original canine volunteers, and Mack, a 2-year-old black Lab, started in August.

Nemeth, a registered nurse who already was doing nursing home visits with Amelia, said she didn’t have to be convinced about the value of the program.

“Animals can do so much for healing,” she said. “It’s just an awesome program.”

Patients’ responses to the “business cards” handed out for the dogs are evidence of how much the program means to them, Nemeth said. The cards contain the dog’s picture, with information about the dog and comments from the owner on back.

“A lot of them (patients) will have every dog that’s visited up on the wall,” she said.

For many patients, the dogs are a reminder of a pet they have at home or a dog they used to own.

But the canine volunteers provide more than a warm, fuzzy feeling, Kaplan said. A three-year study the hospital did of total joint replacement patients showed the patients who received animal-assisted therapy visits needed only half the pain medication of their counterparts.

Patient questionnaires have shown that those in units that receive the canine visits have 20 to 40 percent higher satisfaction rates, Kaplan said.

Volunteer satisfaction matches that of the patients. Naperville resident Gordon Friday joined the program in the beginning with Murphy, his Portuguese water dog. To date, the two have visited 2,600 patient rooms.

As a bonus, Portuguese water dogs are one of the few breeds that don’t shed, Friday said. But beyond that, Murphy’s calm and kindly disposition make him well-suited to be a therapy dog, his owner said.

“People love him and children absolutely adore him,” Friday said. “My satisfaction comes from seeing people get the same joy — even if it’s only for a short period in the room — that I get out a 24/7 relationship with him at home.”