[ara28]

so last night was my 5th visit and dohggy's 3rd visit and I think it was the best yet. He had a good time and was a good boy and didn't want to leave the hospital when it was over.

He got in this one guys wheelchair and put his front legs around the guys waist and rested his head on the guys chest so the guy could pet him. It was very cute and the guy enjoyed it a lot.

I'm liking our visits more and more. I'm hoping that the more times we go, the more comfortable we'll both get with the room to room visits. dohggy needs to get more familiar with the smells so he can pay more attention to the patients in the room to room visits. He's having no problems with the social visits where our whole group is in one big room and then a bunch of patients come in the big room and it's just like a big gathering.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Lolas_Dad]

That's cool it is going well. When I had Lola and myself tested last week I was told it could take up to 10 weeks to receive the required documentation for us to start therapy work. I am sure our visits will go well also.I also have the feeling that if we are to do long term care sites that Lola will probably be requested for visits by a few patients.

Good luck on future visits and let us know how they go.

 

[digits mama]

That is great! I can just imagine what you guys do for the patients hearts when you go do these things. You guys and the dogs rock!

 

[ara28]

That's cool it is going well. When I had Lola and myself tested last week I was told it could take up to 10 weeks to receive the required documentation for us to start therapy work. I am sure our visits will go well also.I also have the feeling that if we are to do long term care sites that Lola will probably be requested for visits by a few patients.

Good luck on future visits and let us know how they go.

Thanks! We're not individualy certified though. The organization that we are a part of is certified and we had to be tested by the organization to get approved so we can't do visits just by ourselves, we always have to be with our team since it's the team that's certified and insured.

When we go on our visits I have to wear the organization's t-shirt and he has an ID badge to show that he's part of the group. I think we have over 100 volunteers all together in the organization, but our team consists of 8 people and their dogs.

We go the 1st and 3rd tuesday of every month so the 1st tuesday we go to 3 wards. 2 are social visits and 1 is room to room. The 3rd tuesday we go to 3 different wards, the first 2 are room to room and 1 is social.

We have a japanese chin on our team. she's very cute and the patients, especially in the long term care, love her. Not only because she's super cute but because she's small enough that she can get in the bed with the patients and they can hold her and what not as opposed to just petting her. We do have a great dane that likes to get in the bed with patients too, but they can't hold him. lol.

I'm sure when you guys start visits they'll love lola.

That is great! I can just imagine what you guys do for the patients hearts when you go do these things. You guys and the dogs rock!

Aww, thanks! It's a great feeling to be able to volunteer and see the joy we bring to the patients, even if it's just for an hour. It's definitely worth it.

 

[Lolas_Dad]

The organization that we went through is group or individual. They would like us to do a few group visits before going out on our own and I have no problem with that. I recently received the June schedule and although you don't have to be at every session there is something going on every day of the month so I can pick and choose what facilities we want to work with.

On the 14th they are having a demonstration at a library because they are looking to have therapy dogs visit so that will be an additional place to go to. If I have not received the paperwork for Lola by that time I may attend just by myself.

Before Lola did the walk by food on the floor test I was telling the evaluator how I trained Lola to not get treats from the floor until I giver her the go ahead and to only pick up the one I tell her to at a time. After we walked by the food and I picked it up on the return trip she said now you can give it to Lola so I told her now you will see exactly what I was talking about before.

I dropped it on the floor and Lola looked up at me waiting for me to point to it so she could take it. I waited about 15 seconds before pointing to it and said this one. She then ate it. The evaluator said although your not supposed to feed your dog treats on visits it would be good to show the people when on a visit when there are no other dogs around.

I have shown people at the dog park that same trick and the one where I have her sit and wait, walk about 50' away from her and then call her to me. They are always amazed after I show them. I started doing that with her at home and I stepped it up a bit by doing it in a dog park with other dogs around. I wanted to see how she would be able to focus on me with such a huge distraction and the reason for teaching her to wait for her treats was because in case a pill happens to drop on a floor she leaves it automatically.

She is at the point to where if I am eating and something drops on the floor she will sit nearby and be looking at me letting her know if I want her to get it or not. Just yesterday a piece of home fried potato dropped on the floor during my breakfast and she sat about 4 feet away looking at me for me to let her have it or not. I left it there for about 5 minutes before picking it up and throwing it away. So she does not get everything that drops on the floor. Mostly I do not let her have it but occasionally I will.