Puppy Love

Ben Stein and his dog, Blanquita, make frequent visits to Seven Acres to visit with ailing seniors.

On a recent Sunday, patients in various stages of memory loss at the special unit at Seven Acres Senior Care Center sat around looking listless and lethargic.

A group of dogs entered and, as if by magic, the room was suddenly sparkling with energy. Smiles abounded as the seniors focused their attention on the furry visitors.

The volunteers that brightened their day are with Faithful Paws, which is a group of dog owners and their pet therapy dogs sponsored by Bellaire United Methodist Church under the direction of Connie Richards. Training and meetings are held at the church and members visit facilities with designated group leaders.

Dogs must first receive training and then a “test” of 10 skills designated by the American Kennel Club. Once the dog passes, a certification of AKC Good Citizen is awarded and the dog qualifies to do therapy.

Ben Stein,13, was among the volunteers. A frequent Seven Acres visitor, he saw the dogs there one Sunday and, as a dog lover, realized it was a perfect good deed project for his Bar Mitzvah held this past October. He signed up for Faithful Paws and while waiting for his dog Blanquita to be certified, he went along with the group to learn techniques.

“I think the dogs give the patients a sense of pleasure when they don’t get a lot of that,” Ben reflected. “That makes me feel so good.”

When they are not giving comfort to ailing seniors, Linda Abramson and her dogs, Domy and Lali, like to stop and smell the bluebonnets.

Volunteer Linda Abramson, who also visits Sheltering Arms day care center for seniors with dogs Domy and Lali, said that she “gets as much out of it as I give.”

“You can see what a stress reliever it is to have an animal around them,” she said. “You get the biggest smiles.”

The benefits of this type of therapy is well documented. “This is a proven health care method,” Faithful Paws team leader, trainer, and evaluator Vickey Willard explained. “I have seen many comatose patients just light up, come to life, and even talk when the dogs come to visit. It’s like their light comes back on.”

Ten-year Faithful Paw team member Marcia Morgan and her dog, Paloma, can testify to that. They visit Brighton Gardens and since her dog is small and has no dog dander, she can go into beds with patients.

“I have seen the most unresponsive patients turn their head to look at her or reach out their arm to her,” Marcia described. “I think they respond to having something warm and soft in contact with them.”

Happy and Roxy, with owners Allison Scott and daughter Merrick Stein, are often able to encourage unresponsive seniors to smile.

Allison Scott and her daughter Merrick Stein, 16, do it together as a meaningful mother-daughter activity. They take pets, Happy and Roxy, to St. Dominic’s Village, a nursing home and assisted care facility.

“One woman had a stroke and can’t talk at all and kind of sits there unresponsively,” Allison said. “When we approach her, she gives us the most beautiful smile. It’s patients like that who can’t even communicate that makes you realize what the dogs can do.”

Alana Glass and her kerry blue terrier, Laurie, love to help senior citizens smile as part of the Faithful Paws team.

Alana Glass, a member of both Faithful Paws and Delta Society, visits Clarewood Nursing Home with her dog, Laurie. She tells of an elderly man who was in a wheelchair and non-responsive. But the first time Laurie visited him, he allowed her to approach his wheelchair and Laurie put her paw on the man’s arm to comfort him. The man stroked Laurie’s paw in return, and the nurses later told Alana that it was the first reaction they had seen from the man in a long time.

According to all, their dogs seem to instinctively know just how to comfort each patient, no matter the malady. The dogs seem to relish their role as a therapist. “Laurie knows she is going visiting when I put her special vest on,” Alana laughed. “She loves doing it.”

Dell and Denise Bryant and their dog, Rio Bravo, visit St. Dominic’s Villa for retired nuns who need nursing care. Dell says the visits ease their boredom. Rio bonds with wheelchair and bedridden patients by going face level to them and putting his face next to theirs.

“They kiss him, and he kisses them, and both love the attention,” Dell said. “They enjoy petting him, and it is good physical therapy for them to brush him too.”

The Faithful Paws volunteers said seniors lovingly reminisce about their own dogs; many of them had to give up beloved pets to move into their facility. “They say that it was harder giving up their pets than their homes and possessions,” Allison said.

Thanks to some sweet dogs and their owners, ailing seniors can still experience puppy love.