Gentle giant lends paw to therapy
Posted on Sunday, July 13, 2008
FAYETTEVILLE — To many people, Thor looks more like a lion than a dog.
At 200 pounds, the English mastiff easily could topple a strong man with a rambunctious leap or a swipe of his massive paw.
The custom-made collars that circle his 30-inch neck could serve as belts for some people.
Such a beast can be intimidating, but owner Sam Rodriguez controls Thor with a loose grip on a thin leather strap and hushed one-word commands as the two navigate hallways of hospitals and cancer treatment centers, gently strolling alongside wheelchairs and walkers.
Thor calmed his playful demeanor Wednesday as the pair entered the Highlands Oncology Group, toning down his strength and energy to match the mood of patients weakened by chemotherapy treatments.
“He knows. He can tell,” Rodriguez said.
Thor is one of 40 certified therapy pets in Northwest Arkansas. Owners train the animals — mostly dogs — to obey simple commands and quickly adjust to new sounds and situations. The animals serve a variety of roles, including comfort for patients with chronic illnesses, motivation for children learning to read and assistance in physical therapy and speech pathology.
Thor’s specialty is comforting patients during cancer treatments. In the second-floor therapy room at Highlands, he circles the room’s perimeter, flopping down on the cold tile floor to allow patients sitting in green recliners to play with the wrinkles on his broad black face.
Once, a man insisted on taking his intravenous injection on the floor, snuggling with Thor for three hours while the drugs slowly dripped into his veins.
On Wednesday, Springdale breast cancer patient Mary Stewart shook his big paws, taking a few seconds to calm her nerves before a nurse started her injection.
“I do it for the looks on their faces,” Rodriguez said. “It’s very rewarding.”
Thor also visits libraries and schools, where children read books to him and snuggle with him on classroom floors.
Pea Ridge resident Sharon Gruetzmacher tests and certifies animals for Delta Society Pet Partners, one of two popular therapy pet testing organizations. She’ll poke, pet and interact with “any domestic animal, except llamas” to make sure they have a calm temperament that stands the test of unfamiliar situations.
“I’m not versed enough in llamas,” she said.
Any domestic animal receptive to training can be certified as a therapy pet.
“It’s not about the kind of animal, it’s about the way it behaves,” Gruetzmacher said.
To be certified, animals must respond to basic commands like sit, stay and come, and stay calm and remain in one place when their owner leaves the room. To test animals’ focus, Gruetzmacher drops cans, bricks and bed pans on the ground around them to ensure that they aren’t startled to aggression. She also stands over the animal, maintaining eye contact to make sure they aren’t overly dominant.
There are some things trainers can’t prepare pets for, Rodriguez said. To train Thor for his therapy visits, he took him to lumberyards, pet stores and public gatherings to expose him to a variety of sounds and people.
On his first visit to a cancer center, Thor was startled by the sound of a man who spoke with the assistance of a mechanical voice box. The man turned the device down, slowly increasing the volume to expose the dog to the sound.
“He didn’t know what to think,” Rodriguez said.
Certified animals are most commonly golden and Labrador retrievers, Gruetzmacher said. Owners pay $ 75 every two years for updated certification and liability insurance.
The most common destinations for the animals are hospice programs, assisted living facilities and schools.
Gruetzmacher once introduced a nonverbal autistic teenage boy to Mollie, a fluffy 120-pound bouvier dog bred for herding.
The boy barely could form monosyllabic grunts before he met the dog. His teachers used interaction with the animal as motivation and sensory stimulation.
“It helped him focus,” she said. “It was such a unique goal for him to work toward.”
Six months later, the boy used 13 understandable words.
His first word ? “Mollie.”
Gruetzmacher tears up when she talks about it.
Northwest Arkansas therapy pet owners meet through an organization called Helping Paws, where they trade tips and coordinate visits.
Not all therapy animals are dogs, Gruetzmacher said. She’s seen owners working with parrots, sheep, alpacas and miniature horses. Some also have animals that aren’t easily trained, like guinea pigs, cats and — in the most unusual case — chickens.
The poultry pet owner wheeled her three hens around in a wooden wagon — stirring up reminiscence from nursing home residents who tended to farm animals as children.
At Fayetteville’s Butterfield Trail Village retirement community, several employees bring their dogs to work, visiting the residents with dog-shaped stickers on their doors to indicate interest.
“The residents just pet away,” said Vicki Hodges, assistant administrator for health care. “It helps them take their minds off of themselves. If they’re in pain or they’re lonely, it gets them outside of themselves.”
Nurses and administrators bring miniature Chihuahuas, St. Bernards and shih tzus to work. A physical therapist brings her black and white border collie to walk alongside residents, providing support and motivation as they exercise their legs and joints.
Animal-assisted therapy has proven to improve balance and motor skills. A study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that interacting with pets helps lower blood pressure.
The visits also provide motivation for social interaction for older, emotionally isolated residents, Hodges said.
“They can reach out to that animal when sometimes they can’t reach out to people,” she said.
The Rodriguez family, who lives in Springdale, has eight dogs, including Thor and a therapy-certified Boston terrier named Polly Pocket.
Rodriguez, who owns a dent repair business, travels to show the dogs on the weekends and spends a few hours midweek making the rounds at cancer treatment centers with Thor.
At five years old, Thor soon will reach senior-citizen age for large breeds, which tend to have shorter life spans. Rodriguez has started training an Irish wolfhound puppy, which will one day grow to be a gangly, wire-haired giant, to take his place.
It will be a tough transition to make for Rodriguez and the cancer nurses and doctors, who coo the large dog’s name as he lumbers through the hallways.
“Most people know his name, but they don’t know mine, and I don’t mind that at all,” Rodriguez said. When oncologist Malcolm Hayward first met Thor at Highlands, the doctor instantly fell to the ground, wrestling with the animal without concern for disheveling his signature bow tie, tortoiseshell glasses and white lab coat. “He’s alive and healthy, and people around here need to see that,” Hayward said. “The idea that a dog that big can be that gentle and peaceful tickles everyone.”
To contact this reporter: eblad@arkansasonline. com
FEEDBACK:
Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
