‘They’re going to visit their friends:’ local therapy dogs honoured for work in schools, care homes

Therapy dogs are certified by St. John Ambulance to visit local care homes after passing a series of tests designed to measure their reaction to strangers, weird noises and sudden movements.

Additional certification can allow therapy dogs with the right temperament to work in local elementary schools as part of a reading program with young children. The certification as a SJA therapy dog is not considered on par with guide and other service dogs.

Prior to the pandemic, Bell’s two golden retrievers, Salsa and Ankhe routinely visited local care homes to spend time with residents.

The trio developed a roster of regulars who the staff inside the home felt would really benefit from visits, giving pats and belly rubs.

“When the dogs go into the facility, they may smell all these strange smells and hear these weird noises but they feel that they’re going to visit their friends.”

Bell said it’s incredibly rewarding to see the reaction the dogs get from patients, one in particular who showed little interest in seeing him or his dogs.

Their first visit lasted five minutes and resulted in little more than an acknowledging grunt from the man.

“We went back the next week and the five minutes went a little bit smoother and the third week we saw him, I said to him ‘excuse me, we’ve been here half an hour and we’ve actually got a lot of other people to see.’ We went and saw him every week for two years until he died of cancer, he was wonderful.”

Angela Walmsley (right), the Nanaimo unit facilitator for the St. John Ambulance therapy dog program presents Beth Clarke-Gilman with her award. (Submitted photo/Jim Bell)

Clarke-Gillman’s experience in the program was more rooted in schools and libraries throughout Parksville and Qualicum, where her dogs Brita and Rosie would regularly visit elementary classrooms.

She volunteered in the program from 2008 through until her Labrador retriever Rosie passed away before Christmas in 2019.

The kids thought Rosie was bilingual because I use hand signals for sit, down, stay, all that kind of stuff so…I’d ask her to sit or stand in French and the kids were so impressed.”

Over the years, Brita, Rosie and Clarke-Gillman would develop bonds with the children they read with.

She said kids who were going through a hard time at home or school would connect with the dog through reading. Some even took the dogs for a walk as a way to process difficult times in their life.

“One little girl who’s mother was dying the year we were in her classroom…we’d go outside of the school and wander around. She’d talk about sometimes nothing, sometimes what she was feeling but she needed that connection to help her come to terms with her grief and Rosie was more than willing to take a walk with her.”

Clarke-Gillman plans to return to the program in 2022 once her newest companion, a Australian Labradoodle, gets certified as a therapy dog.

More information on the SJA Therapy Dog program is available on their website.

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alex.rawnsley@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @alexrawnsley

by Alex Rawnsley

‘They’re going to visit their friends:’ local therapy dogs honoured for work in schools, care homes

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