Canine Therapy | Documentary | Chicago, Illinois

Dog serve many roles in our lives ranging anywhere from casual companion, to service dogs, to therapy and rehabilitation dogs.  We’ve had the opportunity to look at some of the other roles our four legged friends have in our lives.  Today, we’ll be looking at, in my opinion, one of the neater ways dogs can enrich our lives.  Last week, I had the privilege to join the Canine Therapy Corps for one of their sessions at the Swedish Covenant Hospital on the North side.  The Corps main directive is to use animal-assisted therapy to achieve goal directed interventions for people in hospitals.  Their aim is to improve the physical, cognitive, and emotional health during their time with their clients.  The evening started off with everyone being paired off with a human and dog companion.  They would get to know each other and do some basic memory exercises together.  Then they would start to learn the commands necessary to get the dogs to do more advance work.  The commands themselves consisted of a combination of hand movements and voice commands.  They would learn the basic: come, sit, lay.  Once they understood the basics, the fun would begin.  Balls appeared from nowhere, agility obstacles were brought out, and treats made for a action-packed evening.  Everyone got the opportunity to play with the dogs and work them through their paces.  Some people focused on making them jump the agility ladder, others decided to focus on fetch and ball tricks, they even let Ida, the small Corgi, out into the hallway so the client could call her back in!  At the end, there was a show and tell session where everyone would demonstrate what they learned to do with their dog!  Guaranteed, by the end, no one wanted to leave because they were having such a wonderful time.  I would say that the Corps achieved their goal of bettering someones night – and life.  Overall, it was an incredibly heartwarming experience to be allowed to join the Corps.  The one  tough aspect of the evening was how you could tell some people owned dogs in the past, and it was hard to remember them and not miss them. Once they had a chance to play with the dogs though, their faces lit-up and you could tell what the Corps was doing was making a difference.  I would heartily recommend donating to them if you are looking for somewhere this year to donate.  They provide a great service in the area for people to learn about the love of a dog, or be reminded, how a dog can cheer us up, get us moving, and remind us of a few of the good things in life.

 

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