2025 Therapy Dog News
2/12/25: Pascha and I on a therapy dog visit
Pascha wore this year’s Valentine’s Day costume. Due to two weeks of below-zero weather, I kept having to cancel therapy dog visits. I had wondered if any of my therapy dogs would get to wear it this week, or if we’d have to save it for next year, but we finally lucked out. Her shirt finally came, so I wore it (see all the shirts I made for therapy dog visits).
2/20/25: Radik (RR litter) visiting an assisted living facility in Colorado
“These two ladies especially loved to fawn all over Radik at our assisted-living facility visit today!!!”
2/23/25: Jamboree (JJ litter) and Quizz (QQ litter) visiting high schoolers for a senior project
from Laurie, Jamboree’s handler: “Karen asked me if I could help her with her Senior project. She wanted to survey high school students on the benefits of having Therapy Dogs in the classroom during the day and the positive impact they have. We visited on Mondays and Tuesdays for one month. I loved the interactions with the staff as well as the students. We gave out a survey and then went over everyone’s comments and presented the results to teachers and staff. Karen asked if she could bring Quiz (who is not a certified therapy dog like Jamboree is). She was a rock star.”
“For the last day, the staff made the dogs a Thank You Pumpkin Cake. For the last day, the staff made the dogs a Thank You Pumpkin Cake. And the high school asked if we would come back for school finals.” Karen didn’t take Quizz that day, as Laurie and Jamboree had to go do Reading Dog at the Elementary school and Karen was in classes, so they didn’t want Quizz to have to sit in Laurie’s car for a good three hours.”
From Karen’s report on her senior project: “The class chosen was the Senior Seminar Class during 5th period in the school library. This class was chosen because they are under a lot of stress working on scholarships and applying for colleges. The presence of therapy dogs in the classroom lightens up the students’ mood and makes them feel more at ease. A blanket was placed on the floor to create a space for the dogs and their handlers. Students came and sat with the dogs on their own time so as not to disrupt the class’s normal atmosphere. Surveys were taken each day, and showed that the dogs made a difference. At the beginning of the class, the anxiety level was 29.9%, while at the end of class the anxiety level was 16.9%. Schoolwork stress levels dropped from 32.3% to 20.9%. This was after ONE day of therapy dog presence. Surveys taken on the last day of the therapy dog project showed similar results, plus the students looked forward to the days the dogs would be present. Students commented that everyone was in a better mood when the dogs were there. Teachers commented that students were calmer and better able to focus on dog days than on non-dog days.”
February 2025: Varoom! and I on therapy dog visits to Big Horn Rehab
2/24/25: Justice and I on a therapy dog visit to Westview
3/6/25: Hopeful and I on a therapy dog visit to Green House Living. The hospital’s marketing person happened to be there to do a feature on Green House Living (Sheridan Memorial Hospital recently took over Green House Living). She followed us around on part of our visit. She even got a photo of Hopeful being blissfully happy because one of the residents could rub her tummy (so many can’t).
See the 2025 Reading Dog News (my dogs visiting the schools)
See all the pages about my therapy dog activities