Grand View Hospital - Annual Reports

When Toby, a golden retriever who makes his home in Perkasie with Scott and Leah Weidemoyer, gets a bath and his coat brushed, he knows it is time to visit patients at Grand View Hospital.

Toby is one of eight therapy dogs who volunteer at the Hospital where his assignment is the Intensive Care Unit and Telemetry. Upon arrival at Grand View, Scott takes the leash and Toby immediately assumes the lead by trotting down the hall to a stairway leading to the ICU. Passers-by do a double take when seeing a dog in the Hospital. "Toby knows exactly where he is going," Scott says. The dog mounts the stairs and pushes open the door to the ICU and makes his way directly to the nurses' station for a doggie treat before quietly moving to the door of a very ill patient. Always polite, Toby stops at the doorway of each room and waits to be invited in.

"We have a dog visiting us tonight," Leah says. "Would you like to have him come in?" Very few patients turn Toby away. He moves to the bedside and waits to be petted. For the next two hours, you hear expressions of delight as the golden canine brings comfort to ill, lonely, and anxious patients.

"He seems to sense when someone is extremely ill," Scott says. "He will just sit quietly and look in, as if he knows that the patient isn't up to a visit." "We had a lady in Intensive Care once who had all but given up. Toby began visiting her and soon, she was up and walking around. Within a little over three weeks, she walked out of the Hospital and returned to her home, something that none of us thought she could do," Leah adds.

All Grand View volunteer dogs are certified by Therapy Dogs International, a volunteer group organized to train handlers and their dogs. The group states, "It has been clinically proven that through petting, touching, and talking with animals, patients' blood pressure is lowered, stress is relieved, and depression is eased." In order to be a therapy dog, animals have to pass the Canine Good Citizen Test (see box below) and also a temperament test. The dogs have to demonstrate that they are gentle with people in wheelchairs, on crutches, or using walkers, and are not afraid of these items. They have to have a stable temperament and good obedience training in order to negotiate in and around the Hospital equipment and bedside situations.

Dogs need to be well-behaved, sensitive, and lovers of people. Grand View requires canine volunteers to be Therapy Dogs International certified, to be bathed and groomed before each visit, and to pass a yearly physical and be up-to-date on their shots. Interested in having your dog volunteer at Grand View? Contact the Volunteer Department at 215/453-4619. Or contact Therapy Dogs International, 88 Bartley Square, Flanders, NJ 07836, website: www.tdi-dog.org.