Animals—providing a unique kind of therapy

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

Catholic Charities social workers might have one more tool in their “bag of tricks,” thanks to a training session where the stars came on four feet, or no feet, and showed how easily animals can break through social barriers.

A ferret, a snake and a succession of dogs appeared, with their human companions, at the workshop hosted by Catholic Charities’ department of staff development and education.

The reptiles and the ferret led off, visiting from The Grove Animal Ambassador program. The animals came from a nature center, and usually visit schools, camps, day care centers and senior centers with trained staff members. Some people might never have considered touching some of those animals, but most end up at least stroking them, said Sue McHugh, The Grove’s program coordinator.

Joyce Markstahler, director of staff development, admitted that she never would have wanted to touch a snake. But when someone needed to hold the rat snake, she allowed it to curl itself comfortably around her arms.
“She’s really a sweet snake,” McHugh said.

McHugh said she and the animals enjoyed visiting with the social workers, who might be able to recommend the Animal Ambassador program to schools and other institutions with which they work. In her experience, Alzheimer’s patients particularly enjoy the exotic animals.

“The first time I took them to an Alzheimer’s center, I thought the patients might freak out,” McHugh said, especially since her usual menagerie can include more than one variety of snake and even hissing cockroaches. “But they didn’t. They were really interested.”

While snakes, ferrets and turtles can help people come out of their shells, Rainbow Animal-Assisted Therapy brings in volunteers and dogs who will interact directly with disabled people, particularly children.

Working with a therapy dog can help children with language delays learn concepts such as “in,” “on,” and “under,” by having the children direct the dogs to go under a chair, or on a table, or in a wagon, for example. Some children have been encouraged to start speaking because they wanted to be able to communicate with the dogs.

Other kids, who have a hard time controlling their behavior, learn how to handle the dogs on a leash. When the children ask the dogs to behave, they must be calm and control their own behavior, explained Nancy Lind.

“What we really do is use the animals to motivate the children,” Lind said. “We don’t make the children do anything. We want it to be up to them.”
But with the motivation that four paws, a lolling tongue and a wagging tail can provide, she has seen children take huge steps towards their more formal therapy goals. She also has seen them light up at dog shows, where the children can display their skills with their canine friends.

The dogs did motivate the audience of social workers, who crowded around Lind after her presentation, petting them and offering to help walk them outside.

Canine Companions for Independence, another group at the workshop, includes dogs with remarkable skills of their own. The not-for-profit organization provides service dogs to people with physical disabilities, hearing dogs for the deaf and hearing-impaired and even facility dogs for trained therapists who bring them to work in schools or nursing homes.

Chicago-area coordinator Amy G. Campos, a quadriplegic since a diving accident at age 9, discussed the program and demonstrated some of the ways her service dog, Yanz, can help her.

Yanz, an 11-year-old black Labrador, can be her hands and feet, picking up items she drops, fetching the telephone or a nearby person on command, even opening the refrigerator and taking out a bottle of water.

“Yanz is with me 24 hours a day,” Campos said. “If I’m lying down, she’s lying down. If I’m in the bathroom, she’s in the bathroom. She’s with me more than my husband is.”

The organization provides dogs for free to those who can demonstrate that having a service dog would make a difference in their independence, but there is a two-year waiting list, Campos said, and the person who receives the dog must be able to pay for the dog’s food and care.

For many people with physical disabilities, the dog provides not just the gift of service, but also the gift of responsibility.

“All the sudden, they have help they never had, but they have to take care of another creature and basically think of another person all the time,” Campos said. “It can be an awesome responsibility.”

Campos said she hopes that by speaking to groups like the Catholic Charities social workers, the agency can become better known. So far, most of the 1,600 dogs that have been placed over the last 22 years have gone to white, mostly middle-class families, Campos said, and the organization would like to find a more diverse clientele.

At the same time, she said, it always is looking for donations to help pay for the breeding, training and care of the dogs before they are turned over to their human companions.

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