Canines play vital role in treatment at Prairie View

Three dogs are snooping around Prairie View offices — and everyone is loving it.

No, these dogs aren't the kind that loiter without a home. These dogs are snooping in on clients' lives and helping them through life’s most intense struggles.

Clients, staff and owners enjoy interacting and playing with the therapy dogs their clinician-owners bring to work everyday.

“It’s been wonderful having him,” Janise Patry, LSCSW, said of her 2-year-old certified therapy dog, Moose, a black labrador and German shepherd mix.

The dogs mostly play the role of easing a client’s mood so he or she can feel safe to share thoughts and feelings with the clinician.

Moose calms down and enables some patients to talk more freely during their therapy sessions.

With new clients, said Patry, Moose can ease the stress of a new place and new person.

Dumont Schmidt, Ph.D., LP, owns a 7-year-old black standard poodle and Australian shepherd mix named Molly, who often finds herself being petted and loved by both clients and staff alike.

Molly was certified as a volunteer therapy dog through Therapy Dogs International, and then was trained and certified as a professional therapy dog in 2004.

“Molly’s role is basically to be a greeter and put people at ease,” Schmidt said. “She has a routine of greeting clients, and depending on how they respond, she will show various affectionate behaviors like putting her head on their lap or next to them, or ‘verbalizing’ while she ‘smiles’ and leans on them.”

Schmidt is quick to add Molly knows her limits.

“There are obviously clients who don’t like (Molly), and she immediately senses that and simply curls up on her bed in the corner and naps,” he said. “It has been a rare thing for Molly to violate somebody’s boundaries or to be intrusive or too affectionate.”

The third dog making its way into clients’ lives is Sadie, a 2-and-a-half-year-old golden retriever and sheltie mix owned by Amy Hammer, LSCSW.

Sadie was certified in February of this year.

Hammer uses Sadie with most of her clients, and she has seen a shift in the clients’ overall attitude when they are around Sadie.

“I have noticed a change in people’s affect and mood in the office,” Hammer said. “Many times, anxiety will decrease as a person pets Sadie as they distract themselves momentarily from their stressor.”

She also uses Sadie to teach lessons about grounding skills and relationship building.

“One client struggled with social rules and would often intrude on others’ spaces,” Hammer said. “She quickly learned that Sadie would respond to her more positively if boundaries were respected.”

According to Patry and Schmidt, the staff also delights in being around the dogs.

Schmidt views Molly’s interaction and connection with the staff as her “most important role.”

“She is loved and doted over a lot, and she responds with a great deal of ‘joy,’ Schmidt said. “For this reason, I believe, she is incredibly happy to go to work, and each morning, she has to make her rounds through the building, greeting and ‘talking’ to everyone.

“I would totally be in the ‘dog house’ if I decided not to use her as a therapy dog anymore,” he said.

Because of the long office days, Schmidt and Molly take advantage of the lunch hour by playing Frisbee or soccer together.

“She almost always beats me,” he said, “Both of us get a kick out of it.”

For training purposes, Prairie View encourages using Canine Assistance Rehabilitation Education and Services Inc. — or CARES Inc. — the recognized training service for dogs in Kansas, located in Concordia.

“Prairie View adopted the basic CARES model for therapy dogs used by professionals for the purpose of helping patients at Prairie View,” Schmidt said.

With no intentions of telling, these snooping therapy dogs at Prairie View have calmed nerves, eased minds and played a role in changing lives for the better.

“I feel so blessed Prairie View has allowed me this opportunity to work with Moose with my clients,” Patry said.