For the past 30 years, Sue Lindsay has had therapy dogs that have put smiles on faces around rest homes, kindergartens and the hospital.
It started with a black labrador named Ruby who visited residents in Green Gables Care Centre in Nelson and today it’s a heading dog-Hungarian Vizsla-cross named Toki that would be taller than petite Sue if he stood on his hind legs. He’s a big dog with a kind heart that has been visiting patients and residents for the past five years and thrives on the attention.
Sue and her friend, Margaret Scaife, whose latest therapy dog in-training is 18-month-old Finley, are two of 14 dog owners in Nelson Tasman who are part of the Canine Friends Pet Therapy network. As volunteers, they take their dogs on visits to people who can often benefit from simply stroking a dog.
When Toki was just a year old, he became the first authorised dog in the region to visit patients in hospital, which is no mean feat by the time they had ticked the boxes for a police check, vaccinations and clearances for dogs. It was a role he had for four years, helping patients in intensive care or medical wards by easing stress, and also stroke victims who reached out to pet him.
“There’s so much global evidence about using animals for stroke rehabilitation,” Sue says.
“It’s an automatic reflex for a person to reach out and stroke.”
As an owner of a dog used for therapy, she says it is simply a way of giving back to the community by sharing their dogs.
“We know how therapeutic they are for ourselves. When we take our dogs into rest homes or hospitals, many of those people have had to give up their dogs and their normal life.
“So, bringing a dog in to see them is bringing a little bit of their normality in. A dog trots in with a big smile on its face,” she says.
“The staff say ‘hi Toki’ and give him a big cuddle, so they get as much out of it as the patients or residents.
“My feeling is that if they can bring a big smile to one person, it has been worth it.”
At the hospital, she says people would open up about their childhood and life that they wouldn’t have told her if she didn’t have a dog.
“I feel very privileged that I’m allowed to go in and meet those people at a very vulnerable time of their life.
“I think the dogs love it too. Toki thrives on the attention.”
Toki dedicates his smiles and tail wagging to a rest home now and Sue has a young one that will follow his lead.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic the region had 24 therapy dogs, but Margaret, who is the local liaison officer, says that dropped largely due to lockdowns at aged-care facilities.
Now, therapy dogs visit nine rest homes around the region and she says they are looking for more dogs and owners to visit more people.
Her own youngster, a labradoodle crossed with a Patterdale terrier, is already visiting a community house as well as an elderly woman with alzheimers.
Margaret says he “just knows he has to be good”.
She assesses potential therapy dogs and anyone interested in volunteering some time with their dogs can email secretary@caninefriends.org.nz for more information.
