The Villages Daily Sun

THE VILLAGES — All day she paces.

Up and down the long-term-care hallways in Leesburg Regional Medical Center’s Nursing Center, an Alzheimer’s patient shuffles along in her Merry Walker. She’s lived in the hospital for 10 years and doesn’t complete full sentences, says Jean Garrett, the facility’s director of nursing.

Until she sees a therapy dog.

“She only says one word at a time,” Garrett explains, “but when she sees the puppy, she says, ‘Oh, the puppy, I love the puppy,’ so she completes sentences.”

A team of therapy dogs, registered through Therapy Dogs International Inc., visits the Nursing Center at LRMC three to five times a month, says Patty Cummings, infection control in-staff development nurse at the center.

Cummings brings her own therapy dog, Koko, to the hospital a couple of times a month, believing residents can open up to the animals in ways they can’t to humans.

“I think they feel that they’re not being judged,” Cummings says. “I think they feel they can talk to the dog about anything. … They feel they can be themselves around the dogs.”

Koko, an 8 1/2-year-old standard poodle, has been certified for two years and enjoys letting residents pet her curly, chocolate fur, now lightly sprinkled with gray.

To be certified through Therapy Dogs International Inc., dogs must pass a temperament test and the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen Test, be at least 1 year old and behave well around service equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers, oxygen tanks and general hospital noise.

Dogs registered through this organization can then be insured with coverage for any injuries patients may accidentally receive, from tripping over the animal to scratches from the dog’s nails, Cummings says.

The Nursing Center also has a new puppy resident. Garrett’s English bulldog, Wilma, is the building’s mascot. Though Wilma is too young to be certified through Therapy Dogs International Inc., she’s already visits residents and will go through training once she is old enough.

“What I say to our staff is that we aren’t really a nursing home,” Garrett says. “We help create lasting memories for our residents.”

She went on to say that Wilma and the other therapy dogs are a big part of this philosophy. And patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s who can’t remember the present can often recall the past.

“So I guess it’s more of a reminiscent therapy as well, because they can recall the times when they had a pet,” says Garrett, and dogs like Wilma tap into those loving memories.

That’s precisely why The Villages Hospice has its own dog therapy program, says Donna Doe, life enrichment specialist at the hospice. She finds that patients enjoy the calming, soothing of the animals’ presence.

“I just think this is one of the most rewarding programs that we have at the hospice because of the link between people and pets,” Doe says. “The pets bring out the person’s personality, whereas without the pets they could be very withdrawn.”

Doe says she, too, has witnessed Alzheimer’s patients who remain mute except when the dogs come to visit, as they often do at the Leesburg hospital.

Raquel Fox, doctor of veterinary medicine at Village Veterinarian, encounters many people who believe that their pets are members of the family. “Having pets can help their health,” Fox says, “because it removes the emphasis on their problems by giving them something else to care and live for.”

She adds, “Many of the residents that come in may have just lost their spouse. But they’ll look at their dog or cat and say, ‘she’s all I have left now’ or ‘I’m not alone,’ and it seems to lessen their pain a little.” And dogs can be great motivators, especially when their owner is grieving or under stress — when even taking a walk seems monumental.

Fox has worked with Canine Companions for Independence, an organization providing assistance dogs to people with disabilities to help them gain more autonomy. They can help children in wheelchairs break into social circles easier too. Fox believes that having the dog breaks the ice more easily because other kids want to know all about him, and they become less aware of the wheelchair.

Some studies have concluded that owning pets can lower blood pressure or facilitate emotional health through companionship, acceptance, activity, responsibility, security and social contact. Others show no link to health benefits.

For Barbara Irwin, of the Village of Glenbrook, the benefits are clear. Head of the Pet Lovers Club, Irwin has owned dogs for 33 years; her current dog, an 11-year-old springer spaniel named Nugget, is her “baby.”

“I think (owning a pet) can keep people from becoming very lonely,” Irwin said. “And it gives some folks a reason to get up in the morning. It really does. And it gives them exercise, both the pet and the parent. And I think that if you’re out at the dog park you can meet other people and it’s just general well-being for folks to have an animal.”

Life becomes too quiet without a pet, she said. Nugget keeps Irwin active, caring and loving, she said, and she has also seen how animals can help sick people.

The Pet Lovers Club helped a man with Alzheimer’s disease get a cat, and Irwin said it has helped him because he now has something unthreatening with which to communicate.

“He comes up to me and he’ll tell me that he just loves his kitty and his kitty loves him, and she gets on his lap and he just pets her all day long,” Irwin said. “And his wife said it’s just a great response for him.”

Misty Rose and her owner, Marian Masi, from the Village of Polo Ridge, are recent Therapy Dogs Inc. graduates. Masi and her brown-and-white sheltie frequent Arbor Village nursing home in Wildwood, greeting residents with smiles and tail wags.

One of her favorite residents silently sits in a wheelchair, staring off into space until the pair approach. His toothless face lights up when he sees Misty Rose. Indiscernible words flow from his mouth, coupled with a stream of “hellos” and other short phrases.

The man chatters in soothing tones to the dog as he gently strokes her ears, her head, her back.

He doesn’t want Misty Rose to leave when Masi says she’s going to visit another resident. But now it’s Bonlivea Gibson’s turn to stroke the animal. A resident at Arbor Village, Gibson says she’s originally from Maryland, where she lived on a farm with many animals.

Visits with Misty Rose and the resident cats make Gibson’s stay at the center much better.

“It elates me. It delights me,” Gibson says. “I’m ecstatic. I love animals, and being in a nursing home at 41, I love seeing them.”

The smiles and distractions make her visits worthwhile, Masi says, noting she loves to see the different reactions from the residents.

“Sometimes they have never spoken, and yet they actually speak to the dog. They have cried when they see the dog, and they may never have been able to cry before.”

Masi believes pets evoke emotions in them that human beings simply don’t. “But Misty Rose somehow brings them joy, brings them happiness and pleasure. And the other residents love her too. They just shout, ‘Oh, look at her. She’s so pretty. She’s so pretty.’”

Masi’s soothing dog companion not only helps the residents, she also helps Masi, who recently moved to The Villages from Pennsylvania and has some health problems of her own. Misty Rose helps her get out into the community where she meets people and is more active, and the extra exercise and social activity make her feel better.

Misty Rose was certified in early December, and although she is a good-natured dog, Masi had to work especially hard at training her not to bark and curbing her herding tendencies — both common traits of shelties.

Therapy visits come naturally to Masi, who has had much experience with caregiving. As a young girl, Masi watched her mother work as a registered nurse and helped her parents deal with the loss of her brother as the result of an auto accident at 18.

She also cared for her parents as they aged and was the sole caregiver for a neighbor with Alzheimer’s for a year and a half when she lived in Pennsylvania.

As she walks the Arbor Village halls with Misty Rose, it’s the little things that Masi remembers.

“That’s what we get out of it. A thank you or a tear or a ‘Wow,’” Masi said. “And many of the patients’ spouses are there, or their children are there, and they just are so grateful to any of us who come in with a dog for doing what we’re doing.”

People interested in becoming a therapy dog owner or who have questions about Therapy Dogs Inc. may call the toll free number (877) 843-7364 or Therapy Dogs International Inc. at (973) 252-9800.

Alexandra Lundahl is a reporter with the Daily Sun. She can be reached at 753-1119, ext. 9071, or alexandra.lundahl@thevillagesmedia.com.