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The Power of a Pet

Denise Flaim | Animal House

January 16, 2002

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THEY WERE among the four-footed heroes of Sept. 11, but they were worlds away from the sooty search-and- rescue dogs that climbed the downtown wreckage, nosing pile after smoldering pile for someone, anyone.

Dozens of blocks uptown, in the cavernous confines of Pier 94's Family Assistance Center, these other dogs were pert and primped, greeting the grieving with a wag of a tail, offering bone-tired rescue workers a furry shoulder to cry on.

They were the therapy dogs. And, their supporters say, they made a difference.

"Where a person cannot make any headway, a dog often can," says Ursula Kempe, who runs New Jersey-based Therapy Dogs International, which counts about 8,400 humans and 11,000 canines as members. "People will first relate to the dog much more easily than they relate to a person." She saw this firsthand riding the ferries that took the bereaved down to see Ground Zero: As tight-lipped families and friends bent down to pet her mixed-breed therapy dog Wusel, the words and tears began to flow.

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But long before the Twin Towers crumbled, therapy dogs have been making their quiet rounds of nursing homes, hospital wards and schools for the autistic or mentally retarded - anywhere a wagging tail or silly trick can spread some joy. Unlike the search-and- rescue and bomb-sniffing dogs that have shared the limelight with them in recent months, most therapy dogs aren't highly trained: They just pass a simple behavioral test and have owners who understand animals' innate ability to connect with and help heal the humans around them.

The Therapy Dog Demo Team is a case in point. Made up of members of the Greenlawn-based Suffolk Obedience Training Club, whose human members dress in white outfits topped with bright blue vests and jackets, the group makes weekly rounds at nursing homes to entertain and interact with residents.

At the Marquis Care Center in Glen Cove one recent Wednesday, elderly residents glide their wheelchairs and walkers across the large room, where the Therapy Dog Demo Team gets ready to strut its stuff.

"When we train our dogs, love is the main ingredient," announces the group's coordinator, Caroline Mozdean of Fort Salonga, as the individual dogs trot out with their handlers. Ellie the miniature poodle jumps over the cane of her owner, Wilma Diehl of Massapequa. (Ellie is named after Eleanor Roosevelt, a connection that prompts a murmur of approval from the onlookers.) Tamy the flat-coated retriever picks out an American flag from a grouping of a half-dozen others, and proudly carries it back to her owner, Amelie Seelig of East Norwich.

The group's newest member is Rocky the white boxer. "When he sees me dressed in white, he gets all excited," says his owner, Irene Messina of Laurel Hollow. Rocky is still working on his tricks, which include lying on his side on command so Messina can lay a blanket atop him and send him nighty-night.

Later, accompanied by marching music, the dogs and handlers perform in unison, taking routines they know from the competitive obedience ring - sits, downs, stays and heels - and turning them into entertainment.

The dogs run through tunnels, they catch balls in midair, they spin in circles. And then, when it is all over, their handlers take them to all corners of the room, to lay their heads on laps and wait eagerly to be petted.

A quick canvass of the dogs in Suffolk Obedience's Therapy Dog Demo Team - golden retrievers, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, a Petit Basset Griffon Venden, lots of Labs - turns up all purebreds, which tends to be the case with therapy dogs in general.

"It's mostly purebreds because most mixed-breed people don't know how much there is out there that they can do with their dogs," says Sheila Mittenmeyer of Central Islip, whose therapy dogs include Beamer, a geriatric Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, and Packer, a mixed breed. Also, the places where therapy-dog testing takes place - oftentimes, at dog shows - tend to draw more purebreds than not.

Though there are many therapy-dog registries - including the Delta Society, which had a strong representation at Pier 94 - Therapy Dogs International has far more local dogs registered. Locally, Bide-a- Wee Home Association in Wantagh has an active outreach program that tests therapy dogs and matches them with organizations and institutions that want them. All the organizations cover their volunteers through an umbrella liability policy - a compelling reason to register with them.

Not that a dog's affiliation matters much; it's what the dogs do with it that matters.

"Therapy dog organizations are registries, really; they can't be expected to be doing anything else," says Kathy Diamond Davis of Oklahoma City, author of "Therapy Dogs: Training Your Dog to Reach Others" (to be re-released this year by Dogwise.com). "It's on the local level that you have to have that support."

DAVIS, WHO was heavily involved with the use of therapy dogs after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995, says the best place to start is at an obedience class.

"Your obedience instructor will form a pretty good opinion about whether you should be encouraged to pursue testing," says Davis, pointing out that since every dog can benefit from basic obedience instruction, it's a win-win situation, no matter what the outcome.

Her list of reasons why some dogs might not be suited to be therapy dogs is sensible enough: a hip or orthopedic condition that makes it difficult to walk on slippery institutional floors, any condition that makes it painful for the dog to be petted. While aggressive dogs obviously are not suited for therapy work, "I do not believe that a dog needs to be overtly friendly," says Davis. "You just have to be the right handler for that dog."

Therapy-dog tests vary from organization to organization. The Therapy Dogs International test requires a dog to pass a basic obedience test mirrored after the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen test, except that it also includes exposure to things the dog might encounter in an institutional setting, such as wheelchairs and crutches.