Pet therapy a way of life for dog and owner

By Michael Picarella pic@theacorn.com

Just call me Kolya

Dogs aren’t called "man’s best friend" for no reason. They’re gentle, loving companions and, in the toughest times, they’ll be there to put a smile on your face.

Kolya, a 145-pound Great Pyrenees dog, has been making hospitalized patients and others smile for more than five years. He and his owner, Agoura Hills resident Betty Walsh, participate in a pet therapy program at UCLA.

"This really wasn’t my doing at all," Walsh said. "Kolya is like a magnet with people. I was in the dog park one day, and a nurse friend was with me, and (Kolya) did his usual thing. People just gathered all around him. (My nurse friend) turned to me and said, ‘Why are you wasting this here?’"

Walsh’s nurse friend thought Kolya should be in hospitals cheering up the patients.

"So I made a few calls and I found out that Santa Monica Hospital had a (pet therapy) program and it was near where I worked," Walsh said. "And that’s where we started."

Kolya later graduated to the pet therapy program at UCLA.

"Now Kolya spends (most of) his time at UCLA," Walsh said. "But, of course, he does outside stuff. He goes to retirement homes and he does on-call visits when people call me and ask if I’ll go to their homes."

Walsh said pet therapy has been a great experience for her.

"Watching the faces of all the people—and not just the patients, but the doctors and the nurses and the families—is what I enjoy," Walsh said. "It brings them out of the high- pressure atmosphere that they’re in. The patients even sometimes forget that they’re in a hospital when they’re hugging a dog."

Patients often request that Kolya lay in their beds with them. They pet Kolya, lay their heads on him, fall asleep on him, hug him and cry with him, laugh with him—they just enjoy his tenderness, according to Walsh.

In a three-ring binder, Walsh keeps letters from many of "her patients," thanking her and Kolya for their visit. People are really grateful for the pet therapy service, she said.

"Pet therapy is healing and patients get better quicker," Walsh said. "It’s pretty dramatic sometimes when you see the change in the patient right there."

UCLA conducted a study that found that dog owners required much less medical care for stress-induced aches and pains than non-dog owners.

In a study conducted at City Hospital in New York, heart patients who owned dogs were found to be significantly more likely to be alive a year after they were discharged from the hospital than those who didn’t own pets. The presence of a pet was found to give a higher boost to the survival rate than having a spouse or friends.

Unlike people, with whom our interactions may be complex and unpredictable, animals provide a constant source of comfort and focus for attention, according to research gathered on Holistic Online. Animals bring out our nurturing instinct. They also make people feel safe and unconditionally accepted. People can just be themselves around pets.

"Animals have powers that we don’t even understand," Walsh said.

Walsh and Kolya volunteer in the UCLA pet therapy program every other Friday and Saturday. They spend about 15 hours a month in the hospital. Kolya has already put in over 1,500 hours of volunteer work.

"Kolya goes on Friday evening after I get out of work and then in the morning on Saturday," Walsh said. Before each visit, Kolya must be cleaned.

"They’re only clean for 24 hours," Walsh said. "And UCLA is very strict. The screening process for the dogs is tough. But it’s a critical care facility, so (the hospital) has to be careful."

Before any dog can participate in a pet therapy program, the animal must go through a series of tests, including an extensive physical evaluation, according to Walsh.

"Part of the physical evaluation is bringing another dog into the room," Walsh said. "I had to bring Kolya by another dog to see if he’d lunge. Some dogs might do that and you couldn’t have that.

"Also part of the evaluation: a whole bunch of us rush a dog to see if the dog will freak out when a bunch of people walk by," Walsh added. "We bump him to see if he’ll snap, and the owner has to go away for a bit to see if the dog will patiently wait with somebody else."

Kolya visited patients in the coronary care unit during the beginning of pet therapy and, after about a year, he was able to visit those in pediatrics.

"Now they send us all over the hospital," Walsh said, "including intensive care."