Beatrice, the sweet, gentle English Setter who changed the lives of thousands bringing comfort and companionship to all whose lives she touched.
This photo of our beautiful Beatrice came up this morning on Facebook Memories. Beatrice was our first English Setter and my first therapy dog.
It was this special dog who started it all back in 1992 when very little visiting with a therapy dog was seen anywhere. Every Friday afternoon for nine years, Beatrice brought comfort and companionship to the residents at our local nursing home. Her magical connection with people inspired me to found Bright Spot Therapy Dogs to encourage more people to become involved in therapy dog work and open more doors to visiting therapy dogs.
Since the founding of Bright Spot Therapy Dogs back in 2004, over four hundred handlers and dogs have become certified therapy dog teams, and more than 185 healthcare, educational, and business facilities have requested the services of our well-trained Bright Spot teams. Bright Spot started as a local western Massachusetts organization. Today it covers all of New England.
We are always looking for more people interested in sharing their friendly, outgoing, well-trained dogs with others and want to get trained and certified as Bright Spot Teams.
Today, therapy dogs are recognized as being highly therapeutic, having scientific research to back up this claim. With this recognition has come a demand that is hard to meet. Bright Spot Therapy Dogs conducts Therapy Dog Team Training Classes seven times a year at Animal Alliances in Northampton, Massachusetts. Please consider sharing your beloved dog with others as a certified therapy dog team. I can guarantee that you and your dog will love it, as I have these past twenty-five years as eight of my dogs, seven more after Beatrice, have carried on the magical work she started back in 1992.
If interested in learning more about therapy dog visiting and getting certified through Bright Spot, please visit our website.
Our next Therapy Dog Team Training Class will run October 15 and 22 from 9:30-11:30.