At Work

King is pictured here post bath, all clean and brushed, ready for his first Bright Spot Therapy Dogs College Stress-Relief Event.  Seventeen Bright Spot Therapy Dog Teams will join King and me tomorrow while students hang out with the dogs during final exams at Amherst College.  Watch for lots of photos tomorrow.

Therapy Dogs Niles and Caber, referred to as The Boys by their teammate Kevin Russell, are always a favorite at our          Bright Spot Therapy Dog Stress-Relief Events.

The month of December means final exams for students on most college campuses.  With exams come increased stress levels and high anxiety.  Bright Spot Therapy Dogs will be at Amherst College on Tuesday, December 10th, and Bay Path College on Wednesday, December 11th, to help relieve these tensions.  Students will have the chance to hang out and relax with our gentle, friendly dogs during our Therapy Dog Stress-Relief Events.  I will post a write-up next week with details about each event, along with lots of great photos of our therapy dogs in action.  Stay tuned!

Our highly successful Bright Spot Therapy Dog Training Classes are finishing up for the year at our Northampton location, Animal Alliances, on Damon Road.  This is our two-session, workshop-format course that meets two consecutive Sunday mornings from 10:00-12:00.  Our Greenfield location, NB Productions, on Hope Street, will carry its current 8-weeks course into mid-January.

This is our first year holding Bright Spot Therapy Dog Training Classes as a requirement for evaluation and certification.  The classes are taught by Dawn Kimball (Northampton) and Pam Murphy (Greenfield) who have years of experience training, visiting, and living with dogs.  Our Therapy Dog Training classes teach the handler and dog (referred to as The Team) the skills and techniques they need to know to make successful therapy dog visits.

Our classes have been well-received by people near and far who are seeking to become involved with the ever-growing field of therapy dog visiting.  Due to the popularity of our classes, we have increased the number of Bright Spot certified volunteers by 100%.  People come here to western Massachusetts from the eastern part of the state (Boston, The Cape, and in between), and from the neighboring New England states.

This amazing success has come as a pleasant surprise to our Bright Spot Board of Directors, as each Board member has worked double-time to accommodate the increase in numbers.  We will open the New Year with a full schedule of classes in both our Northampton and Greenfield locations.  Folks interested in training for therapy dog work and certification in Bright Spot Therapy Dogs should check our website often for posted class dates.  A word to the wise:  Sign up asap.  Classes fill quickly.

King was surrounded by children, each hugging and petting him, as he entered his first classroom of the morning at the Hilltown Charter School in Haydenville, Massachusetts.  Everyone had a chance to greet King before he headed to the special reading alcove and started listening to his first reader.  He had three readers in one classroom who read storybooks, a chapter book, and a poetry book to him.  Then he moved to the next classroom to listen to three more readers there.

One girl chose a book called The Dog Who Came to Dinner because she felt the dog in the story looked just like King.  He was big and had brown spots.  I think she was right!

King has quickly adapted to his role as a Bright Spot Reading Buddy.  All the children agree that King is a very good listener and enjoys looking at the illustrations in the books.  King’s departure set off another round of hugs and well-wishes.

King’s next stop was the nursing home where the residents now know to expect him right after he finishes his job as a Reading Buddy at Hilltown.  Many of the residents are aware that the school is just up the road about a mile.  Again, lots of happy cheers and hugs given with as much enthusiasm as the school children.  King knows his way around already the nursing home already.  First, a swing through the physical therapy room to engage with those receiving PT, and to spend time with the physical therapists who always love having the dogs drop by.  On over to the large activities room where folks are usually arranged in a semi-cirlce.  Today’s activity was a sing-a-long.  Holiday cheer is definitely in the air.  On to individual rooms, then up to the Alzheimer’s Unit.  Here, each week King’s appearance is a fresh surprise.  Oh, look, a dog!  Boy, he’s a beauty!  To this, King snuggles right up to each one offering compliments and bending low for a kiss.

Last Saturday, I had the great pleasure of accepting a grant from Write Angles for our Reading Buddy Program at the annual Write Angles Conference held at Mount Holyoke College.  Part of each attendee’s conference fee contributes to a fund that supports writing programs in local, community-based organizations.  This year, Bright Spot Therapy Dogs was one of two grantees.  At the start of the afternoon session, I had the opportunity to speak briefly to the group about the Reading Buddy Program.

As a volunteer, non-profit organization, we rely on grants and gifts from donors who believe in the meaningful work our therapy dogs do.  It is especially gratifying to have our special children’s reading program recognized by a group of writers.  With this grant, we are able to continue to grow the Bright Spot Reading Buddy Program, designed to foster a love for reading.  Today we have Reading Buddy Programs in eight elementary schools in Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties.

New Bright Spot Therapy Dog Billy comforts a patient with assistance from her teammate Sister Jeanne.

Moments ago I received this photo from one of our Bright Spot evaluators.  She just finished evaluating our latest new Bright Spot Therapy Dog Team, Sister Jeanne and Billy.  Sister Jeanne is not new to Bright Spot.  She and her little Sheltie named Suzie became certified members of Bright Spot Therapy Dogs in 2008.  Together, Sister Jeanne and Suzie visited several nursing homes and patients on hospice care every week, for a number of years.  Then, sadly, Suzie died.  We all missed Bright Spot Suzie.  She comforted many folks with her visits.  This did not deter Sister Jeanne, who is in her eighties, by the way.  She went right out and adopted Billy, a darling Chihuahua.  For the past two years, Sister Jeanne has been training Billy and preparing her for therapy dog work.

This photo says it all.  This is what our amazing Bright Spot Therapy Dogs do.  And, Billy certainly has what it takes to prove comfort and caring to those who need it most.  We are so happy to have wonderful Sister Jeanne back with us at Bright Spot.  She is an inspiration to ALL.

King has quickly settled into his role as a Bright Spot Therapy Dog.  This boy has a full schedule on Thursdays.  First off, he heads to the Hilltown Charter School in his role as a Bright Spot Reading Buddy for the Yellows and Greens (two different classrooms at the school).  Between the two classes, he’s at the school for an hour and a half.  When finished, King hops in the car and we head over to Linda Manor Extended Care Facility just down the road.

Today was Meet-and-Greet Day for the children in the Yellow and Green classes.  We all sat in a circle together surrounding King.  Many of the children had read to James last year and thought King looked a lot like James.  Each teacher modeled reading to the dog and showing him the pictures, so each child would know what is expected when he/she has reading time with King.  Individual reading sessions will start next week, with three different readers in each class reading one-on-one with King for 15 minutes a piece.  The Meet-and-Greet sessions ended with a chance for each child to pet King’s soft fur.

His segue to the nursing home was seamless, moving from 7 and 8 year-olds to 80 and 90 year-olds.  King adores people of all ages.  The folks at Linda Manor were elated to see him.  While training to become a certified therapy dog, he visited them every day.  He has become their special friend.  It was cloudy and rainy outside.  His visit certainly brightened their day.  I am so happy to be back visiting the folks at Linda Manor again on a regular basis.  This is where I started visits twenty-two years ago with Beatrice and have visited with each of my seven therapy dogs through the years.  I really love watching my dogs bring comfort and caring to these wonderful people.

Lily had a great time today at the Westhampton Elementary School (WES) in her role as a Bright Spot Reading Buddy.  She loved meeting the two nursing students from Greenfield Community College who came to observe this special program in action.  She also loved listening to a variety of books being read to her by the first and second graders.  A book about a spider taught Lily that spiders are good to have around!

One second grader brought in a special book created by her grandma.  It was full of family photos with stories about all the family fun they have together.  Even Lily’s photo was in the book!  Lily was glad she chose that book to read.

Lily loves attention – and she got plenty of it today from people of all ages.  In addition to the nursing students, one of our Bright Spot volunteers in training to become  certified with her dog as a Reading Buddy Team was there to observe Reading Buddy Lily in action, as well.

I love this photo of King taken by the librarian at Westhampton Elementary School (WES) and wanted to share it with my readers.  Last week, I took King over to WES during Lily’s Reading Buddy time to do a practice session with the first and second graders there to prepare King for his role as the Bright Spot Reading Buddy for second and third graders at the Hilltown Charter School in Haydenville, Massachusetts.

King loved meeting the children as a group.  The first and second graders were excited about meeting Lily’s brother.  We talked about the similarities and differences they saw.  Yes – the obvious, King is orange and Lily is blue.  King is much bigger because he’s a boy. But, they did notice something more subtle, as well.  The brother and sister duo have the same facial expression, a sweet and gentle demeanor.  Once the entire class had its meet-and-greet, King and I moved over to the special reading corner of the room where King listened intently as four readers, one-at-a-time, read him stories.

King is as relaxed and happy mingling with young children in a school setting as he is with the the elderly in the nursing home.  On Thursday, King will commence his busy schedule of being Reading Buddy at Hilltown, then heading over to the nursing home (five minutes from the school) to make rounds as the visiting therapy dog.  Stay tuned for updates on King!

On Thursday, King had his first official day visiting the nursing home as a Bright Spot certified therapy dog.  The residents were excited to hear that King had passed his evaluation and took note that he was now wearing the special blue Bright Spot vest.  Since King had been visiting there almost daily for the last month, every one knew him by name.  The activities director will now list King’s visit on the residents’ weekly calendar.  It will be noted that King will be making rounds each Thursday morning.

A nursing student from an area college had contacted me via email  about a course she is taking on mental health.  She told me that she has been a dog lover all her life and wants to learn how she can use therapy dogs in her nursing work.  We subsequently spoke on the phone, having a long discussion about the work I had done with my therapy dogs over the past 22 years.  She asked if she could observe me visiting with the dogs.  I invited her to join the King and I visiting the folks at the nursing home, which she did on Thursday.  This coming Tuesday, she will meet me at Westhampton Elementary School to watch Lily in her role as a Bright Spot Reading Buddy.

I was pleased when she and I spoke in the parking lot after our hour-long visit with the residents at the nursing home.  She said the interaction between King and the residents was amazing.  What she saw, she said, far outweighed her expectations.  I love to speak with college students who recognize the power of the bond between people and dogs and look to employ human-canine interaction in their plans for the future.