Take One Dog and Call me in the Morning: Amazing Therapy Dogs: Prescription for Healing

 

OVERVIEW

The idea of animals as therapists is not new. The ancient Greeks believed that canines could cure illness and kept them in their temples as healers. Today we watch in awe as the cardio-vascular monitor shows a drop in blood pressure and heart rate within minutes of the therapy dog settling on the patient’s bed. We listen as an elderly Alzheimer gentleman who has forgotten the names of his children, remembers his beloved childhood pets.

  “Take One Dog and Call Me in the Morning” proposes that therapy dogs can be the perfect intervention for detection and treatment of physical, neurological and psychiatric disorders. They can be more astute and more therapeutic than teams of physicians, therapists and psychiatrists, as a Golden Retriever, without any cues, approaches a suicidal adolescent in need of her calm demeanor and a comatose child awakens after a close encounter with a Standard Poodle.

This book highlights the transformational powers of the human-animal bond, from the narrator’s childhood longings for a puppy to her grown-up search for a companion dog that is destined to change many lives, including her own. It features Holly Go Lightly, Golden Retriever and certified therapy dog as she helps launch UCLA’s People-Animal Connection program. She is the first canine permitted inside the confidential Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital.where she uses her instincts to identify and reach out to distressed patients.  

It is not surprising that therapy dogs do more than lower heart rate and blood pressure. The extraordinary power of the canine nose enables them to perceive states of depression, anxiety, agitation, and euphoria through being sensitive to chemical changes in the body.  They anticipate crisis the same way medical-alert dogs predict seizure and heart attack, detect cancer and warn diabetics of low blood sugar. They smell it! 

While other books in this genre rely on heart-warming anecdotes, this insightful narration offers strategies for success.  This book offers guidance to all health care professionals, from nurses and doctors providing patient care with a canine on the team, to psycho-therapists, counselors, psychiatrists, and social workers using a four footed “co-therapist” in their sessions. Occupational, recreational, and speech therapists can add dog obedience training to their rehab, while physical therapists can motivate the injured to move painful limbs in order to touch a receptive animal.

“Take One Dog”– will be of value in a variety of settings, from hospitals, clinics, and hospice to correctional facilities where inmates train homeless dogs.  It will benefit special schools and rehab programs where emotionally impaired youth are teamed with hard to adopt shelter animals, thereby saving the dog’s life and possibly the child’s.

.And just in case anyone might think that Holly is unique or ‘gifted’, included are dramatic stories involving other therapy dogs, who like Holly, have come bearing astounding gifts as they remind us of our connection to nature, to ourselves and to each other. Can every dog in every household become a therapy dog?  A working team requires a calm and assertive human leader of a relaxed and confident canine. Holly’s ultimate success as a therapy dog evolves from this balanced relationship with her human partner, who in the process learns how to take charge of her dog and of her life.

 

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