[nagdu] Dog Therapy and Paws that Heal

Tamara Smith-Kinney tamara.8024 at comcast.net
Tue Feb 10 19:53:46 UTC 2009 

Haben,

Welcome, fellow Portlander!  Are you a native, or are you only here for
school?

We do have a number of programs around here, as well as a VA hospital with
some satellite facilities.  And that's the limit of my information on the
subject.  Checking it all out is on my to-do list, but my greater priorities
are going to take another couple of months (or more) to get checked off.  My
roomie is a vet, and he wants to be involved there too and knows many of the
people, so my first inquiries will be into whether there is a program
similar to Linda's there.  If not, I'm vaguely considering getting something
like that rolling.  We'll see.

Meanwhile, I would love to hear what you find out!

Tami Smith-Kinney

-----Original Message-----
From: nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nagdu-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf
Of Haben Girma
Sent: Monday, February 09, 2009 7:03 PM
To: NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users
Subject: [nagdu] Dog Therapy and Paws that Heal

Linda, I am absolutely intrigued! That is such a lovely program! I 
really hope I can find something like that in the Portland, Oregon area. 
I am a college student currently taking an anthropology class that 
requires students to go out and do fieldwork. I am considering doing 
something with Guide Dogs for the Blind in Boring, Oregon. Right now I'm 
going to search the Internet for a dog therapy program in Portland. 
Thanks for sharing LInda!

Haben

lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com wrote:
> Hi Haben,
> There is no web page for Paws That Heal.  We are a 3 year old program 
> that is run out of the Health & Wellness Department for the Naval 
> Medical Center of San Diego.  The program manager is their Diabetes 
> Instructor. She is visually impaired with a guide dog and she started 
> the program after an encounter in the elevator with a Wounded Warrior 
> in her building.  The servicemember had a profound stutter and it took 
> him five minutes to stutter out, "May I pet your dog?"  My friend - 
> the instructor - allowed him to pet her dog and the stutter went away 
> just like that!  He then shared his war experiences with her - the 
> servicemember was wounded in Iraq.
>
> Anyway, the Diabetes instructor happens to have been a friend of mine 
> for years.  She also knows several of the other guide dog users in the 
> San Diego area who already had a program with the local blind center 
> where we bring our dogs to an outdoor, fenced in dog park to allow the 
> guide dogs play time together.  We had exclusive use of one of the 
> fenced in areas for two hours once a month.  The friend of mine worked 
> with us and her chain of command at the hospital and permission was 
> granted to bring several wounded servicemembers to the park to play 
> with our dogs - and Paws That Heal was born.  We also have a portion 
> of the program where we go to the locked mental health ward to work 
> with the servicemembers with PTSD and depression. More great stuff 
> happened as well.
>
> I do have a flyer for the program but it is in a PDF file and turned 
> sideways - don't know if a screen reader can desipher it!
>
> The program manager has written to Marion Gwizdala and he in turn had 
> her contact Mike Hingson about the program. We are looking for some 
> new teams to work with us who live in the San Diego area.  The Paws 
> program happens three times a month at the hospital so we need people 
> who can get there, can commit the time, and pass the interviewing 
> process - both human and dog.
>
> I forgot, where do you live?
>
> HTH
>
> Linda and Landon
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Haben Girma" <habnkid at aol.com>
> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2009 1:13 AM
> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Welcome Haben
>
>
>> Linda, those volunteer programs sound awesome! Would you send me the 
>> web address for Paws that Heal? I'd love to read more about it.
>>
>> thanks,
>> Haben
>>
>> lindagwizdak at peoplepc.com wrote:
>>> Welcome to the list, Haben.
>>>
>>> I'm Linda and I live in San Diego - soon to move to Vermont.  Landon 
>>> is my 3 year old red Lab/Golden cross from The Seeing Eye.  I got 
>>> him in the October 2007 class. I am 58 years young and have not had 
>>> a paid job in eons. I've done lots of volunteer jobs to get 
>>> experience to put on a resume!  Right now, Landon and I work at two 
>>> pet therapy programs.  One for the Humane Society where we visit 
>>> various facilities for disabled kids and adults. Landon is certified 
>>> by the AKC's Canine Good Citizenship Test.  Landon is their 
>>> program's first actual working assistance dog they've had.  Lots of 
>>> guide dog and service dog pups, but we are their first working team 
>>> to be in the program.  The other one is a program called Paws That 
>>> Heal that is at the Naval Medical Center of SD.  Both Landon and I 
>>> had to pass a series of interviews for this.  We do a combo pet 
>>> therapy, socialization, and reintegration work with our Wounded 
>>> Warriors from Iraq and Afghanistan.  We work mainly with the 
>>> patients on the mental health ward.
>>>
>>> Haben, you'll enjoy this list - it's alot of fun.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>>
>>> Linda and Landon
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Haben Girma" <habnkid at aol.com>
>>> To: "NAGDU Mailing List,the National Association of Guide Dog Users" 
>>> <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
>>> Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 9:27 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [nagdu] Welcome Haben
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Mardi, thanks for the explanations. I love the names of your 
>>>> dogs. I actually don't have a dog, I'm in the application process 
>>>> for a Seeing Eye dog right now. So, I'm patiently waiting to learn 
>>>> my fate.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Haben
>>>>
>>>> Mardi Hadfield wrote:
>>>>>  Hi every one,     Welcome Haben.   No, I don't live in Alaska.  
>>>>> My Huskies
>>>>> are "south paws"  We live in Tucson, Arizona.  When I first needed 
>>>>> a guide
>>>>> dog, I was told that the schools did not train for wheelchair 
>>>>> users.Since I
>>>>> already had a service dog, who was a husky, I hired a trainer to 
>>>>> help me
>>>>> train Lily  to guide me. I had to retire her at age 8 as she had 
>>>>> health
>>>>> issues and she died month later, leaving me with out a guide dog.  
>>>>> I tried
>>>>> out a border collie and he did not work out as he had been abused 
>>>>> before I
>>>>> got him and he could not handle being out in public. Then I got 
>>>>> another
>>>>> husky, Nala,who was a fantastic guide. She will soon be 10 years 
>>>>> old and has
>>>>> health issues now.She has guided me for 8 years and it has been 
>>>>> hard to
>>>>> retire her as she does not want to retire. When she sees me 
>>>>> getting ready to
>>>>> go out, she brings me her harness and get all excited. She started 
>>>>> picking
>>>>> fights with Wanagi, the dog that I was training to take over for 
>>>>> Nala. She
>>>>> is a lot happier now that she is working again part time. Wanagi 
>>>>> came up
>>>>> lame with a hip problem, so she was  career changed. I am keeping 
>>>>> her as a
>>>>> pet. I have been looking for a dog to take over as my new guide 
>>>>> for over 10
>>>>> months. I think I have finally found a dog.I would love to get a 
>>>>> dog from
>>>>> Fidelco,but when I asked about it ,I was told that they don't 
>>>>> train for
>>>>> wheelchair users.I would have to pay my way to and from South 
>>>>> Eastern Guide
>>>>> Dogs, which I could not afford, and really can't be away that 
>>>>> long. Guide
>>>>> Dogs for the Blind would take me ,but again, I can't be away  from 
>>>>> my home
>>>>> and business that long. So I guess I will just continue to train 
>>>>> my own
>>>>> guides with the help of my trainer.  Haben, do you have a guide 
>>>>> dog? If so ,
>>>>> what breed is it? I love hearing from others and about their dogs. 
>>>>> Have a
>>>>> great day,  Mardi and Nala,semi-retired, and Shaman , possible 
>>>>> trainee.
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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