In our rescue we have a list of "friends" people who are on a list and we send them newsletters etc.. anyway I had a little card from a Lady i had written to for years just little notes to thank her for donations etc.. anyway the card said she had been quite ill and had to give her house up and go into a nursing home as she had cancer and was on chemo.Anyway I wrote back to her but also phoned the home to see if I could visit and if I could take one of the dogs,the manager thought it was a great idea to take a dog and to be honest I really planned on taking Minnie but we lost her some weeks ago anyway yesterday I set off with mattie and she is ten soon and very arthritic I wondered how she would cope but she was lovely it helped that they had a ramp leading up to the house and she trundled up there and said hello to everyone the residents loved her and all wanted to say hello :) I let her off the lead and she just went to different people sitting there for a stroke and when she spied a lady with food well it was love at first site.
Wyn the lady I went to see cameback from having treatment and was really happy I had gone to see her with mattie.Then it was teatime so we came home.
I was really proud of Mattie and had a nice little glow inside knowing she had made these people happy :) in one room they had a big stuffed labrador and one lady told me they took turns to cuddle it.

Arrrrrr that is really nice well done :-)

Hiya - that was a lovely thing to do and very kind of you to think of others :) It's amazing the calming influence some dogs have - Just a little cuddle or clap and the people feel a zillion times better - Well Done You!
Sharon
X

Aww thats lovely :)

How lovely. When I worked as a mental nurse I noticed how calming dogs can be and very comforting to those who had to give up their own dogs to go into care. We had to bring dogs up the back stair in one place as Matron worried about germs, but eventually she came round and allowed the nursing home to have its own dog,:)

Its nice when nursing homes have pets as that must be the saddest thing when people give their animals up Wyn who i visited yesterday had to give up her two cats .
The home my Mother was in had cats and the people loved them,we have also placed older labs in nursing homes and also in a school for special children who didnt have a home with parents and it works very well.

We also had fish, budgies and rabbits in one ward for very infirm elderly patients and it seemed to stimulate the senses in a good way and to be calming as well. The only problem is getting continuity and consistency of feeding/cleaning etc - the dog got fat at one stage because every shift fed her and her exercise was limited by the nurses ability to take patients out into the garden. A chart for the dog sorted it.

what a lovely thing to do. It is amazing the joy spending time with animals can bring to people.

How are PAT dogs selected? Common sense tells me they need to have good manners, but do they also need to be a certain age?

they may have a wesite its Pets as theraphy

[link http://www.petsastherapy.org]Pets As Therapy[link]

Hi guys- My working Lab, Isla is a registered PAT dog. Every dog is individually assessed for temperament by a PAT dog assessor before you can register them. They can be any age, any breed, either sex as long as they have reliable temperaments. When you have been assessed, you have to send a copy of your annual vaccination certificate as well as 2 references. The temperament test includes things like, how your dog responds to meeting a stranger, being handled by a stranger, a noise reaction test (the assessor drops something on the floor to make a big clang to see what the dog does) and a general check that you can handle your dog and know if its getting stressed out. You can also use rescue dogs as long as you've owned them for a particular period of time (I think its 6 months-I could be wrong). Hope this helps-the website is very informative too.
Ali xx

The father of our pups is a PAT dog, he really is wonderful. One of the pups has also started being taken around hospitals by her new family, and she is loving it! I'd like to do it with ours, once I retire in 18 months!

When I was breeding persian cats, on a couple of occasions, I rehomed "retired" cats into retirement homes, where they were absolutely spoiled to death!

Margot

what a beautiful story..i love these happy, unselfish tale's. Good for you Mattie :)

My old girl Dilita is a PAT dog but it is not easy finding placements. I've been waiting to go to our local hospital for nearly a year now and Dilita wil be 12 in January so it's a long wait!!! Hopefull we'll have some good news by the end of September. I'm also thinking of having my 6 mth old tested as I think he wd. be ideal too.