4th Therapy Visit

Red and I went on our 4th therapy visit today. It's been almost 3 months since our last one, due to the holidays, my busy schedule, and his unfortunate habit of lacerating a paw pad every time we have a visit scheduled...

I told the facility I'd be there between 10:00-10:30am. We usually go in the afternoon, but the residents usually have leftovers from lunch sitting out, and they want to feed the dog, or else Red is too preoccupied with trying to get to the food to pay any attention to them at all. So I decided to go BEFORE lunch this time.

But this meant I had to get up early enough to take Red for a walk beforehand (to burn off excess energy), get myself showered and ready, and leave. I got up at 8:00am, fed the animals, wrapped up Red's hock so he doesn't reopen the cut on his hock, then bundled up and went for a 45 minute off-leash run. It was snowing so it was a pretty walk through the woods. I am careful about not letting Red pounce of brush piles now so he doesn't cut a foot again. After the walk, I showered, got Red's therapy martingale collar, short leash, bandana, and the paperwork together, and then we were on our way.

I wasn't sure how Red was going to be since its been so long since we were there last. We was pulling like mad in the parking lot and was all over the place when we walked through the doors. One nurse came around the desk, bent over to pet him, and he sort of when up on his hind legs in an effort to lick her face. oh geez... Red is not a jumper, but he has been known to try to poke/lick a face that his bent over to him. I put him in a down/stay while I removed my coat and tucked it away in one of the offices with my purse. At least he held the down/stay...

The director came around and told us to go ahead and make the rounds. Sometimes she has someone accompany us, and sometimes we're just allowed to go do our own thing. I like having the freedom to do our own thing better.

I started off just doing a few laps up and down the halls to get him reacquainted with the place and smells. We stopped and talked to a few nurses, and a couple residents who were hanging out in the hallways. Red was still on the hyper side and I had to firmly order him to sit and held his head still while people petted him.

We went to the dining area where there were abotu 15 residents at tables listening to a speaker's presentation. We stopped in the doorway for a moment, and the speaker saw us and invited us inside to let everyone pet the dog. Red and I went around the room, letting people pet him, and answering questions about him. Everyone wanted him to "shake", and I swear he was sick of shaking by the time we left, LOL! He was beginning to calm down now, but still very interested in sniffing for tidbits on the floor. I got to the front of the room and thanked the speaker for letting us interrupt him, and then we left to go visit individual rooms.

When we visit rooms, I peek in first and don't disturb people who appear to be sleeping. But for the ones who were awake, I politely ask at the door if they like dogs. If yes, I ask if they want to pet Red. Most did this time - only a few said they either didn't like dogs, or were afraid of them. But even one lady who said she was afraid of dogs invited us into her room, and I sat and talked with her about several minutes. She didn't ever pet Red, but I still think she liked my company.

Red was much calmer by this point. He'd just stand next to me, doing the doberlean, and wait for us to go to the next room. And once he was calmer, he was more willing to allow people to pat his head and neck without turning to sniff them.

The very last person we visited was a man who was very mentally handicapped who I saw laying on his bed, but he looked like he was awake. He couldn't really talk, but he looked like he was interested in Red, so I walked Red over to his bed, and the man stuck his hands out to pet him, and Red began licking his hands. Then he was able to sort of pat him - it was more just having his hands on him than a normal petting motion, but the man really seemed to enjoy it. He started to play with Red with his hands and Red kept licking his hands and putting the mans hands in his mouth, but being gentle the whole time. I made out one word the man said - "Doberman". I couldn't believe it - here's this mentally handicapped man who can't sit up, or even string words into a coherent sentence, but he knew Red was a Doberman, even without him being black. I was amazed. He played with Red with his hands for a few more minutes, then it was time to go.

It took me a lap or two to figure out how to get back to the entrance - I swear that place is like a maze. We finally found it, and put Red in another down/stay while I put on my coat and had the head nurse sign my therapy visit form. Then it was back to the car to give a jackpot and go back home.

We were there about about 50 minutes this time. I'm finding that it takes awhile for Red to calm down and get to the point that he's not hyper all over the place, but once he gets to that point, the visits are much nicer. I'm going to make a point to do this once a month, maybe twice a month depending on my schedule.