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Those of us with dogs at home know the joy their unconditional love brings — wagging tails, slobbery kisses, and the excitement exuded when we open the door after a long day of work or errands add a bit of happiness to our days.
Studies suggest that being in the presence of animals can lower blood pressure, decrease stress, and help with alleviating depression and anxiety, in addition to increasing empathy and teaching responsibility. But the benefits can’t always be proven with stats or hard data. Some must be experienced.
“We call them special moments,” says Mary Ehrhart, executive director of Mid South Therapy Dogs & Friends, a nonprofit organization that trains teams to provide animal-assisted interactions at local medical facilities, schools, and more. The Germantown-based organization has offered its services to the community since 1999. A big part of what the group does is bring therapy animals to patients, including moms in the Baptist Women’s Hospital antepartum unit, pediatric patients in the emergency department and inpatient unit at the Spence and Becky Wilson Baptist Children’s Hospital, and residents of Baptist Reynolds Hospice House and their families.
“When the therapy dog enters the room, the whole energy changes,” Ehrhart says. “Everybody puts a smile on their face. They weren't expecting to see a dog. Or the dog reminds them of their dog. [Older patients] can kind of go back in time and talk about something that was very enjoyable to them, the animals that they had in their lives. It gives them all a little bit of a respite from what they've been dealing with — the poking, the prodding, and everything else.”
The range of people the group sees includes those who are wheelchair-bound, awaiting transplants, in grief camp, or otherwise in the midst of tragic situations.
“It's unbelievable what it does to people and how it touches them,” Ehrhart says. She recalls a little boy they visited at Lakeside. “He was remanded to the state, and we went out on a Saturday afternoon and walked with the kids around the lake. And he just started crying, just sobbing. And I said, ‘Gosh, what's wrong?’ And he said, ‘Well, this is the best thing in my life.’”
Having a dog by your side can transform your day in ways that sometimes aren’t able to be verbalized. “It doesn't matter if, like at Lakeside, you're wearing cardboard clothing because you came out of the home with nothing but what they gave you when you got there,” says Ehrhart. “The dog doesn't judge you. If you're having a bad time, the dog will listen to you and doesn't come with any predisposed, ‘I want you to do this.’ But instead, ‘I'll just meet you where you are. You tell me about your day.’”
For those in the hospital, awaiting surgery, or in rehabilitation, a visit from a dog can add a bit of normalcy to their day, and bring joy to those who may be lonely or scared.
“Not all medicine comes in a bottle. The unconditional love that the dog gives is what some of the doctors order, so to speak,” says Ehrhart. “You never know where you'll reach somebody. You just have to be there. And the animals have an instinct about it. They just know who needs them at that particular time, and what they do need.”
The Mid South Therapy Dogs & Friends team also includes a donkey and a llama that visit groups in the region.
The organization also provides a R.E.A.D. (Reading Education Assistance Dogs) program, in which reluctant readers in local schools are paired with a dog for one-on-one reading sessions. Look for a story on this program in a future issue of Memphis Parent.