This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Therapy Dogs and Service Dogs Are Angels Here on Earth

Therapy Dogs and Service Dog help people in so many different ways.

Have you heard about therapy dogs and service dogs? They both help people in so many different ways.

Therapy dogs work at hospitals, nursing homes and even at public libraries with children.

Service dogs help people with handicaps in their everyday lives, guiding them through busy streets, picking things up for them, turning on lights, bringing the phone and even alerting to an oncoming seizure in some cases.

Find out what's happening in Elmhurstwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

A lot of training goes into the "making" of one of these wonderful animals. First and foremost, they must have a calm and gentle personality and get along with other dogs and people. Besides the normal obedience classes, they have to pass other tests to assure they are able to perform the tasks asked of them. 

Let’s talk about therapy dogs today. 

Find out what's happening in Elmhurstwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Our dog Harley is a therapy dog and he is registered with Delta Society, one of the groups you can go through, and they register all sorts of animals from dogs and cats to horses and bunnies to do therapy work.

Harley is a golden retriever/black lab mix.  Ever since Harley was a pup, I had a feeling he would be a great therapy dog, and boy he sure has proven me right! At one and a half years of age he passed his Delta Society test and started his career.

He now works once a week, every Friday, at Elmhurst Hospital, visiting patients in the TCC unit on the fourth floor. Part of his training was to learn how to work around walkers and wheel chairs, so visiting this unit doesn’t faze him at all. The patients love it, and even some of the doctors and nurses come to see him. 

Once a month we visit the Clarendon Hills Public Library, where he participates in the READ program with area children. READ stands for Reading Education Assistance Dogs. The children select stories they think he will like! It is so cute to see them reading about Ike the Detective Dog looking for missing cats and Scaredy the Squirrel, among others. 

Last October, on Make a Difference Day visiting the residents there. So many made comments about how much they missed the dogs they used to have and how it was so wonderful to see and pet a dog again.

He has also helped work in a program that the State Police offer called ILCHIP. It is an identification program for children.  They do finger printing, DNA samples, weighing, height and also a 30 second video of the child.  All of this so that in the event of a missing child the parents have this package to give to the police. Some of the kids are very bashful and shy around strangers, so we thought, why not bring Harley to do what he is trained for—interacting with people and bringing comfort. The kids really responded to having him there and he made their time very enjoyable. 

It’s amazing to me when I think about how Harley was found as a stray way down in Quincy, Illinois, back in June 2009. He was only days away from being put down when we adopted him, the day before Father’s Day 2009, through Great Lakes Lab Rescue, which is a rescue group based right here in Elmhurst. If not for the circumstances working out as they did, this beautiful boy would not be bringing smiles to all these people that he now does. 

Every time I put his green Delta Society vest on him, he knows he is going to go see some old friends and make some new ones. 

If your dog has a calm and friendly personality, consider training him/her to be a therapy dog. You will both love it and the people you meet will love it too.

You can visit Harley and be his friend any time on his Facebook page, Harley the Rescue Dog.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?