A Tale Of Two Dogs
This is Lance
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Well, "gosh darn it" (as nice people say) Lance and Zion may not be doppelgangers, but they are surely look-a-likes.
I want these good and gracious boys to meet one day!
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The (weekly) Sarasota Observer recently had an article about the H.S.S.C therapy dog programme (you can read extracts below) a lot of which is about Lance and Nan.
Everything she says about Lance is also true of Zion.
This is just so cool.
Yes, I want these good and gracious boys to meet one day!
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EXTRACTED FROM THE SARASOTA OBSERVER
Lance is pictured here with his owner Nan Miller. He is a Great Pyrenees mix. He is a Therapy Dog working with the Humane Society of Sarasota County.
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Zion is pictured here with a student at New College, Sarasota, FL. He is a Great Pyrenees mix. He is a Therapy Dog working with the Humane Society of Sarasota County.
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Well, "gosh darn it" (as nice people say) Lance and Zion may not be doppelgangers, but they are surely look-a-likes.
I want these good and gracious boys to meet one day!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The (weekly) Sarasota Observer recently had an article about the H.S.S.C therapy dog programme (you can read extracts below) a lot of which is about Lance and Nan.
Everything she says about Lance is also true of Zion.
This is just so cool.
Yes, I want these good and gracious boys to meet one day!
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EXTRACTED FROM THE SARASOTA OBSERVER
FROM THE SARASOTA OBSERVER
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Each
morning, he wakes up, eats his breakfast, puts on his tie and goes to work.
The
catch? This employee has four legs and fur.
Three
to four times a week, Lance dons one of his 10 ties and, with his human, Nan
Miller, in tow, heads out to provide comfort and affection to various groups
throughout Sarasota County.
“My dear friend calls him a four-legged
Xanax,” Miller said. “People will just pet him and say he exudes calming
energy. I don’t know what it is, but he just calms people down.”
The
Great Pyrenees mix is one of the nearly 100 pet therapy dogs in the Humane
Society of Sarasota County pet therapy program.
The
program was revamped three years ago, and since then, Ginny Armington, the HSSC
community outreach coordinator, said it has grown exponentially.
Volunteers
regularly visit more than 50 organizations throughout the Sarasota community,
such as senior facilities, schools, hospitals and veterans gatherings. While at
the various locations, the dogs provide comfort and joy to those in need.
“Because
we’re a nonprofit, it’s the community that supports us,” Armington said. “We
don’t get any other funds. It’s just everybody making donations. So this is our
way of giving back to the community.”
Because
the program is volunteer-based, around 10 dogs will typically go to any given
event, Armington said. However, if a tragedy occurs, such as the death of a
student, that number will usually double.
Miller
said she enjoys going to the events with Lance because she sees the effect he
has on people.
Miller says of Lance “there’s just something
about his soul, and that’s the way it is with a lot of these dogs,” she said.
“They just have a gentleness, a kindness, an understanding when somebody needs
them.”
Miller recalled a visit
she and Lance made to an assisted living facility. She approached a woman in a
wheelchair and asked if she liked dogs. The woman said yes, and the two began
to chat.
On her way out, an
employee approached Miller and said, “I just want you to know she’s never
spoken before.”
“It was
absolutely amazing,” Miller said. “[These dogs] are able to dig down into
somebody’s deepest parts of their hearts, of their memories.”
While the dogs provide
emotional support, they also provide the HSSC an opportunity to educate the
public. Armington said the HSSC uses the pet therapy dogs to teach people best
pet practices and how to be more humane with animals.
“With kids, some of them
don’t learn compassion or empathy, and the animals are a great way to help
teach them that,” she said. “When I take pet therapy teams with me, that
interaction with the dogs, to me, is what creates empathy and kindness.”
But humans aren’t the
only ones getting something out of the program. Armington said all the pet therapy
dogs enjoy having a job.
“The dogs have fun,” she
said. “A lot of dogs need a job or a purpose. The minute they see their human
put on an HSSC polo, they get excited because they know they’re going to work.”
Any dog can become a pet
therapy dog, Armington said, so long as they’re willing to work. To become a
therapy dog, the dog and a human volunteer will go through a four-week training
course with HSSC.
If the dog shows a
willingness to work along with what Armington calls “the right stuff,” then the
dog will be certified and can begin volunteering.
What is the right stuff?
Like Lance’s calm demeanor, it’s the characteristics that dogs naturally
posses, Armington said.
“People say all the time, ‘What did you do to
train him?’” Miller said. “I did nothing. It was just born in him. He is this
way.”
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