Pediatric Visits

As I've mentioned before, Jock and I are a therapy dog team. I took him to obedience classes, then he and I passed his AKC Canine Good Citizen test, and then I went through Pet Partners so he and I could be registered as a Therapy Animal Team. We go to a local assisted living/hospice center on a weekly basis to visit with elderly hospice patients. We also go to the University of Iowa College of Law during mid-terms and finals, to provide stress relief to the students (and those faculty and staff members needing some stress relief).

However, I have always wanted to take Jock to visit pediatric patients in the hospital. Since I haven't been able to get to get through to the volunteer program coordinators at the local hospitals, I decided to check out whether I could volunteer at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

Well, I found out that they do take therapy animal teams as volunteers! They have a program called "Furry Friends" where they allow Pet Partners therapy animal teams to visit the kids in the hospital (and they also allow families with dogs to bring their family pets in for visits).

So yesterday, Jock and I went for an initial interview at the University of Iowa Hospital with the team who coordinates the Furry Friends program.

And it went well! Jock was calm and charming. The interviewer and her two assistants loved Jock. They asked me about my experiences with volunteering as a therapy animal team and where else Jock and I have volunteered. They asked how he does with kids of various ages, and other questions of that nature. It definitely felt like a positive experience.

Jock did have a funny reaction in the elevator (his 3rd time ever in an elevator), though - when it started moving and it felt like the floor was dropping out, he splayed out his legs and put his belly to the floor. But he remained calm.

So now our next step is for me to go to a general volunteer orientation (without Jock) to fill out paperwork and get some training specific to this hospital (rules and regulations, and that kind of stuff). Then I'll get a University Hospital volunteer ID, do a shadow visit with a more experienced therapy animal team, and then we'll be assigned a certain area within the children's hospital! Oh, and I need to have Jock's vet fill out the University's vet form, to ensure Jock is healthy.

Oh, it was a good thing is that I left really early, yesterday. I wanted to make sure I got there in time, due to possible winter road conditions. Also, I wanted to be sure I got there in time to find parking (they have multiple parking garages), and find my way to where I was supposed to be in time. The only problem was that the parking garage was mucky from winter road grime, and the outdoor walkway was super cold - Jock started limping as we made our way though the slushy parking garage and slushy outdoor walkways. His feet must have been icy cold. Good thing I had brought a towel, so I could wipe his cold paws off as soon as we got in. He was back to normal once I wiped off the cold slush off his cold feet.

Jock was pooped out by the time we got home.