August 26 is National Dog Day! To celebrate, Polly Baird from the New York Therapy Animals organization and her dog Tommy joined Cheddar News to talk about the benefits of therapy animals.

Cheddar's News Wrap

Celebrating National Dog Day With a Very Special Guest

Welcome back to Chester's news wrap. When you think of therapeutic outlets, you might think of taking a walk in the park, journaling or even going to an actual therapist. But there is also the option of a therapy animal and for today's national Dog day, we're shining a light on one organization whose mission is to assist the community with our furry friends. The new york therapy animals organization is dedicated to bringing animal resources to human needs in health care as well as Children in schools and libraries. And joining me now is Polly baird, new york therapy animals, licensed therapy dog trainer and evaluator with her therapy dog Tommy. So nice to have you guys here. Tommy is absolutely adorable. So can you tell me what the origins of this organization are? Absolutely. So Tommy and I are a therapy dog team. Tommy is a rough collie and we volunteered together both ends of the leash, the dog and the huge and we like to give back to our community with many different programs and all different facilities including the read program which is where Children work on loving reading and becoming better readers as Tommy is a reading education assistance dog. Okay, that sounds interesting. Tell me a little bit more about that. How is Tommy assisting in literacy here? Well, Tommy prefers books on dogs, especially lassie. I don't know if anyone knows class anymore, but last used to be very popular. It was a rough collie Tommy's a rough collie. Yes, I know sit and Children actually really love to read to dogs as you can imagine. And so their reading levels improve. They read to Tommy one day a week for a year and it's an amazing thing to witness because they develop a relationship with Tommy. They learn to love Tommy and just to love reading as well and they become better readers as a result of the program. You mentioned this reading program. What other ways does your organization help assist the community with animals? Well, we visit nursing homes schools, we do visits with colleges to help students prepare before finals. We visit hospitals. We also do a lot of office visits. We work on zoom. Now we do a lot of fun visits on zoom to help people stay engaged both in school and at work. Well, I can tell you that everyone here at better. Would love a visit from Tommy once in a while. Tommy likes the camera. Now it's National Dog Day. So let's talk about dogs what makes them specifically really great therapy animals. Well, dogs bring a really unique as you can see sort of novelty to really any space and they're a great icebreaker. So they allow people to communicate and talk about a dog in their life or a dog breed that they love. And so they're just a really special way that we can give back and connect with each other in a way that's just You can't even explain really the impact that dogs can have on our lives. They lower blood pressure and make us less stressed and less depressed and connect with each other in a really special way. Now we have the dog, the celebrity himself with us today. So let's talk a little bit about Tommy and his journey. How did you and Tommy and Tommy specifically become a therapy dog? Well, I'm also a therapy dog trainer and the processes that the dogs have to be at least 17 months old in order to participate. Uh that's also so that you have a relationship with the dog. Tommy is my dog. He lives on my couch at home and sleeps in my bed and is, we have a very strong relationship in order to become a therapy dog, dogs also have to know some basic skills like sit and stay and down come. They have to be housebroken for example. And then we teach them how to interact in many different spaces with different populations, how to work around medical equipment, how to engage with people in all different situations, young people, older people so that they're very comfortable and happy as well. It's important that the dog be reliable and really enjoy the work. So you mentioned a couple of the steps to kind of getting your dog up to speed. But I want to know what the process is like for people who might Be interested. Can just anyone bring their dog in. What if you don't have a dog, can you still sign up. There's definitely ways to be a volunteer even without a dog, but if you do have a dog and you're interested, your dog needs to be at least 17 months old. They need to know those basic commands, then you participate in a one all day workshop, you have a six week class and then there's an evaluation that you must pass as well in order to become an insured and certified therapy dog team. And for someone who maybe doesn't have the resources of the time to do this themselves, What are some other ways the community can support your organization? Well, definitely check us out on social media and instagram and support our dogs and learn more about therapy dogs. This is a very unique way to give back to your community that is really like no other way of volunteering. Well, paulie, I'm so glad that you joined us today and brought Tommy here with you. Thank you so much for your time today. We all enjoyed having you. That's probably baird new york therapy animals, licensed therapy dog trainer and evaluator with of course or therapy dog Tommy. Now, for more information on the new york therapy animals organization, you can scan the QR code right now on your screen