‘Dogs read people’ Therapy dogs give hospital workers a break and good vibes

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    HENDERSONVILLE, North Carolina (WLOS) — We all know dogs can make people stop on a dime and feel better about their day. Their superpower does wonders for staff at Pardee Hospital.

“Are we gonna see some people?” Mike Roberts said while making the rounds recently.

He and his wife Diane visit Pardee with their two greyhounds, natural born therapy dogs. After all, essential workers need an essential break sometimes.

“Good morning, good morning!” says Mike, always greeted enthusiastically when he brings a four-legged friend.

“We’re just happy that the staff understands they’re valued,” he said.

“It triggers in people, the response to go home to their pet, and we think that is great,” Diane explained.

Their pet therapy dogs are part of the volunteer rotation.

“My dog loves coming here,” said Ellen Crouch, there with her Havanese named Tobi. “I mean when I get this blue leash out or put on this (name tag), he knows we’re coming to see his friends.”

“When we put her pearls on, she knows she’s going to work,” Lynn Clever says, teaming up with her dog Dani.

Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the therapy dogs still aren’t allowed with patients. But after more than a year, they recently reunited with staff.

“We all come on different days. And so we make sure they have an interaction with animal at some point during the week,” Crouch says,

Last summer, Amy Ross retired as a Pardee clinical lab scientist. She now volunteers with her dog Murphy.

“People need the interaction with dogs and you just see how they light up,” Ross said.

“We give staff members a two or three minute break, that’s all we’re doing. And they get to do something familiar, and easy, and relax,” says Clever.

Much of what the pets bring to the hospital is innate.

“Interacting with a dog, they just… I don’t know if you’ve had this experience or not, but they tell the dogs all sorts of things that they might not have told everybody else,” Crouch said.

A dose of dog can be like a shot in the arm.

“This is heaven, if we could get this everyday that’d be great!” a Pardee staffer said.

“Come back and see us soon,” an employee told Clever.

“We’ll do it!” she replied.

It’s just what the doctor ordered on so many levels.

“Dogs read people, that’s their job on the planet,” Clever says.

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