The Best Therapy: Canine Companions
“Oh, the dogs are here!”
When Suzanne Giebel, RN, takes her therapy dog, Nugget, to visit patients at a nursing home in Mashpee, the excitement in the air is paws-itively palpable.
“As soon as we walk into the lobby, people are just so happy to see the dogs,” says Giebel.
Giebel works as a clinical team manager at the Visiting Nurse Association and volunteers with the nonprofit organization CAP (Companion Animal Program). One Saturday a month, Giebel and Nugget (along with other therapy dogs) visit Laurentide, an assisted living facility in Mashpee Commons. Nugget sports a red handkerchief and Giebel wears a blue T-shirt with the words CAP on the front so they are easy to identify. Although Covid paused therapy dog visits, the program is slowly making a comeback.
A couple of years ago, Giebel met a patient who trained therapy dogs, and it sparked her interest. Before she knew it, Giebel was enrolled in a 12-week therapy dog certification program for her Welsh corgi, now two years old. The training involves basic obedience training, such as learning to “leave it,” which is very handy because you don’t want your dog to accidentally swallow a pill that might be on the floor, she explains.
Nugget provides comfort, affection and loving support to patients during the hour-long visit at Laurentide. “Everybody wants to talk about the dog they had when they were a kid,” says Giebel, who also has two other dogs at home—a one-year old black Lab and a 13-year-old Cavalier King Charles spaniel. “You hear so many stories and people just go back to their childhoods.
“My dogs make me so happy and I’m just glad I can share the love.”
