Visits
This page is a forum where VIP teams share stories and questions about their visits.
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Recent Comments
Sondra Shelby on Pet V.I.P of Tucson, AZ david on Pet V.I.P of Tucson, AZ louielove on Visits Lynne Brant on Pet V.I.P of Tucson, AZ goodbear on Pet V.I.P of Tucson, AZ
November 20, 2006 at 12:03 am
Last week I was able to visit a Health Center with two current Pet VIPs. The residents recently held a Halloween raffle and nominated the Pet VIP program to benefit from the proceeds. We had a Saint Bernard and a rabbit visit with the residents for about 45 minutes. The residents presented their raffle earnings to me as well. This was my first experience with the Pet VIP program “in the community”. I was nervous because I am not normally very comfortable in hospitals/assisted living environments. However, the experience was really fun! The Pet VIP humans did an amazing job introducing their pets to residents. The residents were overjoyed to visit with the pets and converse about their own pets. They told me they often choose HSSA as a recipient of their fundraisers because of the impact animals have had on their lives!
January 3, 2007 at 4:11 am
Last week my husband and I drove to Nebraska where my family lives. I was able to give Lola her first official VIP visitation in my sisters home with my 4-year-old nephew. My nephew is very scared of dogs, he’s had some scarey encounters with them. before the visit, he didn’t want to pet Lola and “all dogs were scarey” but after the visit, he was asking to brush Lola again and again. I had Lola lay down while he pet and combed her and later we both took Lola on a walk (I had a shorter leash and he held a longer leash) Now, if you ask him whether or not he likes dogs, he’ll say, “I like some dogs. I like dogs like Lola.”
To see photos of Lola go to her website at: http://lola.pup.googlepages.com/home
February 1, 2007 at 4:33 pm
I have been looking into visiting at UMC. I hope to go through their student volenteer orientation on February 8th. I already met with Marycelest in the pediatric ward & She introduced me to the facility and gave me the email adress of one of their regular therapy dog team handlers. I emailed the person she suggested and set up a time to shadow her. The shadowing experience was really good and I recommend that every new VIP shadow an experienced handler. I had this notion in my head that an experienced therapy dog would exhibit such good behavior that my dog would never measure up, but Magic (the name of the dog) was just a dog. He would sometimes do things without waiting for the command and sometimes forget to listen to the command when he knew that he would be rewarded with food- Hey! my dog does that- she’ll go through her whole repitoire of obedience commands without listening to the one you actually gave her because she is so focused on the food! That was great news to me- I don’t have to expect perfection from her- and even if my dog forgets to do something, it doesn’t matter because just bringing a dog into a hospital room changes the atmosphere immediately. Magic was great!
February 1, 2007 at 5:30 pm
well, cody bear and i went on our first visit to our facility! we had to get a badge for there, too, and they put HIS name on it! not mine. so cute.
the staff mobbed him, it was wonderful. he has never gotten so many pets in such a short period of time. they are all really nice there and it was so much fun.
its funny how different it seems when your dog is there with you! you never notice electric sliding doors and elevators and gates that snap shut until you’re there with a dog and you’re thinking: “oh my, hope THAT isn’t scarey to the little guy!” but he was wonderful and he didn’t mind the elevator at all. i can’t wait to go back!
February 16, 2007 at 5:54 pm
another visit with the kids yesterday. it was WONDERFUL. i wish you could have seen cody laying on the floor, surrounded by kids petting him and kissing his face.
only one staff person thought cody was too big for her patient, but everyone else was psyched to have him there. the staff there is really nice and the kids were soooo cute! we’re going to do two thursdays a month. cody was realllly tired afterwards.
well, i hope some more people will share their stories.
take care!
February 23, 2007 at 9:03 pm
Lola and I had our first visit to the hospital. It’s been a couple of weeks since we’ve worked on visiting skills so she was a bit rusty. Lola wasn’t sure why were at the hospital, so she assumed her normal “can’t relax and be pet now, I’m working” attitude. I overcame this by putting a treat in front of her nose every time somebody pet her and letting her have it after she had been pet for a while. We visited kids and their parents- this time, I would say more parents and siblings got to pet Lola than patients. Many patients were sleeping- but Lola sure cheered up some worried visitors! By the end of the visit Lola was slowly figuring out what it was we came to do at the hospital, but this happened literally as we were leaving the building. On the bright side, Lola was extremely well-behaved and had a GREAT time- even though she was a little confused, she was excited, bright-eyed, happy and extremely proud of herself- I’ve only seen her happier after she successfully ran on new agility equipment for the first time. Now she’s exhausted and cuddling up against me on the couch, but she’s earned a good nap.
September 20, 2007 at 9:32 pm
Louie the white poodle went on his first visit! We went to an assisted living facility on the east side of town & Louie met with elder folks. He was SOOOOO excited!
So – we go in & we met with several of the residents in the front lobby area. After meeting each of them & allowing them to pet him, we then went on an excursion around the facility to meet with the residents who were other parts of the facility.
We ended up going to the tv room where a woman was sitting on the couch, watching tv. So I went up to her with Louie and asked if she would like to meet Louie. She smiled & said yes and then began to pet Louie. She started talking about pets she used to have and how cute Louie was, etc. So – the activities director was with me and as we said goodbye and walked away the activities director was in shock.
She told me that this woman never talks, in fact… the director was thinking that maybe she couldn’t talk – as she has never heard this woman utter a word. And then she smiled & said, “This stuff really works!”
So – to make a long story short – Louie did his work for the day! And of course I rewarded him with love & kisses & treats!