arasara
Well-known member
Well, last night was the day that it started.. 
At 6PM I met a lady by the name of Helen at a place full of senior citizens affected by Alzheimer's at an assisted living facility.
Kosmo was so excited to get in the door, he would barely listen to me when I told him not to pull. I have never seen him behave like that except for when we're going to class.
The first man we met was sitting in a green shirt in a wheelchair. I held Kosmo in my arms while he was petting him. After a few seconds, the man got brave and decided to ask for a kiss. He was leaning in for a kiss from my big baby boy. :lotsaluv: Although kosmo didn't kiss him, he did touch his nose to this man's face and to the man, that was a victory. He then asked where he was and how to get out. I told him to follow the hallway or ask the nurse and he sat there stunned looking at me and said "I don't know you but you're not making any sense to me. It just doesn't make any sense." It was sad.
After this, we continued to the nurses station. While we were speaking with the nurse, my little calm boy spotted a woman with a walker and did his howling bark at her. She looked as if she was about to cry. "He doesn't like me," she said as she turned around to walk away. I quickly picked Kosmo back up and explained to her that he'd just never seen a walker before and he was probably a bit frightened. He then made it up to her by kissing her hand.
Moving forward, we stopped by every resident's room. We would knock on the door, and ask if they wanted to see a little dog. Every resident wanted to see Kosmo except for 1 lady and 1 couple. They just weren't too big into dogs.
It was amazing to me to see how much joy and love that Kosmo had brought these residents in their short time. They would smile, talk baby talk, and every single one of them asked to feed him a treat. Kosmo would eat the treat, and then lick their hands. He seemed to know that they were sick, but that just meant that he needed to work extra hard to make them feel better.
One resident in particular really really liked him. She kept talking baby talk to him as he did the "Cavalier head tilt" from side to side. She then decided to scratch his neck and he held it up and let out a loud groan. I had to chuckle. He was really enjoying himself. :lol:
In all, our experience was amazing. I have not been assigned to a permanent ward yet, but my hope is that we will see ours next week. I've been given the option of either taking the ward where people are mostly coherent but not quite there, or a locked down facility where the residents are mostly out of it. I don't know which one we'll take. I would like to see people that will remember us, but I know that Kosmo is very gentle and will be OK with even the most frail of residents.
Upon exiting the facility, we ran into the resident cat. He's never seen a cat before and he barked like he wanted to kill it! I was so embarassed. The cat hissed back at him and he hid under my legs like a little wuss.. LOL I hope in the weeks to come that he learns to love and accept the cat.
I think this will be great work for us and I thought it was absolutely wonderful to be able to make so many people happy in such a short amount of time. It's true what they say - dogs really are like therapy.
If any of you are thinking about getting into this kind of work, I would say go for it!! It really seems like it's going to be very rewarding
At 6PM I met a lady by the name of Helen at a place full of senior citizens affected by Alzheimer's at an assisted living facility.
Kosmo was so excited to get in the door, he would barely listen to me when I told him not to pull. I have never seen him behave like that except for when we're going to class.
The first man we met was sitting in a green shirt in a wheelchair. I held Kosmo in my arms while he was petting him. After a few seconds, the man got brave and decided to ask for a kiss. He was leaning in for a kiss from my big baby boy. :lotsaluv: Although kosmo didn't kiss him, he did touch his nose to this man's face and to the man, that was a victory. He then asked where he was and how to get out. I told him to follow the hallway or ask the nurse and he sat there stunned looking at me and said "I don't know you but you're not making any sense to me. It just doesn't make any sense." It was sad.
After this, we continued to the nurses station. While we were speaking with the nurse, my little calm boy spotted a woman with a walker and did his howling bark at her. She looked as if she was about to cry. "He doesn't like me," she said as she turned around to walk away. I quickly picked Kosmo back up and explained to her that he'd just never seen a walker before and he was probably a bit frightened. He then made it up to her by kissing her hand.
Moving forward, we stopped by every resident's room. We would knock on the door, and ask if they wanted to see a little dog. Every resident wanted to see Kosmo except for 1 lady and 1 couple. They just weren't too big into dogs.
It was amazing to me to see how much joy and love that Kosmo had brought these residents in their short time. They would smile, talk baby talk, and every single one of them asked to feed him a treat. Kosmo would eat the treat, and then lick their hands. He seemed to know that they were sick, but that just meant that he needed to work extra hard to make them feel better.
One resident in particular really really liked him. She kept talking baby talk to him as he did the "Cavalier head tilt" from side to side. She then decided to scratch his neck and he held it up and let out a loud groan. I had to chuckle. He was really enjoying himself. :lol:
In all, our experience was amazing. I have not been assigned to a permanent ward yet, but my hope is that we will see ours next week. I've been given the option of either taking the ward where people are mostly coherent but not quite there, or a locked down facility where the residents are mostly out of it. I don't know which one we'll take. I would like to see people that will remember us, but I know that Kosmo is very gentle and will be OK with even the most frail of residents.
Upon exiting the facility, we ran into the resident cat. He's never seen a cat before and he barked like he wanted to kill it! I was so embarassed. The cat hissed back at him and he hid under my legs like a little wuss.. LOL I hope in the weeks to come that he learns to love and accept the cat.
I think this will be great work for us and I thought it was absolutely wonderful to be able to make so many people happy in such a short amount of time. It's true what they say - dogs really are like therapy.
If any of you are thinking about getting into this kind of work, I would say go for it!! It really seems like it's going to be very rewarding
