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4 | January 17, 2019 | The lake forest leader NEWS<br />
LakeForestLeader.com<br />
Dog therapy group makes visit to North Shore schools, hospitals<br />
Erin Yarnall<br />
Contributing Editor<br />
When Marilyn Putz<br />
started the Lincolnshire<br />
Animal Hospital Dog<br />
Therapy Group 35 years<br />
ago, there was nothing<br />
else like it.<br />
The group, which began<br />
with members of the<br />
hospital staff and their<br />
pets, has now expanded<br />
into a large group that<br />
makes 100 annual visits<br />
to hospitals, schools and<br />
anywhere they can be of<br />
help in Northern Illinois,<br />
including Safe Haven, a<br />
school in Lake Bluff; Abbott<br />
House, a care facility<br />
in Highland Park and<br />
Aperion Care, a nursing<br />
home in Highwood.<br />
“We sort of broke the<br />
ice with our group,” Putz,<br />
the founder of the group<br />
and an employee at the<br />
Lincolnshire Animal Hospital<br />
said.<br />
Putz, a dog breeder<br />
of Irish setters, said the<br />
idea came to her to start<br />
the group after reading a<br />
magazine article about the<br />
therapeutic impact of contact<br />
with animals.<br />
After starting the initially<br />
small group, they<br />
received a bit of publicity,<br />
and Putz said she soon<br />
had numerous dog owners<br />
telling her that their dogs<br />
would be “perfect” to visit<br />
schools and hospitals as a<br />
therapy dog.<br />
“There were a million<br />
people thinking their<br />
dogs were the most perfect<br />
dogs in the world and<br />
would be great at therapy,”<br />
Putz said. “Some<br />
were and some weren’t. It<br />
took me a couple of years<br />
to establish some kind of<br />
criteria for this group.”<br />
To help determine which<br />
dogs will be used as therapy<br />
dogs, Putz developed<br />
a two-part test. In the first<br />
Lennon bonds with an Irish Setter rescue named Ryder.<br />
Jane Coen (left) tells Dan (middle) and Cody (right)<br />
about her dog, Loosey, who was the star of the show.<br />
part, she tests for obedience<br />
and following commands.<br />
The second part of<br />
the test is temperamental.<br />
“They have to ignore<br />
food that’s on the floor,<br />
they have to walk by food<br />
that’s on the floor and ignore<br />
it at their owner’s<br />
command,” Putz said.<br />
“They have to be comfortable<br />
with a whole bunch<br />
of people petting them at<br />
the same time, things like<br />
that.”<br />
Once the dogs pass<br />
Putz’s test, they’re brought<br />
to some of the 13 locations<br />
throughout Northern<br />
Illinois that the Lincolnshire<br />
Animal Hospital<br />
Dog Therapy Group visits,<br />
where Putz says the people<br />
they visit “light up.”<br />
Melina (left), a student at Safe Haven School in Lake Bluff, pets Jane Coen’s (right)<br />
Golden Retriever Loosey, during a visit from the Lincolnshire Animal Hospital Dog<br />
Therapy Group. Photos by Alyssa Groh/22nd Century Media<br />
Student Zoe (left) holds Sheri Fine’s dog while talking about their shared love of dogs.<br />
“It’s amazing to see the<br />
reactions of people,” Putz<br />
said.<br />
People who volunteer<br />
their dogs to participate<br />
in the events must sign up<br />
for at least ten a year, but<br />
Putz said many sign up for<br />
more than that.<br />
In December, the group<br />
went to schools including<br />
Notre Dame College Prep<br />
in Niles and the University<br />
of Illinois at Chicago<br />
to provide stress relief for<br />
students preparing for final<br />
exams.<br />
Putz believes the service<br />
the therapy dogs provide<br />
to the people they<br />
visit is needed “in certain<br />
populations.”<br />
She says that during<br />
each visit, she sees the results<br />
her group is having<br />
through “big smiles” and<br />
“laughter.”<br />
“We see people, in<br />
nursing homes especially,<br />
coming out of their<br />
shells,” Putz said. “[When<br />
we arrive] we see them<br />
sitting there just staring<br />
at their laps, and then we<br />
bring out this dog and<br />
they just light up and they<br />
start talking about the<br />
dogs they used to have.”<br />
According to Putz, the<br />
happiness that attendees<br />
at the events receive from<br />
petting and playing with<br />
the dogs can contribute to<br />
relaxation, and an alleviation<br />
in anxiety.<br />
“They go into this room<br />
where we meet with these<br />
long, drawn-out faces and<br />
they come out smiling,”<br />
Putz said. “It’s just amazing<br />
to see it.”