Making a PACTT

By Jim Price

Months of planning, organizing, training and coordination came together recently at the launch of a new therapy dog program for GDB career change dogs in the Portland, Ore., area. Known as PACTT (Portland Area Canine Therapy Teams), the program is a partnership between Guide Dogs for the Blind and DoveLewis Animal Hospital. Last week, the first PACTT team (therapy dog and handler) made its debut therapy visit.

On the GDB side, Community Field Representative Deana Allen coordinates the program. “DoveLewis had a therapy dog program for a while that was disbanded for a variety of reasons,” she said. “Their CEO Ron Morgan wanted to have another and this time he wanted to partner with GDB.”
It made a lot of sense to both organizations to tap into the GDB career-change community. “Many of the people who adopt career change dogs are GDB puppy raisers and they have a lot of skill,” Deana said. “They know their dogs very well, and the dogs are used to being out in public.”

Moon lends a little love to Juanita Murphy at Emeritus Senior Living in Vancouver, Wash., while handler Lisa Locke looks on 

Under the agreement with DoveLewis, GDB’s role is to train and evaluate the PACCT teams, while DoveLewis would take care of coordinating and scheduling site visits to places interested in having therapy dogs visit. “I'm very excited about the possibilities,” said Kathy Loter, DoveLewis’s animal assisted therapy program coordinator. “I have so many ideas of where we can take the program. There are the traditional hospitals, assisted living facilities, etc. but opportunities also exist in the court system, with organizations helping children, and in domestic violence situations. I'm scheduled to go on a ride-along with the county sheriff's department, for example. All I need are the teams. We plan to have 16 or 17 by the end of the year, and 70 by the end of next year.”

Janet Schultz and Salsa during therapy dog evaluation at the GDB dorm

To create the new program, Deana said, “I first had to determine what a therapy dog needed to do. I looked at other programs, actually became accredited through another program with my own dog, and made a few visits with teams to see exactly how they interacted with the people they visited.” She then developed the training curriculum and assessment criteria. The first class had four teams and the second one had three.

Lisa Locke and her dog Moon visit the Emeritus Senior Living’s recreation room, Vancouver, Wash.

Vic Bowden of Vancouver, Wash., went through the program with her yellow Lab, Sherbert. She and her husband raised seven puppies for GDB. “We adopted both our third and sixth dogs that we raised for GDB,” Vic said. “I discovered early on that my purpose isn't just to raise guide dogs. Every one of our dogs has changed people's lives in one way or another. I used to go almost every day to see my mother-in-law when she was in a nursing home and I just loved to see how much the people loved to see our dog. We visited from person to person to person. In addition, my husband taught an anger management class at our church and he would always take whatever dog we were raising. He said he could watch the people in the class who were so closed up and angry, just relax and calm down while petting a dog.”

Elaine Wilderman of Bethany, Oregon and her dog Clark are one of the teams recently certified to do therapy work

The first official PACCT visit was by Lisa Locke of Hockinson, Wash., with her yellow Lab, Moon. The duo visited the Emeritus Senior Living facility in Vancouver, Wash. Locke and Moon visited with several residents and Moon generated smiles wherever she went, especially from one particular resident named Juanita. “Bye Moon!” Juanita said. “I can't wait for you to come see me again.”

Here’s to many more visits and smiles in the future. It’s our PACCT!