Animal assisted therapy can play an important part in the rehabilitation process for patients with spinal cord injury or acquired brain injury. Shepherd Center "employs" multiple therapy dogs who bring joy to patients and also help with therapeutic exercises. In addition, they assist with tasks such as opening doors and switching lights on and off.
Shepherd Center exercise physiologist Mary Ashlyn Thiede discusses the role of therapy dogs and the benefits of animal assisted therapy.
Animal Assisted Therapy Aids in Rehabilitation Process
Featured Speaker:
Mary Ashlyn Thiede
Mary Ashlyn Thiede is an exercise physiologist at Shepherd Pathways, Shepherd Center's out patient rehabilitation facility for individuals with acquired brain injury. Mary Ashlyn is the handler for Barboza, a therapy dog at Shepherd Pathways. Transcription:
Animal Assisted Therapy Aids in Rehabilitation Process
Melanie Cole (Host): Animal assisted therapy can play an important part in the rehabilitation process for patients with spinal cord injury or acquired brain injury. Shephard Center employs multiple therapy dogs who bring joy to patients and also help with therapeutic exercises. My guest today is Mary Ashlyn Thiede, she’s an exercise physiologist with Shephard Center. Mary Ashlyn, tell us about animal assisted therapy and how is Shephard Center enlisting the help of these wonderful animals?
Mary Ashlyn Thiede (Guest): Well it’s actually pretty cool. So Shephard Center has partnered with this really awesome organization called canine companions for independence and that’s where all our facility dogs are from, and this is specific to our dog animal assisted therapy, and the animals are bred and they’re trained, and go through probably two and a half years of training before they’re qualified to come into our center to work with our patients and with our staff and even with our families.
Melanie: So how are they trained? What is involved in that two year process to make sure that they can work with people with disabilities and people who might not be – or even might be afraid of animals?
Mary Ashlyn: So Barboza, which is my facility dog, it took him like I said about two, two and a half years to go through the training. So they start in California and Barboza was transferred to Orlando. He started in a women’s correctional facility with an inmate and she worked with him for about a year on basic commands. They get them used to different stimuli, so loud cars, noises, trains, so kind of getting them used to being in an environment that might be too stimulating for you “normal” dog, and then after they finish there, they kind of progress on to another family who kind of does the same thing, and then following that, they go back to their facility, we call it puppy college, and they do six to nine months of strenuous service dog training where they learn over 40 different commands to help aide in someone’s independence.
Melanie: Wow, how cool is that. And I mentioned it in the last question a little but what if a patient is afraid of dogs?
Mary Ashlyn: So we’re pretty flexible in terms of working with patients who are scared. A lot of times the patients who are scared, they just have never really interacted with animals before or maybe they had a bad experience with a bite or some other traumatic experience previous to being at Pathways or Shephard’s Center. So if someone doesn’t want to work with our canines, that is completely fine. We will make sure to put them in a different environment so that that patient always – their needs come first; however, if they do have an open mind about meeting them, we will just gradually introduce the animals, put them in the same space, and slowly introduce the animals in their environment and then slowly introduce them in therapy as well, and I would say probably nine times out of ten those patients end up leaving loving our facility dogs.
Melanie: I imagine that they would. What a wonderful program. Are there other animals that are involved? We’ve heard of ferrets or things like that being involved in animal assisted therapy. Is it mostly just dogs?
Mary Ashlyn: So at Shephard we typically use our canines who actually are working 40 hours a week in our facility. We do have a woman who brings in different animals, so sometimes she’ll bring in cats, she’ll bring in different breeds of dogs, and we do have a program and we partner with Chastain Park, an equestrian program, so we do partner with horse therapy as well.
Melanie: So what are they doing for patients Mary Ashlyn? Is it just comfort or is it actual physical therapy? How are they able to work those long hours and do this type of therapy? What does the therapy look like?
Mary Ashlyn: So it’s different really for every dog. Currently we have three dogs in our center and they all work in different environments. They don’t “work” 40 hours a week but they are in the building. So I would say probably first and foremost, the dogs really they do – they provide a lot of love, companionship, they provide motivation for the patients, they’re there when the patients have breaks or if the family members are having tough conversations with our therapist, they’re just there and they can be pet and they can just sleep and provide that support. But there is that other component added for therapy, which is really great, and Barboza specifically he works, and I partner with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, recreational therapy, and even sometimes psychology to try and find how we can use him to help have the patient reach their goals in a fun and unique way.
Melanie: Well I’m glad you brought up in a way mental health because a lot of what goes on in rehabilitation and certainly for spinal cord and brain injury is this depression, this realization, acceptance, anger, how can the dogs help with that? Because I would think that’s where they shine.
Mary Ashlyn: It’s such an amazing thing and I really feel like that just something that you can’t train. All this wonderful training that they have is so unique and it’s so great, but they just have this innate ability to provide this unconditional love. So as humans we like to give but we also kind of expect something in return a lot of times, and with these dogs, they just give love and support and companionship and they don’t require anything in return and I think that’s something that people are drawn to and we did an interview with a patient just last week and he talked about, “Barboza took away my depression. Barboza took away my feels of sadness and my feelings of my loneliness and I want to be with Barboza during therapy as much as I can.” And that’s just something that – you can’t put a price on that. It’s just an amazing feeling to know that something we’re providing is really helping influence the mental health of some of our patients.
Melanie: Yeah I just kind of got chills when you said that because I just think it’s just such a wonderful form of therapy, and you just discussed a patient’s response. What are you seeing as far as outcomes for both the physical part and the psychological part? What do you see happening?
Mary Ashlyn: So we see sometimes a completely different approach to therapy for some of our patients. So sometimes they come from not being participatory. So they don’t want to be in therapy, they don’t want to be in groups, they don’t want to talk in psychology. They don’t want to be here and all of that is definitely well understood but providing the animal, it sometimes just changes that outlook. Yeah sure I’ll do five squats if I get to pet Barboza at the end of it, and it just kind of links this chain reaction of if the dog is there for some people, it just provides this motivation that kind of changes their entire outlook and then their motivation to do even more therapy or to say more about how they’re feeling or what they want.
Melanie: Animals are such good listeners too. They don’t have their own agenda. So that’s what makes that a wonderful part. Wrap it up for us Mary Ashlyn. You’re doing a great, great service and so are your animal friends. Wrap it up, what do you want listeners to take away from this about animal assisted therapy and the benefits, the many benefits for people with disabilities as they’re going through their physical therapy?
Mary Ashlyn: Well I think it’s really important for people to know how beneficial they can be not only mentally but physically, so a lot of times when we have sessions with Barboza, from the outside, it might look like we’re just having fun or we’re taking a break, but in actuality, we’re really pushing for and trying to reach those same goals that they are trying to do in all their other therapy sessions. We just try and find some creative ways to sneak it in there, whether it be standing up for 10 minutes and playing fetch or brushing or even brushing his teeth or taking his vest on and off to work on fine motor skills. There’s so many different ways to utilize the animals so I think if people just recognized the benefits, I think they’ll be popping up in more and more hospitals all over the country.
Melanie: I think so too. Thanks so much Mary Ashlyn for coming on with us today and really explaining how wonderful what you’re doing is and how you’re working with these animals to help people. It’s just absolutely, it’s a great program. You’re listening to Shephard Center Radio. For more information on animal assisted therapy, please go to shephard.org, that’s shephard.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
Animal Assisted Therapy Aids in Rehabilitation Process
Melanie Cole (Host): Animal assisted therapy can play an important part in the rehabilitation process for patients with spinal cord injury or acquired brain injury. Shephard Center employs multiple therapy dogs who bring joy to patients and also help with therapeutic exercises. My guest today is Mary Ashlyn Thiede, she’s an exercise physiologist with Shephard Center. Mary Ashlyn, tell us about animal assisted therapy and how is Shephard Center enlisting the help of these wonderful animals?
Mary Ashlyn Thiede (Guest): Well it’s actually pretty cool. So Shephard Center has partnered with this really awesome organization called canine companions for independence and that’s where all our facility dogs are from, and this is specific to our dog animal assisted therapy, and the animals are bred and they’re trained, and go through probably two and a half years of training before they’re qualified to come into our center to work with our patients and with our staff and even with our families.
Melanie: So how are they trained? What is involved in that two year process to make sure that they can work with people with disabilities and people who might not be – or even might be afraid of animals?
Mary Ashlyn: So Barboza, which is my facility dog, it took him like I said about two, two and a half years to go through the training. So they start in California and Barboza was transferred to Orlando. He started in a women’s correctional facility with an inmate and she worked with him for about a year on basic commands. They get them used to different stimuli, so loud cars, noises, trains, so kind of getting them used to being in an environment that might be too stimulating for you “normal” dog, and then after they finish there, they kind of progress on to another family who kind of does the same thing, and then following that, they go back to their facility, we call it puppy college, and they do six to nine months of strenuous service dog training where they learn over 40 different commands to help aide in someone’s independence.
Melanie: Wow, how cool is that. And I mentioned it in the last question a little but what if a patient is afraid of dogs?
Mary Ashlyn: So we’re pretty flexible in terms of working with patients who are scared. A lot of times the patients who are scared, they just have never really interacted with animals before or maybe they had a bad experience with a bite or some other traumatic experience previous to being at Pathways or Shephard’s Center. So if someone doesn’t want to work with our canines, that is completely fine. We will make sure to put them in a different environment so that that patient always – their needs come first; however, if they do have an open mind about meeting them, we will just gradually introduce the animals, put them in the same space, and slowly introduce the animals in their environment and then slowly introduce them in therapy as well, and I would say probably nine times out of ten those patients end up leaving loving our facility dogs.
Melanie: I imagine that they would. What a wonderful program. Are there other animals that are involved? We’ve heard of ferrets or things like that being involved in animal assisted therapy. Is it mostly just dogs?
Mary Ashlyn: So at Shephard we typically use our canines who actually are working 40 hours a week in our facility. We do have a woman who brings in different animals, so sometimes she’ll bring in cats, she’ll bring in different breeds of dogs, and we do have a program and we partner with Chastain Park, an equestrian program, so we do partner with horse therapy as well.
Melanie: So what are they doing for patients Mary Ashlyn? Is it just comfort or is it actual physical therapy? How are they able to work those long hours and do this type of therapy? What does the therapy look like?
Mary Ashlyn: So it’s different really for every dog. Currently we have three dogs in our center and they all work in different environments. They don’t “work” 40 hours a week but they are in the building. So I would say probably first and foremost, the dogs really they do – they provide a lot of love, companionship, they provide motivation for the patients, they’re there when the patients have breaks or if the family members are having tough conversations with our therapist, they’re just there and they can be pet and they can just sleep and provide that support. But there is that other component added for therapy, which is really great, and Barboza specifically he works, and I partner with physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, recreational therapy, and even sometimes psychology to try and find how we can use him to help have the patient reach their goals in a fun and unique way.
Melanie: Well I’m glad you brought up in a way mental health because a lot of what goes on in rehabilitation and certainly for spinal cord and brain injury is this depression, this realization, acceptance, anger, how can the dogs help with that? Because I would think that’s where they shine.
Mary Ashlyn: It’s such an amazing thing and I really feel like that just something that you can’t train. All this wonderful training that they have is so unique and it’s so great, but they just have this innate ability to provide this unconditional love. So as humans we like to give but we also kind of expect something in return a lot of times, and with these dogs, they just give love and support and companionship and they don’t require anything in return and I think that’s something that people are drawn to and we did an interview with a patient just last week and he talked about, “Barboza took away my depression. Barboza took away my feels of sadness and my feelings of my loneliness and I want to be with Barboza during therapy as much as I can.” And that’s just something that – you can’t put a price on that. It’s just an amazing feeling to know that something we’re providing is really helping influence the mental health of some of our patients.
Melanie: Yeah I just kind of got chills when you said that because I just think it’s just such a wonderful form of therapy, and you just discussed a patient’s response. What are you seeing as far as outcomes for both the physical part and the psychological part? What do you see happening?
Mary Ashlyn: So we see sometimes a completely different approach to therapy for some of our patients. So sometimes they come from not being participatory. So they don’t want to be in therapy, they don’t want to be in groups, they don’t want to talk in psychology. They don’t want to be here and all of that is definitely well understood but providing the animal, it sometimes just changes that outlook. Yeah sure I’ll do five squats if I get to pet Barboza at the end of it, and it just kind of links this chain reaction of if the dog is there for some people, it just provides this motivation that kind of changes their entire outlook and then their motivation to do even more therapy or to say more about how they’re feeling or what they want.
Melanie: Animals are such good listeners too. They don’t have their own agenda. So that’s what makes that a wonderful part. Wrap it up for us Mary Ashlyn. You’re doing a great, great service and so are your animal friends. Wrap it up, what do you want listeners to take away from this about animal assisted therapy and the benefits, the many benefits for people with disabilities as they’re going through their physical therapy?
Mary Ashlyn: Well I think it’s really important for people to know how beneficial they can be not only mentally but physically, so a lot of times when we have sessions with Barboza, from the outside, it might look like we’re just having fun or we’re taking a break, but in actuality, we’re really pushing for and trying to reach those same goals that they are trying to do in all their other therapy sessions. We just try and find some creative ways to sneak it in there, whether it be standing up for 10 minutes and playing fetch or brushing or even brushing his teeth or taking his vest on and off to work on fine motor skills. There’s so many different ways to utilize the animals so I think if people just recognized the benefits, I think they’ll be popping up in more and more hospitals all over the country.
Melanie: I think so too. Thanks so much Mary Ashlyn for coming on with us today and really explaining how wonderful what you’re doing is and how you’re working with these animals to help people. It’s just absolutely, it’s a great program. You’re listening to Shephard Center Radio. For more information on animal assisted therapy, please go to shephard.org, that’s shephard.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.