The gentle Chinook temperament is superbly suited to therapy work: giving unconditional love to people who are lonely, sad, ill, or just plain interested in dogs. Singing Woods Siri began visiting institutions in the late eighties. My third Chinook, Dixieland Shageluk, carried too much fear to meet strangers easily. But WoodsRunner Crossing Alyeska excelled at the job.

In Maryland, my trainer, Margot Woods (Applewoods Dog Training), started a group called Phydeaux for Freedom, to train physical assist and hearing assist dogs. The members also visited nursing homes and hospitals with our personal dogs. So Siri was a therapy dog for several years before age slowed her down.

By six months, Alyeska passed the Fidos For Freedom (the spelling was changed) therapy dog test. As long as we lived in Maryland we regularly visited nursing homes and we spent ninety minutes once a month at the adolescent ward of a local mental hospital.

In addition Alyeska was a Service (wheelchair) demonstration dog for Fidos For Freedom (http://www.fidosforfreedom.org). Most Fridays during the school year, she and I along with a host of people with various disabilities, visited local elementary, middle or high schools in our county’s disability Awareness Program. Fidos’ purpose was (and probably still is) to educate children about what dogs can do for people. (Other participants explained other disabilities to classrooms of pupils.) We usually used the gym with several classes attending at a time. We showed what Fidos’ hearing and service dogs could do for their people and how our therapy dogs were trained.

Another job for a therapy dog is to make people laugh. Alyeska had many costumes. She dressed as a skeleton (matching me) in our first costumes. Then we bought a jailbird, an angel, a top-hat-and-tails costumes. We sometimes paired dogs with Halloween costumes: two ghosts holding jack-o-lanterns and a football player with a cheerleader.

Tricks were also part of our entertainment: Alyeska could weave through my legs, retrieve scented objects (discriminating what I had touched from those I hadn’t), and she could wave at the crowd. We both enjoyed bringing cheer to others.

At the end of our school programs, we let the children pet the therapy dogs as they filed out of the gym. Alyeska was petted by thousands of children and adults. She was the first Chinook most people had seen. She’s no longer the only one.

Karelia learned almost everything Alyeska knew, from grabbing a handkerchief from my pocket when I sneezed to the wheelchair service work. She took over by alternating with Alyeska visits to nursing homes, hospitals and the new DEAR Program Fidos started. It’s an acronym for Dogs Educating and Assisting Readers, which over many years has proven repeatedly that children learn to read more easily when the listener is a non-critical dog. Occasionally I might have to say, “I’m not sure Karelia understood that word; would you try it again?” The program has spread across the nation and now has a national web site for a southern organization: www.readingpaws.org

Since we moved to Florida in 2004, we have been able to do therapy work for Hospice, visit a local Veterans’ Home and participate in the reading program at Double Branch Elementary in Wesley Chapel. Karelia and Sabaka now alternate these visits and we are pleased to have two friends with their dogs joining us in several of these programs. Next year we are scheduled to begin therapy at the local children’s cancer ward.

Therapy work (or going into nursing homes and hospitals with canine companions) is licensed by Therapy Dogs International, and dogs must pass an important temperament test in order to be insured. It’s rewarding work for which Chinooks are well suited. Most in this breed are affectionate with strangers, but not too brazen or anxious. Getting Chinooks out in public in positive settings is an excellent way to educate the world about this fine breed.

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