Halifax therapy animals finding ways to work from home (11 photos)

At a time when the healing power of a therapy animal is perhaps needed most in Nova Scotia, their visits have been temporarily suspended due to COVID-19. 

The Halifax chapter of Therapeutic Paws of Canada announced on March 12, it would be canceling all visits until further notice to help limit the spread of the virus. It is now working on creative ways to fill those gaps. 

The non-profit uses pet therapy to build on the human-animal bond and support people with different physical and emotional needs. It provides programming in places like hospitals, nursing homes, libraries, and schools.

It also works with local law enforcement including weekly visits with the Halifax police department, as well as occasional visits with the RCMP in Truro. 

The co-team leader of the local chapter of Therapeutic Paws, Nancy Vanstone, says she has not yet received a request from either department to provide any pet therapy services as a result of the mass shooting. 

“If we receive a request as a result of these events, we will do whatever we can in an environment that is safe for all involved, to provide support,” she says. “In the pre-pandemic days, we did receive several emergency requests to help adults and children respond to traumatic events. Time spent petting therapy dogs can provide gentle, calm comfort to people as they cope with stress and grief.”

Vanstone says depending on how long social distancing measures are in place, the group will consider making therapy dog sessions available online. 

“It could be quite a while before we can go and do the kinds of visits that we traditionally have been doing,” she says. “We will follow what our national organization and our province says about when, and how we may be able to visit in the future.”

In the meantime, she says the group will be launching a number of virtual initiatives including reading sessions, where a volunteer and their therapy dog will share a story with children. It plays off of their library program which helps youth practice their literacy skills by providing the opportunity to read to dogs. 

“We go to the libraries and it is a free, five-week program where they come every week and read to a dog,” she says. “We still want to provide some of that support and spread a smile.”

The readings will be posted on its Facebook page. 

Keltie English and her labradoodle Maiya have been volunteers with Halifax's Therapeutic Paws for five years, and up until last month were visiting health care-related facilities four times a week. 

“She has a personality where she just goes up to people and gazes in their eyes trying to communicate with them,” English says. “She's so quiet and just lays her chin on your knee.”

Some of Maiya's regular visits were with patients in palliative care, or in a hospice, families with sick children staying at Ronald McDonald House, as well as youth with mental health or substance use disorders accessing programs with the IWK's Adolescent Intensive Services. 

“She has a lot of fans and I know that she is missed right now,” English says. “And I know that she misses them.”

Maiya and English are now spreading smiles through creative COVID-19 PSAs, posted almost daily on social media. Maiya likes to give advice about how to stay safe and happy during quarantine while wearing comical costumes. 

“I figured a dog saying funny things and dressed in funny outfits would be a positive thing for people to look at,” English says. “She's an easygoing subject, like today she was wearing a pirate hat, a Minion hat, and an Anne of Green Gables hat.”

Therapeutic Paws will be sending a video of Maiya in her costumes to the facilities the group typically offers programming at, along with photos of the specific dogs and their handlers who visit those places.

The Halifax group has more than 50 volunteer handlers and their certified therapy dogs, who range in breeds from a Pomeranian-Chihuahua, to a Bernese mountain dog, and all the mixes in between.