Sasha The Therapy Dog

Like many of us with hectic schedules, Sasha could stand to lose three or four pounds. "Her profession is treat-oriented," says David Kettering, Sasha's owner and work partner. Sasha, a six-year-old Samoyed, has been a certified therapy dog for the past five years.

Sasha is a generalist. She works with two autistic children, helping them expand their range of focus and lengthen their attention span. She helps a speech therapist drill kids on words like "sit" and "stay." She provides physical comfort to patients at the end of life.

35W crisis response

In the days after the 35W bridge collapse, Sasha was one of six therapy dogs who assisted the families and first responders at the family center headquarters. "We were the one constant thing in their lives," Kettering says. "Some of them cried big tears in my dog's fur. Others just enjoyed a simple conversation, saying things like, `My dog will be jealous.'" The therapy dogs provided entertainment and distraction for children while their parents attended the daily debriefing. After the debriefing, the first responders would stop by to unwind.

That experience led Kettering to enroll Sasha in the Animal Assisted Crisis Response program, a nonprofit organization headquartered in Eugene, Ore. She's now the only certified crisis response dog in Minnesota. "Therapy dogs don't work for more than an hour-and-a-half at a time," Kettering says. "Crisis response dogs are expected to put in three- or four-hour shifts, and do more than one shift a day." Their four-day training in Kansas City consisted of 14- to 16-hour days. Sasha had to learn to walk up to a fireman in a breathing mask and hood, walk within three feet of sirens, go through airport security screening, board an airplane and behave well in a restaurant while others ate. Meanwhile, Kettering was getting his own training in the psychology of crisis response.

In February of this year, Sasha and Kettering put their training to use. They were called to Northern Illinois University when the school reopened, two weeks after a gunman killed five people and wounded 18 others. "We went to classrooms, dormitories, cafeterias, lounges and church services," Kettering says. "We talked to a wide range of people - some who knew the shooter, some who knew the victims. We talked to the professor who was in the classroom where it happened."

Feeling the stress

Sasha has been invited to several funerals and has "showed up in a few obituaries," Kettering says. In one case, he was surprised to be invited to a memorial service for a man whom Sasha had visited only once. He was even more surprised when half of the people at the funeral recognized Sasha and had heard about the visit.

Kettering's "favorite end of life story" is about a woman in a sparsely furnished nursing home room who wrapped her thin arms around the big, furry dog. "I know I'm going to heaven because God sent me this angel," she told Kettering. Two hours later, she died peacefully.

More therapy dogs needed

"There is a huge waiting list for therapy dogs," says Kettering. Regents Hospital alone could use six or seven teams a day, and more families are requesting dogs to work with their children's therapists. Therapy classes are offered in several locations. Kettering says that trainers are often willing to provide an evaluation of a dog's potential before an owner signs up for a class. For more information, go to www.mntherapyanimals.com.

Laura French is a freelance writer who lives in Roseville with three cats - Gracie, Tennessee Tuxedo and his pal Chumley, and Sofie, whose breed(s) will forever remain a mystery.