IRISH WOLFHOUND SOCIETY OF IRELAND

Memory dogs helping Alzheimer patients

Special canines touch emotional areas of brains, which aren't affected by disease

VALERIE HILL

Bentley, a 15-month old Afghan Hound, paid a visit to Bill Behling, centre, a resident of the A.R. Goudie Eventide home, along with owner Sylvia Krampelj, in Kitchener. The visit is part of a pilot project under St. John Ambulance's therapy dog program. St. John Ambulance's therapy dog program reaches out to people in nursing homes, and to people with Alzheimer's disease.



KITCHENER

A withered, uncertain hand reaches out to caress the head of a patient dog and suddenly memories are released, memories of the past, of pets and happier times before Alzheimer's disease stole a life.

The scene plays out whenever Penny Perkins and Sylvia Krampelj take their therapeutic "memory dogs'' to visit the Alzheimer units at Victoria Place and A.R. Goudie Eventide Home in Kitchener.

For the dog, the job is simple: enjoy the loving touch of a human unable to communicate in a conventional form.

The memory dog program is a pilot project launched in January as part of the St. John Ambulance Kitchener-Waterloo's therapy dog program.

To date, there are 50 therapy dogs but only two memory dogs.

Perkins, who co-ordinates the therapy dog program, said it's wonderful to see seniors react, often remembering from week to week that her pal, Dylan the Labrador, loves cookies.

Perkins explained that in addition to first aid, St. John Ambulance "enhances the well-being of the community,'' so in the past decade has grown to include volunteers' dogs.

Each therapy dog must first pass a test ensuring it's gentle and people-oriented. Since the therapy program started, dogs and their human companions have visited nursing homes, long-term care facilities, hospitals and even schools where the dog provides an audience of one for a child struggling to read.

The memory dog program is the most recent initiative, an idea born when Perkins visited an Alzheimer ward with Dylan and discovered she was doing everything wrong.

"I was way too in your face,'' Perkins recalled. "I wasn't feeling comfortable visiting there. I thought, 'This is another sector being left behind,' so I contacted the Alzheimer Society.''

At first, there was some juggling as the two organizations tried to figure out how to mesh their objectives. The society has its own volunteer base and orientation program, but the memory dog people are already trained St. John volunteers who have completed the therapy dog program.

Perkins didn't feel her volunteers required quite as much hand-holding as a new volunteer. The society agreed and subsequently provided a shortened program so dog handlers would understand how to deal with a person suffering dementia or Alzheimer disease.

The society's volunteer co-ordinator, Jill Mercier, said it's critical for volunteers to understand that when working with patients a soft, gentle approach is best.

"There is a lot of apprehension from people: what do you do, what do you say?'' she said. "People (with dementia) don't communicate the same as everybody else.''

That's where the dogs come in. Humans have an area of the brain that holds emotional memories, which is not affected by disease, explained Mercier. If there was a love of animals, that feeling will still be there, stored as an emotional memory and released with the soft touch of a dog.

Krampelj experienced this firsthand. She began visiting Bill Behling at the Goudie home with her first dog, a lovable two-year-old Old English Sheepdog named Charlie.

Tragically, Charlie was fatally injured after running headlong into wheelbarrow handles, causing a massive hemorrhage in the chest.

Though heartbroken, Krampelj wasn't about to abandon the program and instead put her young Afghan, Bentley, through the St. John's test, returning to visit Behling in early June.

She was astounded at the senior's reaction when he commented that she had had another dog before.

"I couldn't believe that after three months of not seeing Bill that not only did he remember me, but Charlie as well,'' she said. "What an effect we made on Bill . . . just reassures me that what we're all doing does matter.''

Dogs like Charlie and Bentley are ideal therapy dogs: they have gentle dispositions, wonderfully tactile fur and the innate sense to know that when dealing with an elderly person they must take it slow. Perkins also noted that taller dogs mean patients -- particularly those in wheelchairs -- don't have to bend over.

For volunteers such as Krampelj, reaching the person behind that foggy barrier of disease has been tremendously rewarding. They might be locked behind a door in their mind as well as in the nursing home, but when she walks into the room with Bentley, there is a transformation.

"All of a sudden all these people are happy to see you. They're happy to be getting some attention.''

Source:  The Guelph (Canada) Mercury