Gismo Guide dog to ‘Pets As Therapy’ Dog.
Gismo is 6 years old and started life as a Guide Dog puppy. He was withdrawn from training as he was getting stressed out. We used to work with the guide dog association and were lucky to be offered him as a pet. We took Gismo on an overnight trial on 9th Dec 2017 and the trial still continues!!
We could see that Gismo always made a move to see people rather than dogs and the reaction he got was very special. We booked an assessment at our regional Pets As Therapy (PAT) group which he passed and became a PAT dog in Oct 2019. His first establishment was Gloucester Royal Hospital Department of Critical Care which we still visit today. When lockdown kicked off we started to support the NHS staff at GRH with our twitter account. @GismoPATdog. We have some amazing feedback and now have over 1300 followers. We visit Critical Care/Acute Care, the Emergency Department and the Acute Medical Unit as well as staff from the Covid Ward 8A plus other teams. We also visit the Ambulance teams.
We go to our local school at Cooper’s Edge once a week to see a group of children who read to him while brushing his hair. All the children say seeing Gismo makes them feel happy, calm and they love him. After a 5-month gap due to lockdowns we were presented with a hand-written note on our return that said “Welcome back Gismo – you are the most loving caring dog”.
One young girl recently was asked how she felt when stroking Gismo and she said “I feel calm, relaxed, happy and all my troubles disappear” which is amazing to hear.
Through Gismo’s amazing work at Gloucester Royal Hospital, we were recently invited to have an interview with BBC Radio Gloucestershire’s Anna King on our PAT work and transition from Guide dog to Therapy dog (hence this title). Although Gismo obviously had a non-talking part, we both went along and, as always, Gismo was on form before during and after the interview. He kept walking under the desk and I was praying that the power cables would stay in place! He finished up falling asleep on Anna’s foot but, all in all, the feedback from the interview was fantastic and gave people an insight into our rewarding work.
We now have another dog, George, as a qualified PAT dog. He has completed 4 PAT visits to the hospital, followed by some time with the ambulance crews. As a boisterous Fox Red Labrador, he is the complete opposite to Gismo in his behaviour, but is doing fantastic during his visits. He will not visit someone without seeing how Gismo does things and is very quickly learning the art of being a PAT dog.
Mark
