Itsy is Big Medicine: Personal Interaction with a Therapy Dog

The third installment of the series on Animal Assisted Therapy.

By Lin Goodman, Best Friends Network Volunteer

She’s the sweetest pit bull you can meet. Her tail wags when she’s allowed to jump on people’s beds in hospitals, or snuggle up close to someone in a nursing home, or even when she’s visiting someone in their own home.

I was privy to two visits from an animal assisted therapy dog, a sweet pit bull named Itsy, and I can tell you from my own experience that she is strong medicine with only positive side effects. Itsy lights me up, helping me drift away from the awareness of my grief and its effects on my case of Multiple Sclerosis, a disease well known as being made worse by stress.

I spent both hours on the floor with Itsy the entire visit. Initially she had to sniff and explore, but then she quickly and quietly settled down right next to me. On her second visit she spent a lot of time on my lap, and also gave me her belly to pet. This “dangerous” pit bull, a breed that is much maligned in our day and age, has the calmest, warmest energy. The only harm she can do to someone is to lick them to death, if that’s even possible.

Animal assisted therapy is now known all over the world, and is accepted as being big medicine with only good side effects. A lot of insurance companies now cover animal assisted therapy as an allowed type of treatment. As long as the patient and animal are comfortable with each other, one can only guess at all the progress they will make together. It is really a “team” of three beings: the animal assisted therapy team and the person they’re “working” with. I know that the therapy did wonders for me when I really needed it without even knowing. The animal’s presence is powerful energy, even as they are so calm, peaceful, and affectionate. Now, I’ll take as much of Itsy’s “medicine” as I can get, as often as I can. You can’t beat it for feelings of being able to immediately begin to heal without having to swallow anything or go through any tests.

In animal assisted therapy, both the client/patient and the animal feel relief, and the animal distracts people from their pain, emotional and physical, and replaces it with all of the unconditional love they can give. The worst thing that Itsy could have done to me was to leave me a bit chafed, had I let her lick me as much as she could! I can think of so many people who would benefit from these visits; in fact, I don’t know a single soul who wouldn’t benefit. I am pleased that animal assisted therapy is so widely realized and accepted as good medicine, and that the benefits are being proven over and over again. Wouldn’t you agree?

Photo of Itsy on the job by Lin Goodman, Best Friends Network Volunteer

Article posted by Brandi Bennett, Best Friends Network