Quincy was not the beginning of the story of volunteering for dog therapy. Initially I worked with therapy dogs at UNMH/ Children's Psychiatric Center (CPC), when, as the Coordinator of Recreation Therapy Services, I initiated an animal assisted therapy program at the Hospital. I learned first-hand the power of dog therapy when a dog team and I helped a severely autistic child connect with a Great Pyrenees. Within six months the client went from being non-interactive and rocking continuously to non-verbally giving the dog commands, then to reaching across midline to grab and give a dog a treat. I was hooked with this 4-legged therapeutic tool. So, when I retired from CPC, I went to work full time working in the schools of New Mexico.

I was the first Recreation Therapist in the Schools working with behavioral disordered children. Previously RT's were in the schools providing adaptive PE services. As I developed this version of Recreation Therapy service, I had Sadie, a Poodle/Border Terrier mix who would travel with me to various school districts. I had the students learn how to greet dogs safely, to brush/groom Sadie, and the students and I gave her a purple Mohawk. After a few years Sadie grew too old to travel, and at 18 we said goodbye. As the grieving began to subside, I began looking on Petfinders for a dog. On the site I saw a posting for Quincy, Service Dog in Training.

That was 9 1/2 years ago when I applied for Quincy as a therapy dog. I was told that Quincy was being trained as a service dog but to go ahead and apply. Through the application process, to my surprise, I qualified for a service dog. During the process of meeting Quincy and working with the trainer, I was informed that the trainer was not a good fit for training Quincy being both a service dog and a therapy dog. Therefore, if I wanted to, I could adopt Quincy, training him for my needs and they would test him for the cost of adoption ($250) vs the cost of a service dog ($8000). How could I resist!

I accepted the challenge. First training Quincy as a service dog, then slowly integrating him into the schools as a service/therapy dog. Now, a registered service dog, Quincy MD and I had quite a career in the schools. As a Certified Recreation Therapist, Quincy was a therapeutic tool that helped students with Social Emotional Learning. Also, he and I co-facilitated groups with Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Social Work, and Psycho-educational evals and therapy, We have traveled to Chicago to work with inner city school children who were afraid of dogs. Over the years Quincy has worn many hats. He has been a “reindog”, spreading love and joy to all the children.

We have since become a registered therapy dog team with HDTD so we may continue spreading love and joy!