January 9, 2024 • 14 mins
PAWSibilities Unleashed is a Kentucky organization providing training for service dogs. Callie and Sara sit down with Christy Almond to learn more about how UK students are helping this important organization. Learn more about PAWSibilities Unleashed online.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
ERINHello.
CALLIEI'm Callie.
SARAAnd I'm Sara.
ERINAnd this is Community
Spotlight with Callie and Sara.
CALLIEWe are students
in the College and Career Studies program at UK.
SARAThis radio segment will spotlight
different things
in the local community each week.
CALLIEThank you for listening.
(00:32):
SARAToday for our community spotlight,
we are talking with Christy Almond,
a volunteer with an organization
called Pawsibilities Unleashed.
Hello.
Thank you for being here with us.
CHRISTYHello.
CALLIEWhy do you choose to work for
this organization?
(00:54):
CHRISTYAh, good question.
So years ago, I adopted a puppy
who was an eight week old Great Pyrenees
and the shelter
that I adopted her from
so that she was deaf.
And I thought I could handle
treating a deaf dog.
But just in case I couldn't.
I signed up for dog training classes
(01:16):
with a group called
Pawsibilities Unleashed,
thinking I could probably use some help
if I couldn't figure it out on my own.
And so I started going to dog
training classes with my little puppy
who was not deaf after all.
And after a few weeks of going there,
they asked me
if I would consider
doing therapy dog work with her.
(01:36):
And that's how it all started.
So it was kind of by accident,
but it was a very happy accident.
SARAWhat got you started at this
organization
and what do you like about it?
CHRISTYSo let's see.
After I agreed
to start doing therapy dog work
and I learned a little bit
more about what it was,
(01:57):
I really liked
the people who were in it with me.
We are all big dog people,
so we all like dogs
and we like doing things
that can help other people
by sharing our dogs with them.
So it's really the people,
it's also the dogs
and it's
that the mission of the group is to make
people's lives a little bit better
(02:18):
by sharing some dog happiness with them.
CALLIEHow long have you been doing this work?
SARAOh, goodness.
It's been almost 15 years
since I adopted that
first little puppy, so it's been a while.
SARADo you have a favorite
breed to train or work with?
(02:42):
CHRISTYOh, so I love all dogs.
It seems like I have
all big dogs right now.
And I have had
and I still have a whole bunch
of Great Pyrenees.
And if you haven't seen a Great Pyrenees,
they kind of look like a polar bear,
just a giant white, fluffy dog.
And right now I have three Great Pyrenees
(03:05):
and two additional dogs
that are have great Pyrenees.
So I guess maybe
Great Pyrenees
are my favorite kind of dog.
But I do love all dogs, big and small.
ERINThree polar bears.
That’s good to have polar bears.
That's a lot of polar bears.
CHRISTYIt's well,
it's a lot of vacuuming, that's for sure.
(03:27):
CALLIEWhat is a therapy animal?
And what do they do.
CHRISTYAh. Okay.
So you may have heard of service dogs
and therapy
dogs are definitely not the same thing
as service dogs.
So service dogs are dogs
that have a very specific skill
that they do to save people's lives.
You know,
(03:47):
seeing eye
dogs, diabetic alert
dogs, seizure
alert dogs, things like that.
Those dogs have a very serious job.
Therapy dogs are not that. Therapy
dogs are just very well trained
dogs that go out and make people happy.
So it's kind of like
they're service
dogs at the top,
therapy dogs and middle and regular pets
(04:09):
kind of at the bottom.
And like my therapy
dogs are also my cats,
but they
they know how to behave out in public
and how to make people happy.
SARAHow much
training goes into having a therapy dog?
CHRISTYA lot.
Some dogs
take longer
to become therapy dogs than others.
(04:30):
It depends on their personalities
and how stubborn they are.
But some dogs are very easy to train,
but the training just doesn't stop
once you get certified to do
this, it's you-
you're always training your dogs.
Like my big, big dog.
Simon.
He was very easy to train.
He's a very good boy. He's obedient.
(04:51):
He doesn't do anything wrong.
One of my other dogs, Charlie,
he is going to take a little while
before he's ready to be a therapy dog.
He's only a year
old now, and he's kind of a handful.
He's. He's very fun.
And he he doesn't always want to listen.
And being able to listen
(05:12):
is an important part
of being a therapy dog.
CALLIEWhat are the type of tasks they perform?
CHRISTYWell, for the types of therapy visits
that we go
on, we can do a lot of different things.
We go to libraries,
and at the libraries that we visit,
the dogs get to sit and listen to kids,
(05:33):
read books to them,
because really reading a book to a dog
is way more fun
than reading a book to a person.
So for that's their task is to sit
still and listen
and try to stay awake
while they listen to different stories.
Some of my dogs can be interactive
with that.
If you give them a few different books
to choose from, you can say,
(05:53):
“Which book would you like to read?”
And they'll put their paw
on it and choose their book.
But not all of my
dogs know how to do that.
If we go to hospitals,
we go to different patients rooms,
mainly children's.
We work with kids,
and they are,
if the child has been injured
and if they're trying to learn
how to walk again,
(06:14):
my dogs can help with that.
My dogs are really big
so they can support the weight.
So if the child were to trip
or fall or something,
my dog can hold them up.
In the past we had them
some speech therapy.
There was a little girl
who had had surgery on her vocal cords
and she was learning
how to speak loudly again
and she practiced by saying, “Simon, sit.”
(06:38):
but she had to say it loud enough
so that he could hear her.
And when he could hear her, he would sit.
Some of my dogs know sign language
so they can interact
with hearing impaired kids.
What else do we do?
That might be the-
the big types of tasks, namely they
they show up
and they like to be snuggled with
(06:59):
and they're kind of goofy sometimes,
and they make people laugh.
SARAHow do you choose
which dogs
would be a good fit
for being therapy animals?
CHRISTYWell, you want a dog that likes people.
You don't want one
that's going to be mean or aggressive or
(07:20):
not have self-control.
If you want a dog
who if somebody
strange comes into the room
that the dog isn't going
to start growling at a stranger.
You want a dog
that if you tell them to sit,
they're going to sit.
And you want a dog
that gets along with other dogs too,
because sometimes there are multiple dogs
on a therapy dog visit.
(07:41):
And definitely
if you're in an elevator
with multiple dogs,
you don't want anybody to get fussy
with anybody else.
Let's see,
you want dogs that like children.
If you're going to be working
with children,
you want a dog
that's not afraid of things
like medical equipment,
like IV poles or wheelchairs
or things like that.
So sometimes you need a brave dog
(08:02):
who can go into strange places.
Yeah, those are some of the categories
of personality traits
that I look for in a therapy dog.
CALLIEAre certain
breeds easier or harder to work with?
CHRISTYI think certain breeds have
reputations for being easier
or harder to work with.
I don't know that it's always true
(08:23):
for all dogs
like Great Pyrenees,
my personal favorite.
They are known for being very stubborn.
So if you try to teach them tricks,
they might not always want to learn
how to do tricks, but like Simon,
he's a very good boy,
and if I ask him to sit,
he's going to sit.
So I don't know that
I would really say it's a breed thing.
(08:44):
I think it's very much dependent
upon the individual dogs
and you have to assess the dog
by how they are on their own,
not necessarily by what breed they are.
SARAHow does a dog get certified
to be a therapy dog?
What are the steps that go into it?
How long does it take?
(09:05):
CHRISTYOh, so every therapy
dog group
has their own set of requirements.
I have been a member of different
therapy dog groups. I’ve been
a member of Pawsibilities
Unleashed for a long time.
But when I lived in Texas for a while,
there were different groups there.
And for each group
you had to take a different kind of test.
Some tests are more obedience
(09:27):
focused, like
can the dog
sit and stay and lay down
and things like that.
Some groups have more real world scenario
type tests
where you'll have medical equipment
around them
to see
if they're afraid of a walker or
a wheelchair or things like that.
Some of the groups that I've been in
(09:47):
have a test
where you have to make sure
that you can tell your dog to leave it
related to food
and they will not eat the food
that's in front of them.
That really comes in handy,
like if you're going to a hospital
because you don't want the dog
taking chicken
nuggets off of a child's dinner plate
because that would be rude.
(10:07):
Or if the patient
dropped their medicine on the floor,
You don't want the dog
eating strange medicine,
so you need to be able to tell them to
meet it
and have them
be okay with not eating chicken nuggets.
That's a really hard one
to teach some dogs though,
so it depends on the group
and depending on the dog
and how
(10:28):
well they're doing with their training.
Sometimes it takes longer than others. Simon
passed his tests pretty fast.
Baxter is another
one of my Great Pyrenees.
It took him a little longer
because he's he's kind of stubborn
and he doesn't always want to leave it
when I say no to the chicken wings.
(10:48):
CALLIEHow long do the dogs help others
before being retired?
CHRISTYThat also, it seems like my answer to
everything is it depends on the dog,
but it really does depend on the dog.
For my guys, I have very big dogs
and they don't live
as long as smaller dogs.
When they start having trouble
(11:10):
getting around.
Like if they can't walk very well
or if they have a hard time
controlling their bodily functions,
that would be a good indication
that maybe it's time to start
thinking about retiring them.
But Simon, Simon is nine years old,
which is
pretty old for a big dog,
and he's still going strong.
He doesn't walk
quite as much as he used to,
(11:30):
but he still really likes
going to libraries
and sitting and listening to the kids
read stories to him.
So, you just kind of had to listen to
your dog
and see if they're telling you yet
that they're ready
to head into retirement.
SARAWhat other
services does Pawsibilities Unleashed have?
(11:50):
Who can use the organization's services?
CHRISTYThe woman who runs our group,
her name is Liz
and she does all sorts of things.
She does regular dog training.
So if you have a new dog
and you want to teach it
to be a good dog,
you can sign up for classes
and she can help your dog become a good dog.
(12:11):
She can also help dogs
that maybe have behavioral problems.
Maybe some that are a little grumpy,
help them to find a way to cope
so they aren't so grumpy all the time.
She also trains service dogs.
So the dogs that I was telling you
about that actually save lives
and do important things,
she can teach them to do that.
(12:32):
And it's pretty amazing
how she can take a little puppy
and teach them to be diabetic
alert dogs.
It's really fascinating to see.
She also does a prison training program
where she will have
inmates in jail train dogs.
It's good for the people
who are incarcerated
(12:52):
as well as for the dogs.
And there's been a lot of success
with that program.
And then, of course,
the therapy dog program,
which I happened to
love and be a part of.
CALLIEHow can others get involved?
CHRISTYIf you want to do therapy dog stuff,
I would recommend Googling therapy
dog organizations in your area.
(13:14):
I live in Louisville
and there are a couple
of different groups here.
Pawsibilities is located in Frankfort.
I think there are probably
some other ones
in the Lexington area too,
and definitely in all different states.
Therapy dog groups are everywhere,
so find a therapy dog group
that is near
you and then read about
them. See what their requirements are,
(13:34):
see what they will
have you do before
you can become involved.
It's it's really fun.
ERINAnd do you know if there's any way
that people
can get involved by sort of shadowing
someone else or going with someone else
who already is trained just to understand
it better,
with Pawsibilities Unleashed
or with other organizations?
(13:56):
CHRISTYI think that's probably
something that you could do
for certain places.
Some of the places that we go,
there's a level of confidentiality to what
we do.
I go to a rehabilitation facility
for women who are dealing
with addiction troubles.
Probably wouldn't want to
bring an audience there,
but I think that it would be
(14:17):
possible to shadow
alongside at a library visit
and you'll
see the kids reading to the dogs
and maybe even yourself
reading a book to them.
To say it's kind of therapeutic.
ERINThank you.
That's helpful.
SARAThank you so much for talking with us.
CHRISTYI had a lot of fun.
Thank you for having me.
(14:38):
I can always talk about dog things.
SARAThis has been
a community spotlight
with Callie and Sara.
CALLIEThank you for listening.
ERINHello.
CALLIEI'm Callie.
SARAAnd I'm Sara.
ERINAnd this is Community
Spotlight with Callie and Sara.
CALLIEWe are students
in the College and Career Studies program at UK.
SARAThis radio segment will spotlight
different things
in the local community each week.
CALLIEThank you for listening.
(00:32):
SARAToday for our community spotlight,
we are talking with Christy Almond,
a volunteer with an organization
called Pawsibilities Unleashed.
Hello.
Thank you for being here with us.
CHRISTYHello.
CALLIEWhy do you choose to work for
this organization?
(00:54):
CHRISTYAh, good question.
So years ago, I adopted a puppy
who was an eight week old Great Pyrenees
and the shelter
that I adopted her from
so that she was deaf.
And I thought I could handle
treating a deaf dog.
But just in case I couldn't.
I signed up for dog training classes
(01:16):
with a group called
Pawsibilities Unleashed,
thinking I could probably use some help
if I couldn't figure it out on my own.
And so I started going to dog
training classes with my little puppy
who was not deaf after all.
And after a few weeks of going there,
they asked me
if I would consider
doing therapy dog work with her.
(01:36):
And that's how it all started.
So it was kind of by accident,
but it was a very happy accident.
SARAWhat got you started at this
organization
and what do you like about it?
CHRISTYSo let's see.
After I agreed
to start doing therapy dog work
and I learned a little bit
more about what it was,
(01:57):
I really liked
the people who were in it with me.
We are all big dog people,
so we all like dogs
and we like doing things
that can help other people
by sharing our dogs with them.
So it's really the people,
it's also the dogs
and it's
that the mission of the group is to make
people's lives a little bit better
(02:18):
by sharing some dog happiness with them.
CALLIEHow long have you been doing this work?
SARAOh, goodness.
It's been almost 15 years
since I adopted that
first little puppy, so it's been a while.
SARADo you have a favorite
breed to train or work with?
(02:42):
CHRISTYOh, so I love all dogs.
It seems like I have
all big dogs right now.
And I have had
and I still have a whole bunch
of Great Pyrenees.
And if you haven't seen a Great Pyrenees,
they kind of look like a polar bear,
just a giant white, fluffy dog.
And right now I have three Great Pyrenees
(03:05):
and two additional dogs
that are have great Pyrenees.
So I guess maybe
Great Pyrenees
are my favorite kind of dog.
But I do love all dogs, big and small.
ERINThree polar bears.
That’s good to have polar bears.
That's a lot of polar bears.
CHRISTYIt's well,
it's a lot of vacuuming, that's for sure.
(03:27):
CALLIEWhat is a therapy animal?
And what do they do.
CHRISTYAh. Okay.
So you may have heard of service dogs
and therapy
dogs are definitely not the same thing
as service dogs.
So service dogs are dogs
that have a very specific skill
that they do to save people's lives.
You know,
(03:47):
seeing eye
dogs, diabetic alert
dogs, seizure
alert dogs, things like that.
Those dogs have a very serious job.
Therapy dogs are not that. Therapy
dogs are just very well trained
dogs that go out and make people happy.
So it's kind of like
they're service
dogs at the top,
therapy dogs and middle and regular pets
(04:09):
kind of at the bottom.
And like my therapy
dogs are also my cats,
but they
they know how to behave out in public
and how to make people happy.
SARAHow much
training goes into having a therapy dog?
CHRISTYA lot.
Some dogs
take longer
to become therapy dogs than others.
(04:30):
It depends on their personalities
and how stubborn they are.
But some dogs are very easy to train,
but the training just doesn't stop
once you get certified to do
this, it's you-
you're always training your dogs.
Like my big, big dog.
Simon.
He was very easy to train.
He's a very good boy. He's obedient.
(04:51):
He doesn't do anything wrong.
One of my other dogs, Charlie,
he is going to take a little while
before he's ready to be a therapy dog.
He's only a year
old now, and he's kind of a handful.
He's. He's very fun.
And he he doesn't always want to listen.
And being able to listen
(05:12):
is an important part
of being a therapy dog.
CALLIEWhat are the type of tasks they perform?
CHRISTYWell, for the types of therapy visits
that we go
on, we can do a lot of different things.
We go to libraries,
and at the libraries that we visit,
the dogs get to sit and listen to kids,
(05:33):
read books to them,
because really reading a book to a dog
is way more fun
than reading a book to a person.
So for that's their task is to sit
still and listen
and try to stay awake
while they listen to different stories.
Some of my dogs can be interactive
with that.
If you give them a few different books
to choose from, you can say,
(05:53):
“Which book would you like to read?”
And they'll put their paw
on it and choose their book.
But not all of my
dogs know how to do that.
If we go to hospitals,
we go to different patients rooms,
mainly children's.
We work with kids,
and they are,
if the child has been injured
and if they're trying to learn
how to walk again,
(06:14):
my dogs can help with that.
My dogs are really big
so they can support the weight.
So if the child were to trip
or fall or something,
my dog can hold them up.
In the past we had them
some speech therapy.
There was a little girl
who had had surgery on her vocal cords
and she was learning
how to speak loudly again
and she practiced by saying, “Simon, sit.”
(06:38):
but she had to say it loud enough
so that he could hear her.
And when he could hear her, he would sit.
Some of my dogs know sign language
so they can interact
with hearing impaired kids.
What else do we do?
That might be the-
the big types of tasks, namely they
they show up
and they like to be snuggled with
(06:59):
and they're kind of goofy sometimes,
and they make people laugh.
SARAHow do you choose
which dogs
would be a good fit
for being therapy animals?
CHRISTYWell, you want a dog that likes people.
You don't want one
that's going to be mean or aggressive or
(07:20):
not have self-control.
If you want a dog
who if somebody
strange comes into the room
that the dog isn't going
to start growling at a stranger.
You want a dog
that if you tell them to sit,
they're going to sit.
And you want a dog
that gets along with other dogs too,
because sometimes there are multiple dogs
on a therapy dog visit.
(07:41):
And definitely
if you're in an elevator
with multiple dogs,
you don't want anybody to get fussy
with anybody else.
Let's see,
you want dogs that like children.
If you're going to be working
with children,
you want a dog
that's not afraid of things
like medical equipment,
like IV poles or wheelchairs
or things like that.
So sometimes you need a brave dog
(08:02):
who can go into strange places.
Yeah, those are some of the categories
of personality traits
that I look for in a therapy dog.
CALLIEAre certain
breeds easier or harder to work with?
CHRISTYI think certain breeds have
reputations for being easier
or harder to work with.
I don't know that it's always true
(08:23):
for all dogs
like Great Pyrenees,
my personal favorite.
They are known for being very stubborn.
So if you try to teach them tricks,
they might not always want to learn
how to do tricks, but like Simon,
he's a very good boy,
and if I ask him to sit,
he's going to sit.
So I don't know that
I would really say it's a breed thing.
(08:44):
I think it's very much dependent
upon the individual dogs
and you have to assess the dog
by how they are on their own,
not necessarily by what breed they are.
SARAHow does a dog get certified
to be a therapy dog?
What are the steps that go into it?
How long does it take?
(09:05):
CHRISTYOh, so every therapy
dog group
has their own set of requirements.
I have been a member of different
therapy dog groups. I’ve been
a member of Pawsibilities
Unleashed for a long time.
But when I lived in Texas for a while,
there were different groups there.
And for each group
you had to take a different kind of test.
Some tests are more obedience
(09:27):
focused, like
can the dog
sit and stay and lay down
and things like that.
Some groups have more real world scenario
type tests
where you'll have medical equipment
around them
to see
if they're afraid of a walker or
a wheelchair or things like that.
Some of the groups that I've been in
(09:47):
have a test
where you have to make sure
that you can tell your dog to leave it
related to food
and they will not eat the food
that's in front of them.
That really comes in handy,
like if you're going to a hospital
because you don't want the dog
taking chicken
nuggets off of a child's dinner plate
because that would be rude.
(10:07):
Or if the patient
dropped their medicine on the floor,
You don't want the dog
eating strange medicine,
so you need to be able to tell them to
meet it
and have them
be okay with not eating chicken nuggets.
That's a really hard one
to teach some dogs though,
so it depends on the group
and depending on the dog
and how
(10:28):
well they're doing with their training.
Sometimes it takes longer than others. Simon
passed his tests pretty fast.
Baxter is another
one of my Great Pyrenees.
It took him a little longer
because he's he's kind of stubborn
and he doesn't always want to leave it
when I say no to the chicken wings.
(10:48):
CALLIEHow long do the dogs help others
before being retired?
CHRISTYThat also, it seems like my answer to
everything is it depends on the dog,
but it really does depend on the dog.
For my guys, I have very big dogs
and they don't live
as long as smaller dogs.
When they start having trouble
(11:10):
getting around.
Like if they can't walk very well
or if they have a hard time
controlling their bodily functions,
that would be a good indication
that maybe it's time to start
thinking about retiring them.
But Simon, Simon is nine years old,
which is
pretty old for a big dog,
and he's still going strong.
He doesn't walk
quite as much as he used to,
(11:30):
but he still really likes
going to libraries
and sitting and listening to the kids
read stories to him.
So, you just kind of had to listen to
your dog
and see if they're telling you yet
that they're ready
to head into retirement.
SARAWhat other
services does Pawsibilities Unleashed have?
(11:50):
Who can use the organization's services?
CHRISTYThe woman who runs our group,
her name is Liz
and she does all sorts of things.
She does regular dog training.
So if you have a new dog
and you want to teach it
to be a good dog,
you can sign up for classes
and she can help your dog become a good dog.
(12:11):
She can also help dogs
that maybe have behavioral problems.
Maybe some that are a little grumpy,
help them to find a way to cope
so they aren't so grumpy all the time.
She also trains service dogs.
So the dogs that I was telling you
about that actually save lives
and do important things,
she can teach them to do that.
(12:32):
And it's pretty amazing
how she can take a little puppy
and teach them to be diabetic
alert dogs.
It's really fascinating to see.
She also does a prison training program
where she will have
inmates in jail train dogs.
It's good for the people
who are incarcerated
(12:52):
as well as for the dogs.
And there's been a lot of success
with that program.
And then, of course,
the therapy dog program,
which I happened to
love and be a part of.
CALLIEHow can others get involved?
CHRISTYIf you want to do therapy dog stuff,
I would recommend Googling therapy
dog organizations in your area.
(13:14):
I live in Louisville
and there are a couple
of different groups here.
Pawsibilities is located in Frankfort.
I think there are probably
some other ones
in the Lexington area too,
and definitely in all different states.
Therapy dog groups are everywhere,
so find a therapy dog group
that is near
you and then read about
them. See what their requirements are,
(13:34):
see what they will
have you do before
you can become involved.
It's it's really fun.
ERINAnd do you know if there's any way
that people
can get involved by sort of shadowing
someone else or going with someone else
who already is trained just to understand
it better,
with Pawsibilities Unleashed
or with other organizations?
(13:56):
CHRISTYI think that's probably
something that you could do
for certain places.
Some of the places that we go,
there's a level of confidentiality to what
we do.
I go to a rehabilitation facility
for women who are dealing
with addiction troubles.
Probably wouldn't want to
bring an audience there,
but I think that it would be
(14:17):
possible to shadow
alongside at a library visit
and you'll
see the kids reading to the dogs
and maybe even yourself
reading a book to them.
To say it's kind of therapeutic.
ERINThank you.
That's helpful.
SARAThank you so much for talking with us.
CHRISTYI had a lot of fun.
Thank you for having me.
(14:38):
I can always talk about dog things.
SARAThis has been
a community spotlight
with Callie and Sara.
CALLIEThank you for listening.
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