Compassionate Canines

Molly Johnson, President of Compassionate Canines, discussed how she has been working with therapy dogs for over 20 years and has 3 therapy dogs:  Beamish, Dudley and Madigan.  Compassionate Canines started as a group of 6 people who wanted to share their dogs with others at hospitals, funeral homes, hospice, libraries, schools, mental health facilities, foster care systems, etc.  They are a volunteer based organization that currently has 65 handlers and 76 therapy dogs. Compassionate Canines is a 501(c)3 that was established in 2009 to provide area volunteer therapy dog teams opportunities for meaningful visits to people of all ages in a variety of settings in the Fox Valley. They bring volunteer therapy dogs teams together for the purpose of education, support, networking and coordination of therapy dog team efforts in the Fox Valley area; provide comprehensive therapy dog training and initial and ongoing education to interested handlers who wish to volunteer with their dog; provide people residing in various health care settings in the Fox Valley area the opportunity for support, comfort and animal companionship through therapy dog visits by highly trained, qualified volunteer therapy dog teams; provide opportunities for therapy dog teams to visit people of all ages in other appropriate, safe settings; and engage in other activities related to educating the public about therapy dogs. 

Today, Molly brought Madigan a black lab retriever that she found at a shelter.  Madigan was abused and the owner could not house break her. About 90% of a therapy dog is their temperament.  When Molly looks for a therapy dog, she prefers an adult dog so that you can see their temperament and she tries to find out if they enjoy people more than life itself.  Molly is a clicker trainer which is based on positive reinforcement and not punishment.  Clicker training has been around since the 1960’s and used in marine mammal shows.  It started to be used to train dogs in the early 1990’s.  The clicker is like a camera where Molly takes a picture of the behavior she wants Madigan to do and then follows it up with reinforcement (treat).  Molly introduces cues like touch, cuddle, rest head on patient’s lap, right/left, watch and who’s the queen.  Molly taught Madigan a new trick for us – to put her front paws on a chair.  Madigan has made 700-800 visits.  In 5 years, Molly would like to have 400 volunteers, a physical building outside her home and an executive director.