Having Westley work alongside her has made an impact on the lives of Nicole Swanson’s occupational therapy patients as well as her co-workers.
“I had the clinical director tell me that it changed the whole mood of the clinic with just his presence. It just makes it more lighthearted and fun. It’s not as stressful. He makes people laugh. He can be goofy,” said Swanson who has worked with Westley, a Labrador-Golden Retriever mix, facility dog for more than two years. The two just returned from Seattle where the Martinez resident spent her summer as a traveling nurse at a hand therapy clinic.
September is service dog month, and Swanson will be receiving a proclamation from the Columbia County Board of Commissioners on Sept. 17 in honor of the month.
Westley is more than just fun; he’s a working dog who takes his job seriously.
Swanson first got him when she worked at the Augusta State Medical Prison. That job ended in the spring, and she took the Seattle job.
Trained through an organization called Canine Companions that provides service animals free to those who need them, Westley knows about 50 different commands and can help Swanson work with her patients on a variety of tasks.
“He can do so much depending on the diagnosis. If someone has had a stroke, we can work on range of motion, and they can brush him. They can improve grip strength by playing tug with him,” she said.
He knows how to play a memory match game. Swanson has a set of cards that he can flip over, and the patient has to find its match. He can push an exercise ball and help patients who are relearning how to walk. He can retrieve fallen items, turn on lights and open doors among the many tasks he’s trained for.
At the medical prison, he worked with some patients who hadn’t petted a dog in more than 20 years. Just having him there was an incentive for people to come to therapy, she said.
Westley received some early training at Duke University and was part of a study to see if researchers could determine more quickly which dogs would become better working dogs. More about the study is in the book called “Puppy Kindergarten: The Science of Raising a Great Dog” by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods, which was released last month.
Westley’s cute puppy pictures along with how he did on the “impossible task” exercise is recounted in the book.
Westley’s impossible challenge involved putting a treat in a plastic container. Getting the treat out of the container was easy. Then, the container was covered. He figured that out too. The impossible part came when the lid was sealed. He had several options when he realized he could not open the container. One was to ask for help, which he did through his heavy stare.
“He had the longest eye contact” according to the book, she said. “He still does when he wants something from me.”
There are several classifications of working dogs. A service dog is primarily for one person, but a facility dog works with a health care provider who is working with a patient on specific goals or directives.
Swanson learned about Canine Companions through her daughter, Lily, who started volunteering with the organization as a puppy trainer while an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. Lily Swanson is training her fourth puppy through the program.
Nicole Swanson said she believes Westley is an invaluable asset in providing patient care.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years and is a Georgia Press Association award winner. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
