SALMON CREEK — After sniffing each other’s backsides in the elevator, they enter a hallway at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, ready to help hospital patients.
They’ll make their rounds through hallways at Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center, even though they aren’t nurses or doctors.
It’s a few days before Christmas, and the trio of therapy dogs are grabbing all the attention as they walk by medical staff and patients. Nurses “ooh” and “ahh” and one man, talking on his cellphone, quickly shifts his conversation.
“Oh, they got puppies in the hallway,” he says. “How cute.”
Supreme cuteness is ordinary for dogs, but these dogs — Mukaluka Dirtypaws, Mr. Morgan (a Labradoodle) and Willow (English cream golden retriever) — and all of the 12 dogs who volunteer at Legacy, happen to use their cuteness to assist ailing patients, tired family members and medical staff who could use a quick, fun break.
“You get more out of it than you can possibly give,” says Peter Christensen, 72, who owns Dirtypaws, an 11-year-old miniature schnauzer. “It’s so heartwarming and rewarding to share with people who are going through difficult times.”
The therapy dogs at Legacy are all trained and certified, and their handlers follow proper medical protocols to make sure they don’t spread diseases or worsen infections. They also sanitize their hands before and after visits, as do those who interact with the dogs. Patients can request visits from the dogs, but medical staff must approve the visits before they take place.
“Unfortunately, people are often in the hospital for weeks, so they really miss their animals at home,” says Christensen, who has been volunteering at Legacy with Dirtypaws for nearly nine years.
Pet therapy has been shown to help reduce patients’ stress, and can help people better recover from or deal with health problems including heart disease, cancer and mental health disorders. That’s partly because petting an animal can increase levels of the stress-reducing hormone oxytocin and decrease levels of cortisol, a stress hormone.
Petting animals has also been shown to lower blood pressure. Christensen says one time a nurse walked over and thanked Dirtypaws after a patient’s blood pressure dropped while petting the dog. The nurse was prepping the patient for a procedure and was trying to lower the patient’s blood pressure with medicine to no avail, Christensen says.
“It dropped down and she was able to have the operation,” he explained. “I think that happens all the time, but it’s very rare that you get to have someone measuring the blood pressure while they’re doing it.”
Christensen says he knows Dirtypaws loves volunteering at the hospital because he pulls every time they begin to enter Legacy. It has been beneficial for Christensen, too, giving him perspective.
“I feel like all the problems in my life are very minimal compared to what I see at the hospital,” Christensen says.
The dogs not only help patients and families of patients, but also medical staff. Kelly Brady-Pavelko, an assistant nurse manager with the emergency department at Legacy Salmon Creek, says people enjoy pets because “they can’t backtalk and they’re always happy to see you.”
“Even our staff (enjoys it),” says Brady-Pavelko, who owns a black Labrador and a “well-fed” pug. “That three minutes to pet that dog that’s coming through. It’s just that breather to take a break from that super busy 20 things on your priority list to do.”
Brady-Pavelko has to hold back tears when she recalls a time that Dirtypaws cheered up some young children who had just been brought to the hospital for an evaluation by the Vancouver Police Department after being taken from a bad home situation. She says Dirtypaws performed some of his signature tricks, including dancing on his hind legs and fetching different items from a suitcase on command.
“They forgot that they had no clothes, that they had no parents there with them, that they were there in a strange environment with police with our emergency staff, and they were so happy,” Brady-Pavelko says. “They didn’t even care that there was no one around them other than this dog and stranger.”
