A dose of canine therapy just what doctor ordered

Like a hospital nurse, Bart stops to look over the rehabilitation clinic at Stevens Hospital in Edmonds.

Then he trots forward and sidles right up to patient Ruth Reed. Her smile spreads as she reaches down to pat the black Labrador, who sports his official "therapy dog" vest.

"Bart's a big hit down here," said Reed's physical therapist, Dennis Carver. "He goes to the patients. He zeroes in on someone, for some reason, and goes straight to them."

Bart and his trainer, Bob Olson, volunteer for Stevens' Dog Therapy program. The program, started in 1997, brings dogs into clinics, waiting rooms, even right up to inpatients' beds, to comfort and cheer up patients, visitors and staff members.

Bart, one of two therapy dogs at Stevens, visits all of the hospital's wards each Thursday, including the intensive-care unit. Even the frailest patients sometimes make an effort to reach down to hand him a cookie.

If the patient is too weak, Olson will put the cookie in his lips and bend down for Bart to reach up and take it — a trick that often elicits a smile.

Struggling patients will sometimes respond to a dog when little else helps, members of the hospital's staff say.

"I know patients who didn't talk or smile until Bart came in the room," said Gail Milholland, a chaplain at Providence Everett Hospital, where Bart and Olson also volunteer.

Both Stevens and Providence Everett started their programs through the Delta Society, a nonprofit Bellevue organization that brings volunteer animal-therapy teams to hospitals, retirement homes and other facilities.

The society certifies dogs and their trainers as therapy teams through a testing program.

To be a good therapy animal, a dog must love people and have a calm demeanor, said Dianne Bell of the Delta Society. The dog must show it obeys basic commands and tolerates new places and strange noises.

Scientific research has proven that these dogs benefit patients, Bell said. During the visits, patients grow calmer and their blood pressure goes down. The dogs can be uplifting for patients who are depressed or discouraged.

"It brings kind of a sense of normalcy, a little bit of home into the hospital," Bell said.

Olson and Bart have volunteered at Stevens for three years. They also were the first team at Providence Everett when that hospital began its program about two years ago.

At Providence, Bart's popularity prompted the hospital to add two more dogs to the program.

Riley, a border collie, tours Providence Everett every Friday with owner Sue Snell. She and Riley have volunteered at several hospitals the past six years, including Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, Stevens and Providence Everett.

"Even though he's a gentle dog, when he walks into the hospital with his vest on, he kind of amps down even further," Snell said. "He realizes that this is a job and that he has to be gentle."

Riley will lie on patients' beds while they stroke his belly. He cuddles with kids and with patients' family members in the waiting rooms.

The dogs also have provided comfort to patients near the end of their lives, said Tim Serban, director of Mission Integration and Spiritual Care at Providence Everett.

And the hospital may add more dogs if other certified therapy teams step up, he said.

"We always have openings for volunteers," Serban said, "whether they have two legs or four."

Naila Moreira: 425-745-7845 or nmoreira@seattletimes.com