Angel on a Leash therapy dogs offer comfort and support for the holidays

While the holiday season is often portrayed as festive and filled with memorable times with family and friends, that is not the case for everyone. Many seniors or other adults feel especially isolated, disconnected or lonely at this time of year. Children and young adults often experience stress or need extra support with school and other obligations particularly around the holidays. Pet therapy is one great resource to bring some happiness to others in the community during the holidays. 

Angel on a Leash™ is a Langhorne-based nonprofit, all volunteer therapy dog program that provides visits to anyone that may benefit from a therapy dog visit to spread good will and holiday cheer. These visits definitely provide lots of tail wagging and big smiles. All breeds and mixed breeds of dogs are part of the Angel on a Leash team and both handlers and dogs are tested, certified, registered and insured.

“Our organization has about 130 active members from as far as New Jersey and up to western Pennsylvania, but the majority are mostly located in Bucks County and surrounding areas. Everyone’s a volunteer when they are out in the community,” said Josephine DeAngelis, who serves as president of the organization. Josephine is an active volunteer especially at local libraries and reading programs with her Old English Bulldog, Lucy, and her rescued All American Girl Bulldog mix, Tessa. “I've always found, especially since I've worked in a hospital my whole adult life, the need to remind everybody that they're not alone,” said Josephine, a retired cardiac safety professional. 

The holiday season is an important time for therapy dogs to visit people of all ages in many settings. 

“People get very busy and caught up in the things that they have to do, but the thing they need to do is to feel connected. With the canine-human connection, that's where I feel that our teams put the most of their effort, by making extra visits over the holidays. But more importantly, we emphasize the need to get out more into the senior facilities and to the libraries because this time of year is a time to bring comfort and joy. We make an extra effort to get out there during the holidays. Some facilities will have different events for their seniors during the holidays and we offer to come visit. Our dogs will dress up and always bring a lot of cheer!”

Angel on a Leash teams go everywhere they are invited with the exception of private homes due to insurance reasons. The dogs and their handlers visit hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living and hospice facilities, libraries, children’s bereavement camps, grammar and middle schools, high schools, and universities, especially during mid-term and final exam periods. 

“We'll go to different universities during what they call ‘de-stress with a pet.’ It's either midterms or finals or welcome back days in the beginning of the fall. It's fun to see because young adults will come into our circle where we have our dogs. They just drop their books and backpacks and sit quietly with the dog. We don't really say anything. They're just present with the dog. During the holidays is great because the schools are closed and they're at the library more often.”

Angel on a Leash dogs are categorized as therapy dogs as opposed to service dogs or emotional support dogs. 

“There are three levels of dogs. A service dog is highly trained for over a year or more for service to an individual, such as a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder or for someone that has diabetes or seizures. Emotional support dogs can be anyone’s own dog that they may take somewhere for support like on an airplane. They are not dogs that have any kind of certification, but they do serve a purpose,” she explained. 

“A therapy dog is your own dog that you raise yourself and you take to obedience classes, and then to the canine good citizen certification. Then they go for a therapy dog evaluation and testing that we perform at Canine Academy in Penndel or Tail Waggers Academy in Newtown.”

After training is completed, handlers are encouraged to go to different kinds of facilities such as libraries, schools, hospitals and senior facilities to find out what works best for them. 

“One of the most important things I can boast about with our teams is that when we go into a facility no one really knows our name. For instance, when I walk into my facilities that I've been going to for nine years with my dog Lucy, no one says, ‘Josephine’s here!’ They all say, “Lucy's here!’ And that’s how it should be. I always try to mentor our teams that you’re invisible at the end of the leash. We go in and greet everyone, from the staff to people walking in and out. It’s what we’re there to do.”

Josephine noted that dogs have different approaches to people and their needs. 

“Some dogs, when you take them someplace, will gravitate in a crowd to one person, and that's what they like to do. For example, my dog Lucy will gravitate to any special needs child and sit quietly there, putting her head on their shoulder. She loves children. She will sit quietly in any area where there's children. And we have lots of dogs like that.”

Angel on a Leash dogs wear a distinctive bandana when they are ready to go to work. They receive a patch on their bandanas recognizing their visit.

 “Our dogs wait for their bandanas to go around their neck. They know they're going. When they come home, they know that if the bandana's off, it’s where's my extra treat? Where's my spot on the couch? And they're happy again! We have a dog named Thor, a big poodle, who loves going to the hospitals. He's at all the Jefferson Health facilities, and we have several dogs who are at Children's Hospital. That's their wheelhouse. So basically, our dogs find their wheelhouse and they just go. And they're very happy.”

The organization is currently making plans to hold workshops to get younger children away from social media and learn more about the canine-human connection. 

“I’ve put out a flyer trying to get our young people to swap screens for leashes. The love between a dog is such that you have that sense of calm. So, I want to incorporate that with our children.”

Angel on a Leash teams also visit first responders. “We have set up training for several of our teams so they are prepared to go out in the event of a crisis. These teams are called an Angel Crisis Team (ACT),” Josephine said.

Angel on a Leash is always looking for new dogs and handlers for training and certification.

“We're always looking for new teams to come and join us because the more, the merrier and I think it's a great need that we should be fulfilled even more so now in our communities

For more information about Angel on a Leash, visit angelonaleash.wildapricot.org or contact Josephine at aoalpresident@angelonaleash-dog.org.