FISHER HOUSE - HELPING MILITARY FAMILIES

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Our furry four-legged friends are helping to put smiles on the faces of family members of patients at the VA Hospital.

A therapy dog program called "Angel on a Leash" is celebrating its 1-year anniversary at the Fisher House.

What started as a pilot program here in Houston, has turned into a very successful program that will soon spread to other Fisher House locations.

Uno, the Beagle, took home "Best in Show" at Westminster back in 2008.

Since his historic win, Uno has become a certified therapy dog for "Angel on a Leash." He travels around the country visiting with members of the military and their family members.

But there are many other "angels" like Uno. Bruno, Roxy, and Amber don't travel around the country, but they do visit the Fisher House at the VA Hospital every Tuesday night.

“We’ll have folks that are here in mass and sometimes it’s interesting, they may pass up their visitation time up at the hospital with their loved one to be down here with the animals and if they happened to have been here before, one of them will be returning tonight, they have a following, the word is out that he is just a massive Mastif and people just love to come here because he’s the most gentle dog you’ll ever meet,” said Fisher House Manager Frank Kelley.

Frank said the “angels” have incredible healing power.

“It takes their mind off that person in the hospital for just a little bit and lets them concentrate on maybe enjoying themselves a little bit more and that’s good for the person especially if they’re here for a length of time, they’ve got to give themselves an opportunity to recharge because they can possibly not be in a good condition to take care of their loved one when they do take them home,” said Frank.

The dogs are trained through an organization called the Delta Society. "Angel on a Leash" President David Frei said all dogs must pass a test in order to become a certified "angel".

“It basically is a program that tests their behavior and gets them ready for noises and unusual things happening and most important we train the people. We think sometimes a great therapy dog is born, not made and we want to make sure the people are ready to protect the dogs at all times and get them into situations that can be helpful. Therapy dogs do a lot of things in their work, a lot of it is just being there, a lot of it is being there for someone to pet, hug and talk to and we have dogs all over the country that are helping with physical therapy helping with motivating people to do the physical therapy that maybe a PT can’t get them to do, but here at the Fisher House it’s mostly hi, how are you how about a smile,” said David.

Or how about a few smiles and maybe a "woof" here and there. “Angel on a Leash" is funded by a grant from the Fluor Foundation.

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