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Originally Posted by addevo  Since you are in a rural area, and have a tiny dog, you might have luck just setting up informal visits on your own with local nursing/retirement homes, and may not need any official sanctioning with a group. Try calling around to your local nursing homes and ask to talk to either their volunteer coordinator or their activities director and see if they would permit you to visit with their residents.
One of our dogs is certified by a local group in the Washington, DC area. When we were on vacation in Illinois, I took our dogs with us to see my grandmother who was living in a nursing home. I just went up to the front desk and asked if we could bring them in, and they said "Sure, that would be nice." Though we planned on just taking them to my grandmother's room, it took us about 1/2 hour to get there because so many residents that we passed in the hall wanted to pet the dogs. Same thing on the way out.
Even here in DC, once evening when we went on a regular group visit with our dog to a nursing home, we passed a guy on his way out with his dog. He lives across the street from the home, and said that he brings his dogs over there often just to visit with the residents. He isn't part of any group.
Hospitals are a different matter, I would expect them to be much stricter with people coming and going with animals. But in my limited experience, nursing homes are very flexible and welcome anyone who is willing to spend time with residents to bring them a little sunshine in what can be an otherwise very uneventful day.
Kudos to you for wanting to share your time and your little dog with others! |
Thank you!
I'm sure I could take Paisley into the local nursing homes without her being certified. I can see them allowing that here. Paisley does like to try and nibble fingers and lick faces
so that is something we would have to get under control before visiting those places.
I do want to get Paisley certified though. I want to be able to go intot he local hospitals. The Good Samaritan Hospital in Mount Vernon (about 30 minutes from me) is building a big new hospital. The new hospital is supposed to have a pediatrics wing.. so I have heard. I would love to be able to go in and visit children!