(upbeat music) - Hello and welcome to "The Journal."

I'm Steve Kendall.

This edition, a little bit different.

We're literally going to go to the dogs.

You might say the dogs have come to us.

We're joined by members of the Bowling Green State University PAWS Therapy Dog Team, and I wanna welcome Kim Ferguson and Bubbles and also Sue Rider and Joey to the first segment here on "Journal."

Thank you for both being here.

We'll start with you, Kim.

Tell us a little bit about Bubbles.

Just give us kind of the bio, like what breed, and how long you've had him, that kind of thing.

And then we can talk about how you got into the program.

- Sure.

Bubbles is a seven year old Greyhound.

She used to race professionally on the racetrack, and now she's professionally retired.

- [Steve] Okay.

- She was one of the very first PAWS dogs.

We received an email from the Alliance of Therapy Dogs from Ashley requesting therapy dogs to come to Bowling Green State.

And she's been with the team for a couple years.

[Steve] Okay.

Yeah, and how did you get her from, retire her from Greyhound racing?

because I know a lot of those dogs, sometimes the endings aren't real great, but in this case it's, so she's kind of not a rescue dog, but sort of like that?

[Kim] She's a retired.

[Steve] Retired, okay, got it.

[Kim] Her ending was phenomenal.

She actually was one of the top 10 dogs at Wheeling Racetrack.

[Steve] Okay.

- She's was called the All Wheeling team, 2019.

She was pre-adopted by myself.

I knew her owner, her racing owner.

And I said I would really love to give her a great retirement home.

And she has that.

[Steve] Yeah, yeah.

Now talk about what, in part of her PAWS thing, so what is her, what does she do?

What's her specialty?

Or is she just, because I know that they're there for reading things and they're there for a lot of other activities, but what's her best thing?

Or is this what she does best right here?

Relaxes.

[Kim] It is.

Her favorite place is the rec center.

[Steve] Okay.

[Kim] She loves to stand in the middle of the aisle and stare at people as they walk by and kind of encourage them that she's there for them.

[Steve] Ah, okay.

- And all the weights banging and clanging don't bother her.

And the loud noises, and the Halloween party, she likes to dress up.

[Steve] Ah, okay.

[Kim] Or doesn't mind it.

(laughs) [Steve] Yeah, what does she dress up as?

[Kim] This year she dressed up as Zero from "Nightmare Before Christmas" movie.

[Steve] (laughs) Okay.

[Kim] And then I was Sally, and her other handler, who's my daughter, was Jack.

[Steve] Oh, wow, wow.

[Kim]} So we were the complete Family.

[Steve] Yeah.

And she loves doing that, doesn't bother her at all.

[Kim] Doesn't bother her.

She even had a hat as part of the costume, and usually she'll just lay down, and I've seen as many as eight students just sitting all the way around her and petting her.

And it doesn't phase her, she loves it.

[Steve] Yeah, she just loves it, just relaxes, yeah.

Now, Sue, let's talk a little about Joey.

You know, let's find out about him a little bit, because obviously we're looking at two different dogs here.

So what breed is Joey?

[Sue] Joey is a party Yorkie.

[Steve] Okay.

[Sue] He's three years old.

He's my COVID buddy.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

I worked at Bowling Green Middle School in the office and retired in 2020.

And a couple months later, everyone went to themselves because of COVID.

[Steve] Sure.

[Sue] And I was lonely.

[Steve] Ah, okay.

[Sue] I had thought about, before I retired, I thought about having a therapy dog and visiting people.

And when COVID came along, I thought this is an ideal time.

[Steve] Yeah.

[Sue] So- [Steve] Now, where did you find Joey?

How did you come across him?

[Sue] I looked online and I found a wonderful lady in Ottawa.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

- [Sue] Who has Yorkies and bred them.

And I went down and talked with her and checked out the dogs, and she handed him to me and it was all over for me.

[Steve] It was perfect and, yeah, yep.

Love at first sight.

[Sue] Yes.

[Steve] Yeah, nice, nice.

So I know that when you take him, of course, to the university, does he have a favorite place or a favorite activity that, or he just likes everything that he gets involved in?

- He just likes the students wherever they may be.

We have been invited to a lot of the buildings, a lot of events.

Wherever we go, he just has fun with the students.

[Steve] Yeah.

Now, what are some of the events that he goes to?

I know probably the rec center, obviously, that's where Bubbles ends up occasional.

But what are some of the things that he is in attendance for?

[Sue] Well, the Monster Mash.

[Steve] Ah, oh, okay.

[Sue] That was a big one.

Some of the walks that we'll walk with the students.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

- [Sue] Some of the health and well.

- [Steve] Some of the wellness activities, yep, okay.

Now, when you get involved, and both of you can answer this, when you get involved in like the reading part.

because I know that the dogs are there.

Do you just go to different places and people just kind of gravitate to the dogs?

Or are there special things like, hey, there's a group doing something, and that's where you end up with the dogs and they're there to just sit there and be friendly and nice and calm everybody down?

Because they're obviously relaxed here, so, yeah, yeah.

[Sue] I think they put out an email or something.

"Oh, the therapy dogs are gonna be at so and so."

Or if individual instructors, they request a dog, they'll let their students know.

And we walk in and just chill.

- [Steve] Everybody relaxes and calms everybody down.

- They'll come, we'll sit on the floor, and they come to us, or we'll walk around the desks and that and let everybody pet 'em.

And sometimes another instructor down the hall will come in, "Hey, can you come to my room too?"

- [Steve] (laughs) Word of mouth, sort of, almost literally, yeah, yeah.

[Sue] Yes.

And we've been to instructors, to their departments.

[Steve] Oh, to the office for sure.

[Sue] Yeah, and chill with them.

So we've been everywhere.

- [Steve] Yeah, because I know when I looked on, you know, you look on the online site, and it talks about the fact, you know, it's not just for students, it's for faculty, staff, so they can request.

Now, I know that sometimes too, the dogs go other places besides the university.

So I know that you mentioned a place, you know, that some people refer to as that school up north.

But so what was your most recent off-campus trip that you made with Bubbles?

- Bubbles went to the school up north.

She went to Fall Fest at the School of Engineering- - [Steve] Oh, okay.

- At the University of Toledo.

Her other handler is actually a student there.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- [Kim] So it was neat to see her friends and her fellow students there.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- And a lot of faculty and staff, which was really nice.

Like you were saying, we're not here just for the students.

We're here for everybody.

- [Steve] Sure, yeah.

Now, how long have each of these dogs been doing this?

I mean, how long has Joey been a therapy dog?

Taking him out to see other people like that?

- [Sue] Joey came in about the same time Bubbles did.

- [Steve] Okay.

- Through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

- [Steve] Yeah, because one of the things you notice too is that yeah, all the dogs are certified, isn't just like any dog just shows up and becomes a therapy dog.

There's a whole system that's involved in making sure that they are, yeah, certified, I guess, whatever that means.

So, good, good.

Well, yeah.

Well, thank you guys so much for doing this.

And yeah, Bubbles, don't get too excited now.

Just relax here.

They've been, well, you know, they're so, they're so cute, they're so nice, and they're so easy.

And the first thing they did when they came in was like, walk all around the studio, look behind everything, check it out, and then said, "Okay, we're cool.

We'll do this."

So, and as we said before we started the show, they're actually in charge of the show today, not us.

So it's good, so, yeah.

Well, thank you so much, Sue Rider, Kim Ferguson, Bubbles, Joey, thank you so much.

And, you know, keep up the good work.

So good.

We'll be back in just a moment here on "The Journal" with some additional therapy dogs, and we'll talk more about the PAWS Therapy Program here at Bowling Green State University.

Back in just a moment.

Thanks for staying with us around "The Journal."

Our guests are participants in the Bowling Green State University PAWS Therapy Dog Team.

And we're gonna be joined by Carol Treece and Benny here in a moment.

Also Ashley Hartman, who basically, you're sort of in charge of the program.

So talk a little bit about what PAWS is and what it accomplishes, what its goals are, that kind of thing.

Because obviously, we've met a couple of dogs already.

- [Ashley] Yes.

[Steve] We're gonna meet another one here in a moment.

But talk about why PAWS is there and what its objectives are.

- Yeah, you know, we know that student mental health, faculty, staff mental health is so important.

And one activity students always enjoyed was the therapy dog.

So I actually had a social work student who, this was her passion.

She helped start the program and now we have a over 20 dogs that volunteer, folks like Carol or individuals in the community, they volunteer their time at BGSU to bring their dogs.

We have over 160 students that also volunteer with the program.

So the biggest things I hear is just the comfort students can feel, faculty, staff too, but especially if they're missing a dog at home.

- [Steve] Oh, yeah.

- And honestly, the students enjoy getting to know our handlers, you know?

- [Steve] Sure.

- They get to know the dogs.

And something the student volunteers love is being able to see their peers come around a corner and just their faces light up.

- [Steve] Yep.

- So, knowing that they can do that.

So it's been a really unique thing.

- Yeah.

- Rewarding for everybody.

Carol, talk a little about Benny.

Obviously he's a pretty big guy.

Sorry Benny, I didn't mean to disturb you there.

Just quit petting me back there.

Okay.

So, yeah, so Benny obviously is a little bigger than the dogs we had a moment ago.

So tell us about Benny.

- [Carol] So Benny is 165 pound Newfoundland.

We got him at eight weeks old.

- [Steve] And how old is he now?

- [Carol] He's six years old.

- [Steve] Six years old, okay.

- He was 35 pounds when we brought him home at eight weeks.

So I really wanted a therapy dog, and my husband and I are alumni, so when I retired, I wanted a Newfoundland, and I wanted to make him a therapy dog.

We chose brown for a purpose.

- [Steve] Yep, couldn't find an orange one.

- No.

- [Steve] They don't make orange Newfies, all right.

- [Carol] We named him Bennington George, so he has BG initials.

- [Steve] Yep, there we go.

- But he started right before COVID.

He had six months in, and we started at Mauer Cancer Center.

And then COVID hit and we got locked out.

- [Steve] Yep, sure.

- So he had another year off right after we got started.

And then we had been at the university before, through the Alliance of Therapy, they would send out, you know, notifications that they needed them for Fall Fest and just simple things.

But then when the student came in, in '22, I think in April, she started, the PAWS team started, and we had events all the time.

So it worked out great.

- Yeah.

Because it seems like if you look on social media, the dog, you guys are out and about everywhere.

[Carol] Right.

[Steve] It's a daily thing with someone.

Yeah.

- There's so many events.

So that's great.

- Yeah, yeah.

Now, does he have a favorite place or a favorite thing he likes to do?

[Carol] He loves the rec center.

[Steve] Okay.

[Carol] Like Bubbles.

- [Steve] Okay.

- [Carol] The library he likes, except he can't cross the- [Ashley] (laughs) The tiles?

He hates the floor.

- [Steve] Yeah, he doesn't like, I know, the one thing, that's why you noticed we've got the, well, they can't see it, the carpet tiles, because he doesn't like smooth, slippery surfaces.

So yeah, yeah.

- [Carol] But the outside events are like fabulous for him.

So he loves being outside.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Carol] He also reads at the public library with kids, so on Tuesday night, so he loves that.

- Yeah, and I'll bet when, and obviously too, you know, we had the Greyhound, we had the little Yorkie, but obviously when he comes in, you don't miss him when he comes in.

[Carol] No.

[Steve] He's a big guy, but he's so calm and so relaxed.

He's just a big friendly guy.

- [Carol] He usually comes in full force.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

(laughs) - [Carol] And then he's this.

- [Steve] Then he does this.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

Now, when you first looked around, I mean, you said you wanted a Newfie.

Was there a reason why you wanted a Newfoundland?

- Actually, way back, there was a dog in town that was a Bernese Mountain dog, and his name was Walter.

- [Steve] Okay.

- And he read at the public library, and he went to the schools.

And I had a Newfie then, but I wanted a therapy dog after that, because Walter was huge, so that was kind of my goal.

But I don't know, I just, they're water rescue dogs.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Carol] And they're giant, gentle giants.

- [Steve] Yes, yeah.

- [Carol] So like Nana in "Peter Pan."

So they're really, they're just great dogs.

- Yeah, and I mean, and I guess the nice thing about him too, he can accommodate a lot of people, 'cause he can, yeah, it's not like, yeah, there's a lot to love there, he's just a big guy, and he's so calm and relaxed.

I mean, he came in, looked around a little bit, but just settled right in, came up here and sat down and said, "Okay, I'm ready to go."

Now, when you go to look, do you have people who are calling you and wanna become involved?

[Ashley] Oh, yes.

- People with their dogs and that kind of thing?

- Yeah, so when it comes to therapy dogs, all of our folks are certified with the Alliance of Therapy Dogs.

So sometimes I'll put a call out, but I've gotten to know some of our local trainers.

And so typically when folks are looking to get involved, they'll recommend our program.

We have over 70 events in a semester.

So, and it's nice, some of our handlers are retired, so we have daytime things, evening things for those that work.

We're still busy even over the summer.

We work with community partners.

We've done events with The Cocoon, NAMI Wood County, the Juvenile Detention Center, or the JRC, the Juvenile Residential Center.

- [Steve] Right, okay.

- Can't remember the name.

Nursing homes or sometimes folks contact us and they wanna host events at their site.

So they wanna learn more about our program or other universities.

We actually presented at a national conference last year on the program.

So it is something unique, the breadth of it all.

- [Steve] Yeah, that's what I was gonna ask.

I mean, how many universities or organizations have a program like this?

I mean, obviously we're familiar with it because we have one, but then obviously some of the dogs traveled up to the University of Toledo to do that.

So not every school has this program, obviously.

- I think the size and structure is a bit unique.

So I get a lot of folks just learning.

A lot of folks will be a person at a university who owns their own dog and would like to get certified and have the dog with them at work.

But our folks, again, they're all community volunteers.

That student volunteer component I think is a bit unique.

But it's funny, we're so close the end of the semester and I'm still getting people wanting to get trained to volunteer.

And so again, that's kind of a unique thing.

But they do a wonderful job.

I mean, I can't speak enough of our handlers.

Again, they care about our students as well.

And you know, students are away from their families.

So to have this presence and people, they get to know the dog, the handlers- - [Steve] Reminds them a little bit of home.

Yeah, puts them, yeah.

- [Ashley] Oh, yeah.

A student texted me the other day and was like, "Hey, where's Garry and Oreo going?

I see 'em on campus."

Or, you know, "Where's Carol or Benny?"

Or, "Can't wait to see Bubbles."

Like, students get to know, they have little business cards, almost like baseball cards.

So they get to, it's like collect them all.

- [Steve] Like a calling card kind of, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah.

Now we've got just a moment, is there, what is, when Benny's not doing his therapy dog thing, what's his favorite thing to do when he's off the clock?

[Carol] He loves to go to parks for walks.

[Steve] Oh, okay.

- [Carol] That's probably his favorite thing.

- [Steve] Yeah, yeah.

Does he, I know when I, on social media, I know he is out all times of the year.

[Carol] He is.

[Steve] He likes the snow.

- [Carol] He loves the snow.

We have a place in the summer that we go to, we have a lake place, so he's always in the water or on the boat.

He loves boat rides.

- [Steve] Well, I know you've, at times, you've posted pictures of him.

In the morning, he goes out and waits on the boat, like, "Okay, we're ready."

[Carol] Yeah.

Boat ride.

- [Steve] One one day he'll take off without you guys, he'll be out there piloting it around the lake.

So, yeah.

So good, well, thank you so much, Carol Treece, Benny.

Thanks for coming on, Benny, appreciate it.

[Carol] Thank you for having us.

- Yeah, and Ashley.

We'll be back in just a moment.

We're gonna meet another PAWS therapy dog and talk more about the PAWS therapy program.

Yeah, you're my pal.

Yes you are.

(Ashley laughing) Yep, we're buds.

Yep, make yourself at home, we're good.

Okay, back in just a moment.

Thanks for staying with us on "The Journal."

Our guests are participants and members of the PAWS Therapy Program at Bowling Green State University.

And we're joined this segment by Garry Witzler and Oreo, and also by Jadyn Mummey, who's a graduate student, and also is sort of like an events coordinator for the program.

Garry, talk a little about Oreo and how he got into the program.

And you've obviously, when we were talking off camera, have been doing this for quite a while, but now you've got Oreo in the PAWS program.

So talk about kind of your journey into the therapy dog situation.

- Okay, well, Oreo is 10 years old, and my wife made me DNA test him to find out he is really a dog.

(Steve laughing) But actually a lot of people ask his breed.

And he is 51% Chihuahua, 25% Yorkie, and 12 1/2% standard Dachshund.

- [Steve] Okay.

- He's also very, very stubborn.

And he's our eighth therapy dog.

So you have to do certain obedience things to pass the test to get certified.

- Yeah, yeah, talk about, 'cause we've talked, we've met some of the other dogs, but talk about the process, because obviously not every dog is qualified for this.

- [Garry] Right.

So, Oreo.

Oreo.

Oreo.

See, he's not paying attention.

- [Steve] That's okay, he can, yeah.

He's in charge today, so we're good.

- [Garry] Oreo, hey, hey, come here.

Come here, Oreo, sit.

See, Oreo didn't sit.

Now, Oreo, down.

He didn't down.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- So he broke my wife's heart because out of all our therapy dogs, he's the only one that caused her to flunk because he wouldn't do the hand commands.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- [Garry] So I luckily passed, but I kind of helped him along a little.

So she finally passed with him, and it took a year to train him 'cause he is so stubborn.

- [Steve] Oh, okay.

- And come back here.

- [Steve] Yeah, he goes, "You know what?"

He just, he says, "I'm in charge."

It's okay, yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, and so he does have some quirks, like when he's not, it's probably favorite thing to do is to lay on the couch and watch the front door, because we live in the country and the sidelights, there's a little opening at each at the bottoms that he can see.

So he flies out the pet door and barks at any car, anybody that goes down the street.

But he enjoys that.

He does it all night long.

- [Steve] Yep, so he's a good guard dog, huh?

- [Garry] Yeah, yeah.

- [Steve] Yeah, now when you mentioned the breed mixture, no one, you know, if you looked at him and said, "Oh, that's a chihuahua," you'd never know that from the look.

I mean, he's, yeah.

But he's a cute little guy, yes you are.

He says, "Yes, I know I am."

(laughs) "You don't have to tell me I'm cute."

- [Garry] Yeah.

- Yeah.

[Steve] So when you bring him on campus or various places, is there places he likes to go that he's more, he likes to do more than other things?

Or is he just good with everything?

- [Garry] The people that had him didn't really take him anywhere.

- [Steve] Ah, okay.

- And so he likes to go anywhere as long as he gets to go.

So he doesn't really seem to have a favorite spot.

He's pretty much comfortable wherever he goes.

You know, we go to the, I think it's called Olscamp Building.

- [Steve] Yep, Olscamp Hall.

- [Garry] Go to the student union, we go to the library, we go to the rec, and try to go to a lot of things.

- [Steve] Sure.

- [Garry] Because I'm retired and he wants to be retired, but not yet.

- [Steve] Yeah.

- [Garry] He's got a ways to go.

- [Steve] He likes to go out there and just see lots of people and do lots of things.

- [Garry] Yeah.

- Well that's good.

- Yeah, and they love him, and matter of fact- - [Steve] You've got your little calling card here, I noticed.

Yeah, we can get these.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And it says, yeah, so there's Oreo's little card, you can see that.

And it says, "Oreo, thanks for," it says, "Thanks for the visit."

So, yeah, yeah, nice.

- [Garry] So we give those to students and people, and especially for the students, so that if they're maybe having a down day, they can look at the card- - [Steve] Yeah, and reminds them of, yeah, makes 'em feel better.

- [Garry] Makes them feel a lot better.

- [Steve] Nice, and he's your reading pal.

A little bookmark to go with it too, so yeah.

- Yeah.

- He's a busy guy.

You're a busy guy, aren't you?

Yeah, you are.

- [Garry] He tries to stay busy.

- Yeah, yeah.

Now Jadyn, you, of course, are involved in coordinating a lot of the events where the dogs like Oreo and the other ones we've met today have get involved.

So talk about your role with the PAWS program.

- Yeah, absolutely.

So for my role with the PAWS Program, I am the event coordinator for the Office of Health and Wellness.

And with that, we do a lot of different programs that focus on different development domains, specifically like mental health, substance abuse, emotional health, a variety of different things.

So we utilize the therapy dogs in a lot of different ways to connect students and to also help students with the learning process of a lot of these domains.

Because a lot of the time when we talk about certain subjects, it can be a little intense, or students might feel a little pushback of engaging with these pieces.

So what we do is we normally will have the therapy dogs there to participate with them, so students feel like they can have either a little distraction from the content that we're talking about or can calm down a little bit with what we're engaging with.

Or we just utilize them as a great way of creating a safer space for students.

And that's mostly how we utilize them.

We utilize them with our big events, such as our late night programming that we do.

But we also use them for a lot of smaller events or even getting students to use them for their meetings or before exams.

A lot of different purposes for these therapy dogs.

- Well, I was gonna say, obviously we're coming up, you know, toward the end of the semester.

- [Jadyn] Yeah.

- [Steve] Things get a lot more intense.

- [Jadyn] Yes.

- [Steve] There's a lot of rush, there's a lot of things going on.

So this would be perfect time for them to be around.

- [Jadyn] Oh, absolutely.

- [Steve] Get everybody relaxed, just kind of, as you said, take their mind off this a little bit, just enough so they can calm down, relax, and say, okay- - [Jadyn] Absolutely.

- "I'm ready to go now, I can face the issues that come up."

- [Jadyn] Yeah.

- The tests or whatever.

Yeah, yeah.

- [Garry] So there's a, besides the test that we take so that our dogs are certified, also the university takes us for some training so that we know how to behave around the students, which is really important.

- [Steve] Sure.

- And we appreciate the fact that they're willing to do that for us.

And then it's a win-win for everybody.

- [Steve] Yeah, and as you mentioned, he didn't have a lot of socializing and when he was younger.

So for him, this is great.

So he probably enjoys being out with everybody, as you said.

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Garry] He's a good dog.

- [Steve] When he's, you mentioned of course, when he is at home with you, is there anything else he does when he's not on the clock as a therapy dog?

Does he have other hobbies or things that he likes to do?

Or is it mostly just, watches the world out there?

- Well, you know, all dogs really need a job, whether it's protecting, or whether it's doing the therapy work or service work, but we really don't do a lot.

So, I mean, we do this, but at home he, like I said, he just kinda lays around, and he likes to go to the park and take the walks.

We do that.

We go to Side Cup Park a lot.

- [Steve] Oh, okay, yeah, beautiful park along the river down there.

- Yeah, yeah.

- [Steve] Yeah, Maumee River, yeah.

- Yeah, and we have another dog at home that couldn't pass the test, because she was in five homes her first year and a half, and even though we've had her all this time, she doesn't do it.

But they're buddies.

They play together.

- Yeah, well that's good.

So yeah, I know Jadyn too, I know that one of the important parts of this, and I looked at the website.

Obviously there's a whole list of different dogs out there, but social media is a pretty important part of this program and the wellness program in general.

So talk a little about about that.

- Yeah, so we utilize our social medias to get students to be aware of the many events that we're doing and also about different trainings such as volunteer opportunities, especially for students who wanna get connected to the BGSU PAWS Team, whether that's through the Friends of PAWS or through our volunteering services for the BGSU Serves.

People can follow us on our Instagram at BGSU PAWS Team or the Office of Health and Wellness to learn more about how therapy dogs are utilized on campus, but also where they're going to be next, and how students can get more involved with being in the therapy dogs, whether that is just being a visitor with the therapy dogs, joining another student organization to get more connected to other folks as well who are interested in therapy dogs, but also to learn more about health and wellness topics that are happening on our campus.

- [Steve] Great, cool.

Yeah, well thank you so much.

- [Jadyn] Absolutely.

- [Steve] Wish we had more time to spend with you and the dogs and everybody, because it's been a really enlightening experience for us, and the dogs are just so cool, and the program's obviously working well for everybody.

So, Jadyn Mummey, thank you very much.

Garry Witzler and Oreo, thank you for being here.

You can check us out at wbgu.org.

You can watch us every Thursday night at 8:00 PM on WBGU PBS.

We'll see you next time.

Good night and good luck.

(upbeat music)