Craig Mischo, Deputy Director of State Government Affairs, Bayer U.S.
Puppies just make people happy. Take my 4-month-old puppy, Charlie. She does that and more.
Charlie is a therapy dog. When people meet her, they open up.
For example, one elderly woman living in a transitional care facility hadn’t spoken for weeks due in part to Parkinson’s disease. When she sees Charlie, she says, “Hi, Charlie,” and answers, “yes,” when my wife asks if she’d like to pet Charlie.
Speaking of my wife, she’s a big part of how Charlie came into our lives. Michelle and I both wanted to do more volunteering. Michelle was so dedicated that she quit her full-time job to be more available to do good works with a therapy dog. Through my role at Bayer working alongside colleagues in our Animal Health business, I saw firsthand the positive impact pets could make on people’s lives.
The decision was made; we set out to find a dog with the right temperament to be a therapy animal. We looked all over the country and eventually met a woman who trains police and therapy dogs in Indianapolis. She had an Australian Labradoodle with a demeanor that seemed suited to therapy.
That Australian Labradoodle was Charlie, who soon became part of our family.
Charlie started training right away. She stayed with the trainer in Indianapolis for almost four months. For her graduation, my wife and I joined her for two full days of training ourselves so we could learn to be therapy dog handlers.
Today, our training continues at home. We practice Charlie’s commands daily.
It’s not all work though. We do a lot of playing too. Charlie is an absolute snow dog. When our yard is covered in snow, Charlie goes nuts running around and burying her head.
But when we put Charlie’s therapy vest on, she immediately settles and knows it’s time to go to work. Her sense is amazing. When she’s around little kids, for example, she’s so gentle and mellow.
One of Charlie’s most important jobs is visiting a children’s library in a high-need area. Some of the kids don’t have coats, but they’ll still walk to the library in the cold so they can read with Charlie. She’ll lay her head on their laps while they read to her.
Just the other day, an 8-year-old girl came with her teenage brother and dad to read with Charlie for the first time. There weren’t as many kids there as usual, so the little girl read to Charlie for about 20 minutes. My wife, Michelle, noticed that the dad and brother were very patient and let the girl sit next to Charlie for as long as she wanted, which ended up being over an hour. As the girl was leaving, she told Michelle that her mom had recently died. She said her mom had really loved dogs so she wanted to come be with Charlie for her mom.
Charlie is a comfort and joy for many people — for the homeless man who comes into the library hoping Charlie will lick his face, for the frail senior citizen who won’t accept any visitors in her room except Charlie, for the 22-year-old library visitor with autism who’s become protective of Charlie, and for my wife and me.
I knew that by working with a therapy dog, we could impact people’s lives. What I didn’t know is just how truly big that impact could be. I can’t wait to start taking Charlie to children’s hospitals and cancer wards when she’s a bit older. I can already imagine the smiles on the kids’ faces. After all, puppies just make people happy.
