Last updated: 18 Apr, 2024
Published on: 11 Apr, 2024
The special rescue dogs changing lives ✨
Meet Danielle - a psychologist and pet lover who found the most incredible way to combine her two passions!
Henry, the special doggo who started it all.
Danielle and her husband have adopted (and fostered) a number of pets, including Henry who they’d adopted from Homeless Hounds Animal Rescue via PetRescue and Sophie, a foster-fail who joined their family permanently.
Being a gentle, people-loving boy, they decided Henry would be the perfect candidate to become a Delta Therapy dog, which Danielle had found out about from her aunt in South Africa.
Danielle says about the Delta Therapy Dog training:
“I am passionate about palliative and aged care so I got trained as a palliative care volunteer with Peninsula Home Hospice and loved volunteering in that space. But I always wanted to utilise the healing power of animals in my work, I wanted to combine my volunteer work with the hospice with the healing power of animals, so, I decided to work with Henry to become a Delta therapy dog team (dog and handler). This allowed me to combine my biggest passions to make a positive difference. Delta Therapy Dog training requires passes in three critical areas: the dog's temperament, your own suitability to be a volunteer and the connection between you and your dog.”
"Once Henry graduated as a Delta Therapy Dog, he had a wonderful career with me by his side as a therapy dog, helping folks in palliative care and aged care in our local area - being a place of comfort, bringing smiles, giving kisses and hugs widely till we reluctantly retired him due to his age.
I felt like I had an obligation to share him with the world. When you have this opportunity and the time to volunteer in this way, it's like a gift. We took him to palliative care and aged care facilities, and he was just amazing.”
Continuing Henry’s legacy with Ollie and Mia
After sweet Henry sadly crossed the rainbow bridge a few years ago, and Danielle was ready, she jumped onto PetRescue again to search for a new furry family member. She says about the search:
“I’ve always had big dogs; I really didn’t care what they looked like. I had no preconceived ideas, and I’ve had all sorts of dogs; all up with fosters, I’ve had about twelve dogs over the years. It’s more that when I see them, I connect with something in their photos, but I wasn’t looking for a specific breed.”
It was then that she locked eyes with sweet Ollie’s photo. Ollie was in the care of country kats and k9s rescue in NSW. Danielle and her husband knew he was special, and adopted him without meeting him - the first time they met was at the NSW and VIC border, with Sophie in tow to meet her new brother!
It wasn’t too long after Ollie had settled into his new home that the couple decided to grow their furry family once again, which is when they came across Mia’s sweet little shaggy face on PetRescue.
Mia was in the care of the wonderful folks at Ballarat Animal Shelter, and Danielle said about the experience:
“They gave me lots of information about her, and they were so excited Mia was going to go to a good home. She was being used to temperament test other dogs because she’s so friendly, she was such a happy-go-lucky puppy!
The first meet went okay - Sophie (our foster fail who has since passed) required a bit of time to warm up and get to know other dogs, but once she did, she was smitten with them.”
From rescue dogs to therapy dogs
We were overjoyed to receive Danielle’s recent email about Mia and Ollie, who recently graduated as Delta Therapy dogs. Check out their adorable graduation photos! They now volunteer with Danielle at a palliative care unit.
When asked about the impact the pair have, Danielle puts it beautifully;
“They bring comfort and calm. They’ll put their head on a person’s shoulder or go sit next to them, giving people the chance to interact with them and get comfort from them. When someone is in palliative care, they’re just being there for someone and bringing them comfort - it’s just an unconditional way of interacting. Just being around them and patting them gives people oxytocin and can relieve their mental and physical pain to some extent.
The ability of dogs to be present, non-judgemental and kind and just bringing comfort by being exactly who they are is incredibly powerful. Even some people with ‘no volunteers’ signs on their doors see the dogs and ask them to come in!
Even for nurses and hospital staff, when they’ve had a really hard day with a lot of loss, they’ll just sit on the floor with them and bring them comfort. They also support people who are there visiting loved ones and are in a really hard position and bring them some joy and comfort.
Ollie and Mia are very intuitive and are exactly what they need to be for different people and kids in particular. My nephew has ADHD and sees the world a little differently, and he just loves hanging out with them.”
The power of connection
Danielle had this to say about her experience finding her dogs on PetRescue;
‘‘PetRescue makes the process so much easier; having a central place, where you can come across dogs like Mia and Ollie, who you wouldn't go looking for because you didn't know that's what you wanted, or needed, or where to go. I think it's really opened up opportunities to save dogs and match people up with dogs who otherwise wouldn't have been able to find each other.
It was PetRescue that connected us with Mia and Ollie as well as our other dog Henry. It just makes these really special connections.”
Start your search for a furry best friend here.
Love happy tails? Read more here.