Meet Freddy, the Pet Therapy Dog
Two weeks after Cynthia Guldberg’s almost 13-year-old Meadow greyhound passed in October 2023, she decided to foster an incoming Aussie hound thinking she could provide respite and a foundation before leaving for a forever home.
Two days later – she foster failed. (Is that a record?) Freddy found his forever home and from Day 1, proved to be cat tolerant in harmony with Miss Kitty.
While Cynthia still worked part-time for Banner University Medical, Freddy was enrolled in The Complete Canine’s five-week beginner class in January 2024. There he learned to stay, loose leash walk, leave it, heel and more. And like any good teacher and pupil they practiced every day. After a while, they signed up for the five-week intermediate class, which reviewed the beginner class as well as added stay, come, wait, attention, return, etc. While the dog is learning new skills, the handler is learning, too. If the handler missteps, so does the dog.
As Cynthia was getting ready to retire, she wondered what was going to keep her busy and fulfilled. One day she asked Loren Dawn to bring her greyhound Mochi to the office and saw how the staff’s spirits lifted. While Mochi was not an official pet therapy dog, she had those intuitive magical powers like many greyhounds do. Loren suggested that Freddy become a pet therapy dog and recommended a meetup with Genie Joseph from the Human Animal Connection. Genie confirmed that Freddy was a good candidate with super powers.
In July 2024, Cynthia applied to the Alliance of Therapy Dog Testing and Freddy received a health verification from his veterinarian. In September 2024, Team Guldberg was tested at TMC auditorium along with three other human/dog teams; they were assessed on about 20 actions and behaviors over a period of two hours.
Team Guldberg passed and the next step to certification included three in-person visits to different venues (a psychiatric unit, adult day care and physical therapy unit) while being evaluated by Alliance personnel. Bingo! He passed.
Since Cynthia was already employed by Banner Hospital and her nursing license is still valid, she did not need to be vetted and had permission to take Freddy to the University of Arizona Cancer Center every Thursday where he interacts with waiting room patients and also visits doctors, nurses and techs. One doctor always gives him a special treat and another doctor calls him, “a miracle dog with exemplary energy.” As a patient was leaving, she noticed Freddy and bent down while sobbing to whisper in his ear that she was just diagnosed with cancer and Freddy was the first to hear the news. She began kissing him and he leaned into her … greyhound therapy.
Every Monday he goes to Atria Memory Care, where patients talk only to Freddy. On these visits, the social worker accompanies them. The first time they visited patient A, she sat there with her eyes closed and Cynthia gently put the patient’s hand on Freddy and said, “This is Freddy.” The second time visiting patient A, Cynthia repeated what she did the first week and this time, the patient independently stroked him. The third time visiting patient A, Cynthia repeated and this time the patient stroked him and said, “Freddy.” The social worker was amazed.
While this was not on the assessment test, Freddy will not get in an elevator and that’s okay. Greyhounds have their quirks and people have phobias. Cynthia does not force the issue.
When Freddy puts on his special collar and vest, he knows he has a job to do. As for Cynthia she has thrived on the mental focus of seeing him blossom, building a strong bond for Team Guldberg and giving back to community service. You can reach Cynthia at baukie7@gmail.com.
Written by Karyn Zoldan, volunteer on communications and marketing teams.