Discover

By MAEGAN MCGOWEN
Staff Writer

Lulu, a spunky West Highland terrier, waits for a command from her owner, Linda Dillard.

"Sit Lulu," she said firmly, and Lulu sat.

Ms. Dillard and Lulu are a team, and each week they volunteer with Hearts in Harmony, a group of Certified Pet Therapy Teams who provide animal therapy for at-risk, neglected and abused children.

"Everything that we do here is geared in some way or another toward a healthy behavior," said Ruth Compton, a founding member of Hearts in Harmony. "It's all about trusting, sharing, respecting, self-confidence and tolerance -- things that these children have probably not had modeled for them."

According to Ms. Compton, Pet Therapy offers unconditional love and teaches respect, empathy and trust to children who have been victims of abuse or who are at risk of abuse.

Children are able to walk the dogs, brush them, cuddle with them and guide them through obedience courses.

"When we're doing the obedience course, we encourage the child to encourage the dog because they are doing well and they've improved," he said. "We want to let them know there's a positive way to make a connection and be gentle with the dogs. We take turns and respect that what one dog can do, another can't. The children have to learn not only to respect the dogs, but to respect us and their peers."

Hearts in Harmony began with Ms. Dillard, Marilynn Pryor and Ruth Compton visiting a Royal Family Kids' Camp.

"We were allowed to take two dogs, and we fell in love with the foster care kids," Ms. Compton said. "We knew we wanted to reach out to foster care kids and children that are in facilities."

According to Ms. Dillard, each woman in the group had wanted to work with their dogs, and a few of them were CASA volunteers, so pairing up dogs and children seemed like the perfect combination.

"We loved the kids, the kids loved the dogs, and the dogs loved the kids," Ms. Dillard said. "It was a win, win, win situation."

Patty Morris, another founding member, explained the process the dogs go through before they become therapy dogs.

"I found out about the group through Ruth, who is kind of like my mom," she said. "I told her about my dog Elle, and that I wanted to do agility or something like that. She told me to try and get her into therapy and helped me to train her correctly. She also helped me prepare Elle for the obedience test for therapy dogs."

Each dog must pass through testing before they are allowed to work with children.

"They have to know the standard obedience commands like sit, stay, come, lay down and leave it, which is if they see a treat, they have to be able to leave it alone and not touch it," she said. "They have to pass being hugged, having children yelling in a group and loud noises. They must be unaffected by all of that, and Elle passed very well."

According to Morris, Elle's sweet, tender disposition encourages the children not to be afraid of her and to be tender with her.

"I've definitely seen a transformation in the boys," she said. "I was here the other day, and I saw their faces light up when they saw the dogs. I think they look forward to it and it's helped them. It's a reward to them to be able to be with the dogs."

Sometimes children don't feel like playing with the dogs, so volunteers provide books and magazines about dogs they can read or Lego's to play with.

"There's lots of times that some of the boys may come in and be withdrawn," Ms. Compton said. "We have to be inventive. The kids seem to really love the toys and you'd be surprised how many dog-related things they'd build."

The dogs also help cheer children up in their own unique ways.

Simon, a lanky Doberman, is an expert at bringing smiles to sad faces.

"The boys will come in and be really dejected and sitting with their heads in their hands," Ms. Compton said. "Simon will go over and nudge under their hands until they finally pet him and snap out of it."

Ms. Compton said the children also love to use the Polaroid camera to take photos with the dogs.

"These dogs become their families," she said. "It's like how we have pictures of our family, they have pictures of the dogs. For many of them, the dogs are all the family they have."

For Compton, the best part of Hearts in Harmony is the changes she observes in the children she works with.

"Of course, part of it is that I've finally been able to work my dog, and I've known all along that he's a special boy," she said, her eyes filling with tears as she petted Simon. "It's that in combination with the fact that I get to put something positive in these boys' lives, every time we come.

In the simplest ways we are helping in letting a dog do what a dog does: love and accept them."

For more information visit www.heartsinharmonytx.org or call Ruth Compton 903-825-6466 or Marilynn Pryor at 903-842-3539.

Linda Dillard gets a kiss from her West Highland terrier Lulu. Dillard and Lulu are a team and each volunteer with Hearts in Harmony.
(Staff Photo By Herb Nygren Jr.)