Friendly pet therapy dogs

The Lort Smith Animal Hospital has promoted the idea of pet therapy for many years and runs a service in which volunteers take their good-natured dogs to visit people in hospitals, aged care homes and rehab. centres.

Two volunteers and their dogs were crossing the hospital foyer this afternoon; the dogs were both Poodle crosses and although they had the same soft, curly, coffee-coloured coats the similarities ended there.

Shep was the younger dog; rangy and with long legs, he pranced across the foyer looking all about, alert and interested in everything happening about him.  When the volunteers brought the dogs over for a closer inspection Shep put his head on my knee and gave me a quick lick of approval.

Skip was an older dog with a grey muzzle, long floppy ears and a calm, restrained manner.  He’d seen it all before and was content to sit back and watch.  When they walked away, Skip’s short legs had to work overtime to keep up with Shep.

There are no prizes for guessing which dog was the Labrador cross and which one was the Spaniel cross.