September 13, 2024, 4:39 am | Read time: 8 minutes

The presence of a dog can sometimes work wonders. One very special area of application is working with coma patients. All it takes is for the therapy dogs to lie beside them and keep them company.

“People learn to feel themselves again”

PETBOOOK: Dominique, you visit really difficult cases with your dogs, such as coma patients. How do you help these people?
Dominique Sophie Sewing: “It depends on the stage of the coma. My aim is to allow the person to feel their environment again. To do this, I place the dog in bed with the patient, for example, with a special blanket or on top of the person.”

You put the dogs on the bed?
“Yes, they have to have a certain weight so that the patients can feel the animal’s body. The bigger the dog, the larger the area I can place on the patient’s body. In this way, the person learns to feel themselves again. You can also do this with small dogs, but my way of working is different.”

What else can the dog do for the coma patient?
“For instance, I might let the patient feel the dog licking paste from their hand. There are even coma patients who start stroking the dog.”

“My job as a medical assistant had become too loveless for me”

Who hires you?
“It’s usually the care homes. They appreciate the fact that the dogs have a calming effect on the residents, for example.”

You set up your own business with your therapy dog team. How did that come about?
“My job as a medical assistant had become too technical and too loveless for me. There’s no time left for people. You have to imagine, for example, an elderly lady who has just had an ECG and has been given a bad diagnosis. You don’t have time to respond to her and comfort her. Instead, everything has to happen quickly so that the next patient can be seen. Our entire healthcare system is going downhill. Through the dogs, I can give people warmth and a touch of independence.”

What happened next?
“I trained part-time with the German Professional Association for Therapy and Disabled Companion Dogs. My aim was to bring people and animals together. I train my dogs myself. The professional association then tests them.”

How long does the training take?
“It takes a year and consists of several partial tests. I take my dogs with me as puppies and train them. However, they must be at least 24 months old at the time of the test.”

How do you test the dogs?
“You have to do an initial test. This checks whether the dog is suitable to be a therapy dog. Similar to the temperament test, attention is paid to how the dog reacts. It is allowed to back away but not move forward. Extreme fearfulness is a no-go. The examiners test, for example, whether the dog allows itself to be held and how it reacts to loud noises or people walking in a strange way. If the dog passes this test, it can take part in the final test at the care home. “

“There are no therapy dog lines”

What kind of character does a dog need to have to be able to do this job?
“It has to be open and enjoy interacting with people. It also has to be able to handle this psychologically. I prefer to choose puppies from my breeding program that are a bit more lively. I’d rather slow a dog down than have him be reserved. It is important to me that he intrinsically likes to go to people and likes to have something to do with them. If he doesn’t like being with people, that’s not exactly ideal. You have to keep an eye on what you can do with which dog. One likes to play; the other prefers to be cuddled. You have to consider these needs when choosing which dog goes to which resident or patient.

Do you have interested parties who would like to buy a therapy dog from your Australian Shepherd breed?
“Yes, but I tell my prospective buyers straight away that there are no therapy dog lines. That’s nonsense. One cannot guarantee that the puppy will be suitable as a therapy dog. One should consider more suitable breeds like the Labrador, Poodle, or others. The Aussie is also not the perfect therapy dog, as it is always possible that he will suddenly not like strangers when he is one or two years old. You have to be aware of that. But he’s just right for my purposes. Because Aussies bring a certain energy with them, and that gets people out of their rut. There is also a lot of laughter. At the same time, my dogs have a high level of basic obedience, so they walk nicely alongside the rollator or wheelchair.”

You started your own business with animal-assisted intervention. Who is this job suitable for?
“You have to be empathetic and resilient. People tell me things that even the carers can’t get out of people. There are times when you need a thick skin.”

Do you sometimes take such stories home with you?
“Rarely. I tend to take home the fact that our healthcare policy is failing and that many people are suffering as a result.”

Can you make a living from your work?
“If you have a therapeutic background and can integrate the dog well, it works. Occupational therapists are good at this, for example. Otherwise, it’s more of a profession that’s suitable as a secondary occupation.”

“A dying person wanted to see my dog and me again”

What were your best experiences?
“Definitely the coma patient who suddenly started speaking slowly again. Nobody had expected that. It has to be said that this is an absolute exception. I’m not Jesus with my dogs, and I can’t work miracles.”

What other stories did you find particularly moving?
“After the coronavirus period, a senior citizen with dementia recognized me after three-quarters of a year, even though he no longer knew his own name. That was also very moving. Or a dying person who wanted to see my dog and me again and fell asleep peacefully two days later.”

Do you look after the dying?
“Yes. Dying is not a bad thing. It can often be a peaceful process. We always marginalize dying; it takes place behind closed doors. But that’s wrong. Dying is part of life, and most people die peacefully.”

Do you generally look after the residents until they die?
“I provide care for as long as the residents need it.”

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“I would advise against simply bringing a dog into a care home without proper preparation!”

Simply making older adults happy with a dog in a retirement home. Is it that easy?
“It’s a legal gray area if the dog is not a trained therapy companion dog or therapy dog. Because if something happens to a stranger in the home as a result of the dog’s visit, the liability insurance may not pay out. You must have professional liability insurance for these purposes.”

What can happen if I take my dog to a retirement home just for fun and let older people cuddle him?
“If the dog is not optimally trained, it may injure the elderly. Older people have thin skin. If the dog scratches them or is too rough, they may start to bleed profusely. What happens again and again is that tablets fall down or are already lying on the floor. If the dog ingests them, it could be life-threatening.

It can also happen that older people feed their dogs food that they are not allowed to eat. Care should also be taken with germs. You need to know your way around here. You need to know which diseases can be transmitted from humans to dogs and vice versa. There are many things that play a role. I don’t recommend just taking your dog to a retirement home!

Quite apart from the fact that the dogs must have a high level of basic obedience and a high frustration tolerance. They must be resilient if handled roughly and not show aggressive behavior. All of this requires you to be able to read your dog very well so that you can take him out of a situation at an early stage if necessary.”