PUPPY LOVE:

Volunteer Jason Redman, his sons Maximus, left, and Rasmus and their Share-A-Pet therapy dog Tequila spend time with Woodrow "Woody" Brown at the Broward Institute in Pompano Beach.

HI-RISER, February 14, 2008

Group hopes to bring pets to condo residents
By Chris Guanche
Staff writer

At some assisted living facilities in Broward County, the weekly visits from dogs are highly anticipated events on the activities schedule.
And most of those dogs belong to volunteers from Share-A-Pet, a local non profit group that provides pet therapy to assisted living centers and condos.
The group, which is based in Oakland Park, provides training, certification and insurance for volunteers and their pets. Although Share-A-Pet now has about 500 volunteers, it began as a small venture, said Sachin Mayi, the group's founder and executive director. In 2003, Mayi volunteered at the Broward Children's Center in Fort Lauderdale.
Breaking past barriers was difficult, and Mayi said he observed a change when he started bringing his Labrador retriever named Tenzin with him.
"The noticeable difference between how long it took him to break the nice and how long it took me was a miracle," Mayi said.
Mayi said he didn't know about pet-assisted therapy when he first began volunteering, but he soon decided to plunge into it and created Share-A-Pet.
Although mostly focused on South Florida, the group also has volunteers working in San Francisco and the New England area, with talks to set up in Ohio as well.
A visiting animal can have an immediate effect on assisted living facility and condo residents, said Elizabeth Victoria, a physical therapy assistant at the Broward Institute in Pompano Beach.
"They get motivated, and you can see that they get very happy," Victoria said. "It's like having children around."
At the Manor Pines Nursing Home in Wilton Manors, visits from Share-A-Pet dogs are a weekly tradition for many residents, according to Activities Director Margie Perez. In addition to dogs, there's also visits involving cats and an occasional horse.
"They know (the animals) are coming and they look forward to it," Perez said.
Share-A-Pet's certification programs are designed to ensure that a dog can properly work in an environment with other people and minimize the possibility of an accident.
A newer program also focuses on training a dog to be well-behaved in a condo environment and assist an owner in getting a doctor's prescription for a therapy pet.
Many condo associations have rules against pets, but Mayi said his organization doesn't deal directly with condos.
While Share-A-Pet focuses on finding and training an animal, it's up to a condo owner's attorney to work out an accomodation with the board, he said.
In offering assistance to condo owners, Mayi said his goal was to target people who are living alone but haven't reached the stage of moving into an assisted living facility.
"They're living alone, have no companionship, and they're depressed," Mayi said, "If that's something that can be remedied through a well behaved therapy dog that is not bothering the other residents, then I'm all for it."
For more information on Share-A-Pet services, call 954-630-8763, or visit www.shareapet.org.