Memorial Healthcare System has a new therapy dog, and he will start visiting patients and staff Monday. The two-year-old dog, Dominos, will be the seventh certified service dog in the system’s animal assistant therapy program, according to Tracy Meltzer, a nurse practitioner at Memorial Regional Hospital.
Dominos trained from birth with a service dog foundation before earning certification. He is spending a week with his handler at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood to adjust to the new setting before joining other dogs that work with children there.
Most dogs in the program retire around age 10, though some have worked longer. Meltzer said one dog kept coming in for a few hours a day until it was 14. The dogs know up to 80 commands, and the team uses the most therapeutic ones with patients.
Meltzer said Dominos is playful and likes to make people laugh, and that reliability matters in this work. Each handler team sets its own visiting schedule based on patient needs at the hospital.
