Meet Bob & Dottie: The Facility Dogs of Tufts Medical
At Tufts Medical Center, two very special team members are helping patients (and staff!) cope with the challenges of hospital life. Bob and Dottie aren’t your typical clinicians. They’re facility dogs, specially trained to provide comfort, connection, and calm in a busy hospital environment. But what exactly is a facility dog? And how do they differ from therapy dogs or service dogs?
We sat down with Cat and Andrea, the incredible Certified Child Life Specialists behind Tufts' Facility Dog Program, to learn more about Bob and Dottie, the science behind their work, and the meaningful impact they make every single day. From IV placements to difficult diagnoses, these pawfessionals are redefining what it means to be part of the healthcare team.
What’s the difference between a facility dog and a therapy dog or service dog?
Before we answer this, we should probably go over what our roles as Certified Child Life Specialists (CCLS) are. CCLS are healthcare clinicians who work within the multidisciplinary team and our main goals are to lessen traumatic experiences, promote positive coping, foster proper development, normalize the hospital setting, and encourage family-centered care. Facility dogs are highly trained dogs that have been typically bred for work. They come from service dog organizations; however, they complete different educational requirements that focus on remaining calm in the hospital setting, being able to settle in unfamiliar areas, and safely supporting patients alongside their handlers during goal-based interventions.
They differ than someone’s individual service dog because they are working within their chosen “facility” whether that be a hospital, courthouse, school etc. A facility dog’s job is to support anyone within the hospital community while partnering with their hospital handler fulfilling a clinical role. At our hospital, Bob and Dorothy have access to nearly every part of the hospital besides the actual operating rooms, transplant units, or any rooms where a patient has something contagious.
Therapy dogs are in individual's pet from home that passes basic therapy dog training and temperament checks and is onboarded to visit the hospital several hours a week on a volunteer basis. Due to their volunteer status, their visits are geared towards socialization and their handlers are not privy to patient information. They are typically only allowed to visit in public areas of the hospital and on regular medical floors. Whether a dog is a therapy dog, service dog or a facility dog, they are each important and crucial in their own way!
What’s a typical day like for a facility dog at Tufts Medical Center?
In order for us to provide support to as many people in the Monday-Friday work week, Bob and Dottie work slightly different hours. A lot happens before the dogs actually get onsite but for time’s sake, we will just cover what happens once at the hospital! Typically, hospital handlers will check the computer and charting system for any new patient consults, urgent needs, and for scheduled patients that we already have on our radar for the day. As clinicians, we are able to prioritize who we see based on the goal of the intervention, for example, if the visit is time-sensitive and if the consult is even appropriate. Our days are always full of lots of education to families and staff on how to best incorporate facility dogs into the care team! Many of our day-to-day sessions consist of one-on-one patient interventions. We see patients of all ages and stages of development ranging from our tiniest infants and their families being cared for within our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit to older adults receiving critical care. Each afternoon, one of our handlers will typically co-facilitate a group on an inpatient unit and will integrate Bob or Dorothy into those groups based on the patients’ needs. No day is truly “planned out” because it’s a hospital and things are ALWAYS changing! Each dog and handler may see anywhere from 6-15 patients per day based on how long each intervention is or if they are facilitating a group session.
Throughout the day we are constantly assessing the needs of our dogs. Do they need to go outside to go to the bathroom? Are they stressed out? Do they need to run around to release some energy after working hard to stay calm during a long patient procedure/intervention? Are they emotionally drained after an emotionally heavy interaction? The safety and wellbeing of Bob and Dottie always comes first! We are grateful for their service and since they rely on us handlers for their wellbeing, we never want to push them and jeopardize their health / happiness!
Can you share a moment where you saw the dogs make a real difference for a patient?
There are so many moments that we have witnessed our facility dogs truly making a difference for patients and their families. However, there are a few that truly stand out. Between seeing a young and active child with autism receive deep pressure from Dorothy during his IV placement and be able to remain still, witnessing Bob place his head at exactly the right moment on a patient's lap when they were receiving difficult news, to seeing the impact Dorothy and Bob have made when escorting children of adult patients into an intensive care unit. Because Tufts Medical Center is an acute care hospital, we tend to see patients that are very sick and need to spend many months at the hospital receiving treatment or waiting for a transplant. Not only is it very difficult for patients to cope, it is also very stressful for their entire family unit.
There was one specific young adult patient with cognitive delays that ended up being in the hospital for well over 125 days waiting for a heart transplant. Our Child Life team, along with Bob and Dorothy, became an integral part of her day-to-day healthcare experience. Between helping to normalize the hospital environment, supporting her through medical interventions, empowering her to speak up and advocate for her needs, and fostering her growth and development, our program made a significant impact on her entire hospital experience. We know that Tufts Medical Center provides amazing medical care; however, witnessing firsthand the positive impact from a psychosocial and emotional level that Bob and Dorothy were able to provide for this particular patient and her whole family was really special. They gave her something positive to look forward to, supported her during many of her most difficult moments, and became trusted members of her healthcare team. Every time she comes back for follow-up care, she reaches out for support and looks forward to seeing her friends Bob and Dorothy.
How do the dogs support staff as well as patients?
Bob and Dottie support our hospital staff just as much as they support the patients and their families. Because they are considered hospital employees and are consistent members of the healthcare team, they see many staff throughout the hospital on a regular basis. Hospitals are stressful environments, even for healthcare professionals. Having the opportunity to pause for a moment and spend time petting Bob and Dottie can help team members reset or become a little more grounded. It can also be extremely therapeutic for staff to be able to witness their patients engage in animal assisted therapy. Seeing Bob or Dottie walk down a hallway or enter a hospital unit tends to always bring many smiles. Bob and Dottie are also utilized as a resource during difficult staff debrief sessions or are brought to certain units that have had an especially heavy or stressful day. Community and connection are important values within our program.
What role do they play in helping people cope with difficult diagnoses or procedures?
People often ask what kind of “tricks” Bob and Dorothy are able to do. We reply that their main “trick” is modeling their calm demeanor to those around them. Their soft fur provides tactile stimulation, their weight can provide deep pressure which helps calm the body, and their cuteness provides obvious distraction from the regular views of a hospital environment. CCLSs help to educate and essentially “translate” what the medical team wants to convey to a patient using developmentally appropriate language and teaching aids. People are often more receptive and open to new information when they are calm and engaged in an activity like petting a dog. The dogs help model a calm behavior, while as clinicians we are able to support the patient, discuss specifics about the new diagnosis, and support them through painful/challenging procedures.
For example, in the pediatric infusion clinic we will have a dog up on the bed with a patient while they get an IV placed from a nurse. The dog’s head can be on the patient’s lap, which provides deep pressure stimulation, their calm breathing helps to remind patients to breathe steadily, and as CCLSs we often talk to the patient directly offering breathing cues or playing a game that engages the mind away from the initial poke of the needle. As CCLSs we are constantly assessing and reassessing the patient’s demeanor, signs of stress from the working dog, and collaborating with the health care team to help patients reach their medical goals in the least traumatic ways possible. Every situation is unique and our goal is to meet each patient where they are at using Bob and Dorothy as an additional resource and make adjustments accordingly based on what is needed.
What are Bob and Dottie like when they’re “off the clock”?
They are super sweet regular dogs that love to play with toys and take naps on the couch! A couple things tell Bob and Dottie that they are working: their vests, their leashes and the environment of the hospital. They take plenty of breaks in-between seeing patients and even though they are still in the hospital they know they can play with each other, run around, and relax when they are off their leashes. When they are at home with their handlers, they know they are not working. They jump around, bark, get the zoomies, and act like regular dogs! Bob loves the play and roll around in the snow in the winter and Dottie loves to swim and run into the ocean during the summer.
What kind of resources and care go into keeping this program running and how do donations directly support Bob, Dottie, and your work with them?
Our programming is completely donor funded. This means that we do not have a designated hospital budget to pay for the regular costs of caring for each facility dog including mandatory weekly grooming for both dogs, vet bills, pet insurance, food, treats, toys, and medicine. We are so grateful to have received our initial grant from Dunkin’ Joy in Childhood foundation that helped launch our program and covered the first three years of program costs. It has been two years since that grant ended and since then we have relied on the generosity of individual donors and our community (like the treats we get from Polkadog), donations, and selling All Paws on Deck items in our hospital gift shop where the proceeds are donated back to our programming. Our program has reached over 12,000 patients and endless amounts of staff over the past five years, and none of this work would be possible without the generosity and support of our community.
At Tufts, support sometimes comes with a wet nose and a wagging tail. Bob and Dottie play a powerful role, offering comfort and support when it’s needed most. Whether they’re helping a child through a tough procedure or simply brightening a hallway with their presence, these canine coworkers are an essential part of the Tufts care team.