Say hello to Val!
The two-year-old Labrador Retriever from Canine Companions is the newest member of the recreational therapy team at the Oklahoma City VA Health Care System.
“Val is our new facility dog who comes to work with me every day,” Recreation Therapist Kacie Ingram, explained in a VA blog post. “She helps veterans meet their rehabilitation goals.”
Val spends her workday assisting in acute care rehabilitation and outpatient recreation therapy, according to Ingram.
“Val works individually with our rehabilitation patients,” Ingram explained.
“Depending on which veteran she is working her assistance is different. Rehabilitating stroke patients, we practice fine motor skills by having the veterans practice brushing her. Also, veterans work on memory and pronunciation by memorizing commands and then giving those commands to Val for her to follow.”
Val joins Raisin, an eight-year-old Labrador Retriever who has been at the OKC VA Medical Center for six and half years.
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Canine Companions is a non-profit that provides service dogs to adults, children, and veterans with disabilities and facility dogs to professionals working in healthcare, criminal justice, and educational settings. They provide expertly-trained service and facility dogs free of charge to the recipients.
Facility dogs differ from service dogs in that facility dogs are not assigned to one person to aid. They are assigned to a handler working at a facility.
“Val has been here for a month and seen close to a hundred veterans,” Ingram said.
Anyone is welcome to greet Val or Raisin if they see them in the halls, but Recreation Therapy team members request that veterans to ask to pet Val or Raisin in case they are working with other veterans or patients.
But be warned, Val tends to slide down and expose her belly to anyone who pets her, so expect to be delayed with required belly rubs!
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.
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