{"id":69423,"date":"2019-04-01T13:24:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T17:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/?p=69423"},"modified":"2019-04-05T09:39:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T13:39:46","slug":"med-students-therapy-dog-brings-comfort-to-bmc-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/2019\/04\/01\/med-students-therapy-dog-brings-comfort-to-bmc-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Med Student\u2019s Therapy Dog Brings Comfort to BMC Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>Otis\u2019 charm also proves irresistible to students<\/h4>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"550\" height=\"310\" src=\"\/\/www.bu.edu\/buniverse\/interface\/embed\/embed.html?v=11vwy60\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>When Cara Guenther started medical school, she yearned to spend more time visiting with patients. But the demanding curriculum often made that difficult.<\/p>\n<p>That changed after Ms. Guenther, a third year student at the School of Medicine, got a Bernese mountain dog named Otis. She\u2019d always wanted a Bernese mountain dog, a breed known for being affectionate and good with people. She soon realized that Otis\u2019 loving, calm demeanor made him an ideal candidate to be a therapy dog. So Guenther and Otis enrolled in a training program run by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.therapydog.info\/\">Dog B.O.N.E.S.<\/a>, a local nonprofit that pairs therapy dogs with youth, elderly, and disabled people. Needless to say, Otis passed with flying colors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBernese mountain dogs are certainly known for being affectionate and needy, so I think they are a good fit for this,\u201d Ms. Guenther says.<\/p>\n<p>Once certified, Otis and Ms. Guenther joined Boston Medical Center\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bmc.org\/about-us\/stories\/spotlight-healing-pups-program\">Healing Pups<\/a>\u00a0program. Over the past 18 months, Otis, who weighs in at about 110 pounds, has become something of a star on the pediatrics ward. He and Guenther also see any patient elsewhere in the hospital asking for a visit from a four-legged friend. And it\u2019s not just patients who have become fans.<\/p>\n<p>While he\u2019s at BMC, Ms. Guenther makes a point of having Otis visit with MED students, who love to stop for a quick cuddle and photo op.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPatients smile, they laugh, sometimes they want him to climb up on the bed with them,\u201d says Ms. Guenther, \u201cwhich I don\u2019t let him do.\u201d\u00a0<span>She says the whole experience has been rewarding for her\u2014and<\/span>\u00a0for Otis. \u201cHe loves the attention,\u201d she says. As for her: \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever done anything that has had such an immediate impact on boosting a person\u2019s spirits. It\u2019s rare to be able to make an impact so easily and see the effects of what you\u2019re doing so visibly, so it\u2019s really heartwarming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This <em>BU Today<\/em> video was created by <a href=\"mailto: jk16@bu.edu\"><span class=\"byline\">Jason Kimball<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Otis\u2019 charm also proves irresistible to students. Check out the video.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":903,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[91,123,156],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69423"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/903"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69423"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69423\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69646,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69423\/revisions\/69646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/camed\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}