Speaker 1: This is Pet Life Radio.
Speaker 2: Let's talk pets.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Human Animal Connection Show, where we believe
we can communicate with all animals. Join us as we
explore the thirty three principles and healing methods of the
Human Animal Connection. As animal lovers, we know that you
share our commitment to making the world a kinder place
for all creatures. Together, let's embrace the transformative healing power
of the Human Animal Connection.
Speaker 2: Hello everyone, welcome to the Human Animal Connection. I'm your host,
Jeanie Joseph and the executive director of the nonprofit the
Human Animal Connection. I have a wonderful guest with me today.
I have Charlene Hammond and she is a professional speaker
and author of several books, including four about her dog,
whose name is Toby. And he has a really just
such a fun story because he was kind of, in
her words, a destructive dog, and he became an incredible
therapy dog. So becoming a therapy dog was not only
a therapy for him and finding his true purpose, but
amazing help with other people. So Charmains, thank you so
much for being a guest on our show. Thank you
so much. I am really looking forward to today's conversation.
Oh great, So tell us Toby started out. He wasn't
what maybe what some people would call good dog. He
had some behaviors that weren't so good. Tell us about
those behaviors and then we'll hear about his transformation.
Speaker 3: He did. He had some behaviors, that's an understatement. We
adopted Toby when he's five. He was five, and he's
a chesabeat Bay Retriever and he came to us a
little bit overweight and loved with food, so we had
some behavioral issues to work through. We discovered fairly soon
into Toby joining our family that he had a terrible
fear of noises, certain noises like the one that the
garbage truck makes when it backs up, that beepy noise.
And we discovered that the first time the garbage truck
came after he came to our house and we were
out doing groceries or something came back and in twenty
minutes our house was destroyed. There was stuff everywhere, and
we hadn't figured out what happened. It took quite a while,
but gee, he had a lot of destructive behaviors and
we had to get it. Bring in Maggie, the behavioral
therapist to help us figure out what was going on
with Toby.
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, yeah, that can be quite a mystery, really confusing,
really upsetting. I know you're not the only one who
has a story like that, and sometimes, you know, we're
lucky if we can get some good help. But it
can be a little bit of a detective case because
it isn't always obvious, because of course the dog can't say, well, honey,
while you were out, the garbage truck came and made
all these terrible noises. So you know, we it's a
process and so okay, so you helped understand what it was.
How did you get from being destructive? You had some
behavioral help. How did you notice think about doing therapy
dog work?
Speaker 3: Yeah, well I hadn't even thought of it.
Speaker 2: I won't take any credit for that.
Speaker 3: It was Maggie, the behaviorist who came in and she
spent some time with us in our home on an evening,
and she asked us to give us give dinner to
Toby while she was there. So we planned around that
and we gave Toby the dinner and he had some kibble,
and what was really interesting, we just thought, this is
the way Toby eat say his food, and she was
fascinated by the fact that he would take a kibble
and then he would walk around the whole house, check
on certain things, check his toys, come back, take another
mouthful or a few kibble, and so it took him
forever to eat his dinner because there was this behavior
going on. And she said, ah, he's policing your house.
He's making sure that everything's okay, everything's where it should be.
He knows where everything is. And I just thought that's
how Toby ate his food. So that was the first sign.
And then she asked questions like, what does he do
when you go to do the laundry and I sill,
He's like right there, and she said, so he seems
to want to help. So she created these exercises when
I would go down to the laundry, I would hide
his toy and then it would take him forever to
find it. And so she started really watching his behaviors.
But one of the things that she noticed was on
the first night was he was a dog who needed
a job and a purpise. I honestly never knew that
about dogs, and so she said, I think that he
would be the perfect therapy dog. So honestly, I'm sitting
there with my mouth open, saying, eh, he just broke
our twelve toilet and here he would wrap himself in
the bathroom and knocks the toilet tank lid off and
it would smash into pieces. So by this time we
had replaced I think about ten or twelve toilet tank lids.
So I could not imagine how a dog who you know,
wrecked our house with noises broke our toilet tanklets. How
would he ever be welcomed into a public institution like
a hospital. So she said, I'm just going to get
him tested. She arranged to get him tested at the
animal assisted therapy organizations, and he passed with flying colors,
except for one thing. Okay, barked yeah, yeah, So they
disqualified him. She went to the second organization, similar tests.
We're doing all the tests, they're making noises like that
would mimic a hospital noise like him. They threw cookie
sheets on the floor and they created sort of these
groups at the doorway where there's five or six people
calling his name. He passed and he did a little
bark on that one, and the assessor said, that's perfect.
We need a dog with a little bit of a voice,
because a lot of the people he's going to be
working with are people who are not getting out of bed,
who are not engaging, and sossed wonderful, and then we
became a team.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, that's wonderful. I love that story, especially because
I had a wild feral dog that I adopted from
this shelter that I was hoping was going to be
a therapy dog. She failed the test. Was it two
or three times? I forget now. And then I went
to another organization and they got it right away. She
passed the first time, and she's been had a ten
year career as a therapy dog.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: But it's interesting because, yeah, so anyway, if you're out
there listening and you failed the therapy dog test, retrain retest,
go to another organization. Sometimes it isn't the right fit
for the you know. It's beautiful.
Speaker 5: I love it.
Speaker 2: And one of the people at the new organization said
to me, all dogs will have something that's sort of like,
you know, maybe questionable in terms of the therapy dog test,
but it doesn't mean that they're not capable of really
growing into the job. So I'm so glad that Toby
was able to you, and Toby found the right job.
And there are some dogs that really do need a job.
You know that not all dogs do, but some do.
Maybe about twenty percent is of what been my experience.
So that's wonderful. So how did you get started and
what work did you do?
Speaker 3: So he got placed in a psychiatric facility in the
community that we lived in at the time, and so
many of the people in the unit that he was
in had been there for a long time. They had
been there repeated times, and for some of them this
was actually their home where they would thrive and do
well was in the facility, and so there was all
kinds of different mental health issues. There was a team
that we so our contact was with the recreational coordinator
and she was incredible to work with. And I'll never
forget the first day of work. He had his little
vest on, his little red therapy dog Best and I
had a nap back with all essentials at it, and
I was nervous and he was excited. Oh and he
just it was almost like he knew what was happening.
And I'm thinking of all the things that could go wrong.
What if he has an accident, what if a noise
sets him off? All these things, and you know, Maggie
just said trust him, and you know, let and be
clear with your communications, Charmaine, because he's gonna want to
follow your lead. So I didn't really know a lot
what that meant, but it was exactly what happened. And
so he had to go down and get his little
security badge printed. He had everyone in stitches because he
learned with twice after he didn't pose right that there
was treats involved, so he was doing fake poses for
the extra treat So then finally we got him to
get the little security badge and it was like the
badge went on his little red vest and he was
at work. Something happened.
Speaker 2: I can't explain it. Yes, they know, they know when
that when that vest or that badge goes on, they know.
Speaker 3: I was blown away by this, and I you know.
And then we walked up to the unit. There's a
doorbell for the unit, and Terry came to meet us,
and Toby barked quietly like I'm here, two little barks
like I'm here, and he went into the unit and
without having met people, Terry just kind of walked him
around and introduced him to people, and he knew who
needed him most in that moment. Yeah, And it happened
to be a gentleman sitting on an armchair that was
kind of looking past Toby and had not been doing
well emotionally, and Toby just walked up and looked at
him and looked at him, and then all of a sudden,
the patient said Hi, Toby, and they just sat there
for about ten minutes together, nothing, you know, not doing anything.
And I just thought, Wow, something really magical and beautiful
is happening here that you can't I can't even describe
this to someone, but there was such an intense connection
and I thought, Wow, this is what the animal human
bond is, and this is what I'm conditional acceptances.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so beautiful because the animals don't see, oh,
you have a diagnosis, or you have a condition, or
you this, or you that. They just see right to
your essence and being seen. You know, that's what we
all crave, you know, it's not in this world. I mean,
who goes around, Wow, I see your essence. You know,
you're such angel. You know, we don't get that too much.
So the animals, the great therapy. Animals can see beyond
all of the presentation, you know, whatever the injuries inside
are out, and they just want to love you, you know,
And and that connection that love is is so healing.
It's I think every place where there's more, where there's
at least one person should have a therapy, don't you.
Speaker 4: Know.
Speaker 2: It's just it's such beautiful work.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, and you know, people started to look forward
to that day that he would go in and we
had a little knapsack and his little best and you know,
I know animals know how to tell time because sobey
when the routines would happen. But how did he know
what day of the week it was to go and
get his toys and be waiting. I have no idea
how this happened, but he, you know, for four years
he volunteered there every week. He inspired the patients to
start learning how to make dog treats. Oh you know,
they would do all they called them popcakes and all
kinds of little treats. So he kind of brought together
a feeling of community. But I honestly believe as much
as he gave, he got just as much back from
the PAGEO. I love that and I was being transformed
in the process.
Speaker 2: Of all of this. I love that, you know, that's
a big principle in the human animal connection. We do
therapy dog work, we work with therapy donkeys, but are
one of our principles is that it needs to be
as good for the animals for the person serving. We
don't want animals to be tools of healing, you know,
because that is really unfair and that perpetuates kind of
the old Master's slay thing, is it, And so we
really like to make sure that we pay attention to
when is enough for the animal, what do they like
to do, Because different animals will respond to different situations,
some like the young kids, some like the older folks,
some like mental illness, some like physical illness, some like trauma.
So it's our as humans we need to be very
observant to see what the animal prefers.
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, And it was interesting because different patients had
different needs. So there was one particular patient and this
was a gentleman in the armchair that he just connected with.
And this particular patient liked to be outside, didn't really
want to converse a lot with the people on the unit,
but with Toby, he would have these long conversations, and
Toby loved to play fetch, and so the patient and
Toby would just have this exchange of he would throw
the toy, Toby would get it, Toby would wait for
whatever he was going to share verbal, then the toy
would go out, and so that other patients didn't want
to throw the toy. They wanted to just sit and
stroke Toby. Another patient loved to play soccer and would
kind of have his soccer ball in the visiting room
and he would just push it to Toby and Toby
would push it back with his nose. No communication, but
they were communicating. And then you know, another patient was
really experiencing intense depression and not wanting to get out
of bed a lot, and so Toby would come down
and he would just kind of go in the room
and wait for her to acknowledge him, and then he
would just sit beside the bed and it was so
comical because he would just nudge her arm with his nose.
Come on, come on at a bed, come on, and
then she get out. But when she was struggling, she
asked the nurses for a picture of Toby. So we
learned that he became this inspiration for her. He loved
going there, he loved to the happiness on his space
when you would get out of bed. You know, he
was just come on, let's go, let's help be something.
So I know that there was so much reciprocity happening
between him and the patient since you know, it was
changing me. I was a perfectionist before we got Toby,
and you can't be a perfectionist with a dog like Toby.
So do you actually kind of rescued me in the process.
Speaker 2: Yes, mutual healing, mutual rescue. Yeah, we're going to take
a short little break. When we come back, I want
to hear more of the fun stories of how Toby
healed people.
Speaker 3: We'll be back in just a moment, real people, real stories.
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Speaker 1: Hey friends, If you like what you're hearing and want
to learn more, check out doctor Joseph's book The Human
Animal Connection, Deepening Relationships with Animals and Ourselves, or visit
the website The Humananimalconnection dot com to book an online consultation.
Thank you for loving animals. Now back to the show.
Speaker 4: Let's talk pets on Petlife Radio dot com.
Speaker 2: Welcome back to the human animal connection. I'm your host,
Genie Joseph. I'm speaking with Charmain Hammond, and we're hearing
about the wonderful adventures of Toby, her therapy doc. So
this is just so much fun. I know you also
took Toby to schools. Tell us about taking Toby's schools.
What happened?
Speaker 3: Well, I wrote a book about actually a couple of
books about Toby. First, we're publishing Chicken Soup for the
Soul and which was all about volunteering from the heart,
and then that inspired some books that I wrote about Toby,
and so we started going into schools to read Toby's
books and to bring Toby into classrooms to talk about
the animal human connection and to educate kids about what
animal assistant therapy was and to really promote kindness to animals,
which was the underlying essence of his books. And so
I was never you know, I was surprised and never
surprised at the same time. Toby would just be in
an audience of say two hundred little children in in
elementary school, and his eyes would lock on a particular
child and he would really fixate on that child, like
you know, certainly engaged with everybody, but I would notice
them watching a particular child, and when the presentation would
be over, Toby would want to pull me towards where
that child was. And one hundred percent of the time
it was that child who needed to be seen, to
be heard, to be recognized. And in one case, there
was a young boy who was in the principal's office
when we came in because we walked past there and
Toby saw him. Toby saw him in the audience, and
the little boy at the end, Toby went right up
to him and just wouldn't leave his side, like he
actually wasn't following my directions very clearly that we needed
to get moving, but Toby was at work in his
opinion and the little boy's response. And I get emotional
every time I say this, but he said, Toby likes
me for who I am, and so.
Speaker 1: We you know.
Speaker 3: I talked to the principal later and she said, Charmaine,
this little guy is so bullied and so picked on.
He just can't seem to find that place with the
students where he feels accepted. And Toby just help with that.
And so that you know, that story has stuck with
me forever. And we saw this theme thing play out
in different presentations that we did, in different visits to
schools and to groups like boys and girls clubs where
we were invited to bring Toby in.
Speaker 2: That's just wonderful. I mean, I love that I've seen
that many times with my therapy dogs, that they will
just pick the one child that needs something special and
it just changes everything. You know, It's literally can be
life changing to have to be really seen in my dog.
Do we picked out of a group, you know, for
a young child, especially one who's isolated or bullied. And yeah,
so that's just awesome. And I know you also, back
working with in the psychiatric word, you had a doctor
ask you to come and see a particular patient. Tell
us that story.
Speaker 3: Well, there was a patient in the hospital and the
patient was in late stages of cancer and so he
was dying and he was talking a lot about his dog,
and I believe the dog's name was Skippy, and so
talking a lot about this dog, and a psychiatrist asked
if we would go and visit this gentleman. We'd not
ever worked with him, he was on a different unit,
and we you know, I said we would, but if
Toby was not comfortable with this. If he was giving
me signs that he didn't want to be there, I
would need to respect that. And so we went in
and the gentleman said, Skippy, you're here, and Toby went
right up to him and just put his head on
the edge the bed and just sat there. I'm saying,
just sat there, and now I'm just sat there with
feelings like it only just anything there is sitting there exactly.
It was incredible. He was just present with the gentleman,
and the gentleman eventually kind of the doctor helped move
his hand towards Toby so that he touched Toby. And
we were there. You know, I don't even know how
long we were there. I kind of lost track of time,
to be honest, and I didn't do anything. I just
was there. And then Toby let me know when he
was ready to leave and to go home, and so
he just kind of nudged the gentleman and then came
over to me, and that's my clue that Toby's finished
his work there. And so we left and that was
just you know, I remembered on the first day of
going in and we were told, you know, Toby and
you need to communicate, and you need to pay attention
to Toby's cues just as you want him. And I thought,
that's what this means. Now, Toby's letting me know that
his time is done. There with that gentleman.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful, really beautiful. And then I know you
had Toby inspired a young boy to write a book.
Speaker 3: Tell us that Stark. This was at a school presentation,
and there was there I love this story because there
was a little guy in this bright orange T shirt
and he had this piece of paper that he would
kind of slide. As I was talking and presenting to
the kids and reading the story, I'd see his hand,
his little hand pushed this piece of paper along the
gym floor, and then when I would catch his eye,
he would slowly pull that paper back, and I kept thinking,
I want to know what's on that piece of paper.
It's like he's trying to share something with me, but
he's pulling it back. Toby's eyes had locked on this kid,
probably because of the movement back and forth, and all
the other kids are sitting still. So at the end,
you know, he talked to the teacher, asked if he
could come up and talk to Toby and I, And
he knew in advance there was going to be an
author coming to present to the school and it was
about the dog Toby, so he knew that. And so
he came up and the paper, I thought it was
a paper. It was a little stack of papers that
he was sliding and he said, do you and Toby
want to read my book? It's about an alien family
and their holiday. And of course his name happened to
be the same name as one of the alien children
of the book. So he read this book and he's
and he said it was because you know, Toby had
a book about him that he was inspired to write
his own book. And he had an incredible teacher. That
teacher talked to the parents and said, you know, he
is really passionate about storytelling. Let's nurture this how And
they even brought him into the bookstore, one of the
Barnes and Nobles, to talk to the bookstore staff about
how books become a book and what happens and how
they get a bookstores. And so he had said to
me at the event, he said, you know, just so
you know, one of these days I'll be turning this
into a movie. And you'll be watching it on TV.
And I thought, well, that's incredible. Let me know. So, yeah,
I also did anything with his passion, But it was
just so cool to see the eyes light up. Yeah,
it's just so wonderful how therapy dogs gifted. Therapy dogs
can really sense who you know, they see each one
as an individual. What does this person need right now?
And the ability you know, when we're we do this work.
You know, we've been doing it for years, both of us.
It's easy to just think, ah, yeah, you just sat
there because that's what it looks like. But there's so
much more going on. There's so much more than meets
the eye. You know, there's some energetic heart connections, some
deep healing that kind of defies.
Speaker 2: The medical models or whatever. But I mean, it's just
such a great, beautiful thing to see. Thank you for
doing this great work. Tell us the names of your
books about Toby. Well, we have On Toby's Terms, which
was the first book that was inspired from the story
Volunteering for the Heart from the Heart, which was in
Chicken Suits for the Soul. So that's a memoir really,
it's a story about my life and Toby's influence on
how you know, I thought we were rescuing him, but
I think he actually rescued us. So that's for teenagers
and adults. And then that book and doing all these
presentations to schools about literacy and being an author. And
one of the kids in the audience said, how come
you don't have a kid's book, because here I am
with a big, a big memoir book.
Speaker 3: H you know, not a kids book. That's a great question.
Speaker 2: Oh.
Speaker 3: I wrote the first story, Toby the Pet Therapy Dog
and his Hospital Friends, and it was we took some
of the stories. You know, the work Toby did was
with adults, so we took those and put what that
would look like if if these adults were kids, And
so that book, and then there was another book that
followed that called Toby the Pet Therapy Dog Says Be
a Buddy, not a Bully, and of course that was
all about friendship, kindness and bully prevention. And the third
one that's just coming out is called Toby the Pet
Therapy Dog and his Forever Family, and it's kind of
taking everything right back to the beginning about how he
became our forever dog.
Speaker 2: Wonderful, well, beautiful story, very beautiful work. Charmain. How can
people get hold of you if they want to connect more?
I know you you do some coaching and some teaching
for people. How can people find you?
Speaker 3: Best place to find me is Charmain at Charmainhammond dot com,
our website, and I'm all over social media and it's
me who answers, so not one of our teams. So
I love connecting with people however they find us, and
website or social media is the best place.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you so much for being with us, Charmain Hammoning,
and I'm so glad you've been with us here at
the Human Animal Connection. We'll see you it on the
next episode.
Speaker 1: Bye for now. Thank you for tuning in to The
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