Hoot – Multigen standard Goldendoodle
Certified Therapy Dog
Hoot N. Holler is a special dog. He is funny, smart, intuitive, and loving – the perfect combination for a family pet and a certified Therapy Dog. Besides taking care of us, he takes care of lots of other people, too.
He is a member of three organizations – Paws for Comfort, the American Red Cross, and Fidos For Freedom. He is a generous, “furry empath” – never running out of patience or comforting nuzzles.
Paws for Comfortis an organization whose mission is to provide loving support to all those in challenging health situations. Hoot regularly visits “Prisms”- a program designed to serve adults between early-stage and late-stage dementia and “Cedar Lane” – a school for students with special needs that provides a setting that fosters growth and skills development that will to enable them to reach optimum levels of functioning and independence. Hoot participates in visits to homeless facilities, nursing homes, and programs that introduce children and their families to dogs for the first time.
With the American Red Cross, Hoot regularly visits Walter Reed Medical Center to give “Hoot hugs” and take holiday pictures with soldiers, families, and staff. He is also a happy face at Blood Drives, Red Cross Headquarters, and other activities as needed. He had an especially great time having his picture taken for the American Red Cross stock photo library.
Fidos For Freedom’smission is to not only enhance the quality of life for people by providing specially trained hearing dogs, service dogs, and therapy dogs, but to educate the public about individuals with disabilities and the benefits these dogs can provide. Hoot regularly visits schools, the Ronald McDonald House, Johns Hopkins, and the Kennedy Kreiger Institute. He participated in a program at Andrews AFB that provided data showing that therapy dogs can help reduce symptoms of PTSD. This was done to provide Congress with evidence supporting initiatives requesting funding for therapy dogs for Veterans. He loves working the Renaissance Festival, doing demos, and just being out and about with his fellow therapy dogs.
Hoot has his AKC Canine Good Citizenship, DEAR (Dogs Educating and Assisting Reading) certification, and his AKC Excellent Therapy Dog certification (over 200 visits). On 10/18/20, Hoot received his AKC Distinguished Therapy Dog title for completing over 400 certified therapy visits. Way to go, HOOT!!
Update from Gayle: “Becoming a member of HOPE was my final goal in being able to share this amazing FCF dog with others. HOPE is an animal assisted crisis response team that deploys throughout the U.S. to provide comfort and encouragement through animal-assisted support to individuals affected by crises and disasters. Hoot is helping me get ready to deploy next weekend and I can’t tell you how proud of him I am”.
