As society progresses, dogs are increasingly integrated into our lives and their presence in society is becoming more and more noticeable. In military and law enforcement, they are used for bomb detection and drug detection; in fire safety, they are used for search and rescue; and in the outdoors, they can even be used for sledding and hunting. But have you heard of therapy dogs?
What are therapy dogs?
Unlike bomb detection dogs, drug detection dogs, and other specialized dogs, therapy dogs do not have breed requirements. Any dog with a good temperament and obedience can be sent to a professional “school” to learn how to be an excellent therapy dog.
Previously, Li Jiaqi’s Never was sent to school to use its healing smile to help lonely elderly people and children with autism get out of the shadows as soon as possible.
During treatment, dogs also have a very significant income and can completely achieve the goal of “buying their own dog food.
You can see more: A stray dog trapped on a cliff, suffering from hunger and thirst for an unknown amount of time, waiting for someone to come and save it.
The earliest therapy dogs can be traced back to 1943.
This Yorkshire Terrier born in 1943, named Smoky, was picked up by American soldier William while wandering on the battlefield and joined the US military. At that time, the US military was fighting very hard, and the soldiers relied on cigarettes and alcohol to relieve their boredom every day. Smoky’s appearance undoubtedly added a splash of color to their dull lives.
William had been a dog trainer before he joined the army, so he immediately began training Smoky. The intelligent Smoky quickly learned to sit, stand, stay, play dead, and even parachute. In this way, Smoky slowly grew up under the protection of William and the soldiers.
In 1945, William’s unit was sent to the Philippines to fight against Japanese soldiers. Although the Japanese soldiers’ weapons were not as advanced as the US military’s, they were very cunning and destroyed William’s telephone lines when they were unable to fight head-on. Without telephone lines, they were unable to report on the situation on the battlefield to headquarters. This was a big problem for William. In order to repair the telephone lines and prevent the Japanese from destroying them again, he had to pass them through the drainage pipes. No soldier was small enough to crawl into the pipes. That’s when William’s eyes fell on Smoky.
William and his comrades decided that if Smoky couldn’t make it through the pipes successfully, they would violently destroy the pipes to rescue Smoky. William put Smoky at the mouth of the pipe and called its name from the other end. At first, Smoky progressed smoothly, but when it reached the middle, it seemed to get stuck and there was a sound of digging and a cloud of dust. Just as William was hesitating whether to destroy the pipes, Smoky ran out of the pipes and jumped into William’s arms. In this way, Smoky successfully completed the task of repairing the telephone lines.
With the telephone lines repaired, William quickly contacted headquarters and rescued more than 250 team members and 40 planes. Smoky also received a medal for this.
In fact, as a small dog, Smoky was not able to do much, and spent most of its time in the hospital as a therapy dog. Whenever a soldier was injured and brought in, in order to alleviate their pain and treat their psychological trauma, Smoky would use all its tricks to make the soldiers happy and rid them of their demons.
In 1957, at the age of 14, Smoky passed away. In memory of its contributions to the unit, a monument was built for it in Cleveland. After Smoky’s death, William began to raise Yorkies of various colors, and he would sometimes sit at Smoky’s grave and talk to it.
There are not many therapy dogs in the world, and some people don’t even know they exist. However, even if there are not many of them, the therapy dogs on duty are diligently completing their work every day, helping the elderly and autistic patients find the color of life again.
Every therapy dog is a warm-hearted little angel, and even though “going to school” is tedious and “working” is tiring, they are still helping every person who needs them. It is hoped that more and more dogs can join the ranks of therapy dogs, not only achieving financial freedom, but also helping more people in need.