Article published September 27, 2009
Dog lover helps ease Autism's grip
Caroline beams and hugs her Brittany, Penny, after she and the pooch completed the agility course at Agility Angels on Monroe Street.
|
For more than 25 years the lady and her husband trained and hunted Irish setters and flat-coated retrievers. They were almost inseparable.
Then, almost three winters ago, he died. It was an unexpected, fast-moving cancer. She had to regroup; the golden days in the field were over. She had to decide what to do next.
You can see the results of her search four evenings a week in a business storefront in one of the strip malls on Monroe Street beyond Franklin Park. A hand-made sign in the windows hints at what's inside: "Agility Angels - Where Dogs Teach Kids to Fly."
The Angels are dogs, superbly trained agility dogs, and "fly" is a metaphor to describe how these canine companions brighten up the lives of autistic children. The lady in the story is Kim Holmes, whose full-time day job is managing the office of Reynolds Road Animal Hospital.
"Each night something special happens," said Holmes during a recent session, in which up to four dogs and four autistic kids, plus their coaches, were going through their paces on a padded floor dotted with brightly colored ramps, hoops, tunnels, chutes, and hurdles.
It gets a bit hectic out there, but it works. The sight of a smiling kid, hugging a dog after successfully negotiating the agility equipment, says as much. And maybe, in a sense, the teams do fly around the agility course.When Kim and her late husband, Don, were not afield, "they did a lot of obedience and agility work through local clubs," recalled Lou Best, a guiding light of the Wood-Lucas Chapter of Pheasants Forever. "They all have trained on my farm.
"Don and Kim were a big part of our Wood-Lucas family," added Best. Now Kim mostly participates with the chapter behind the scenes, he said. "But her presence and help are much appreciated."
The summer of 2008, Holmes took a call from Melissa Voetsch, a WTOL-TV Channel 11 news anchor. She had known Holmes for 20 years, had taken her family dog to her for obedience training.
Voetsch said by chance she caught a program on national news about using agility dogs with older children and she got an idea. "As a parent of an autistic child, I called her. I told her, 'let's give it a shot'. It turned out better than I even prayed. It has been a blessing."
Agility Angels, Voetsch said, "give [the kids] success in life, something they can be good at. It gives their parents something to cheer for." She calls the volunteers - agility dog owners who offer their dogs and coaching services - "the most amazing volunteers I've ever met."
Holmes noted "before Don died, I probably wouldn't have done it. There just wasn't time." Now, between work and the Angels, she is busy enough for two and then some.
"What really pulls the kids to this are the agility obstacles - they're colorful, attractive." She is "Miss Kim" to them, and for privacy purposes they use only first names at sessions.
"The first dog they meet is Ice. She is pretty much on cruise-control. She is very attentive, stares right at the kids." Ice is 8 1/2 and was Don's gun dog, a marvelously trained and mellow black flatcoat.
"The program started in June, 2008, in my backyard," said Holmes. Learning as she went, Holmes and volunteers expanded their search not just for hunting breeds. "We look first at the temperament of the dog." Which, of course, is all-important.
So now, along with flatcoats and Brittanys, Labrador retrievers, Irish setters, and golden retrievers, you will find a mix of breeds, including a soft-coated Wheaten terrier among several other terriers, and a Keeshond.
They also found early on that "a lot of kids are very bothered by the weather." So they ended up indoors in the Monroe Street storefront. The agility obstacles all belong to Holmes; the extensive padding for the course was, like almost everything else in the program, donated.
"We work off of donations," she said. Toledo Rotary Club recently granted Agility Angels $7,200 to study the program effectiveness under the eye of Dr. Tim Valko, a Toledo psychiatrist who has some 500 autistic patients.
Holmes and her helpers now run nine classes a week, 31 kids. "We have a waiting list of about 20 kids.
"Each child works with one trained dog. The dogs do agility, they're all registered therapy dogs." Each child-and-dog team is accompanied on the floor by one or two coaches.
"The main thing we're working on with the kids is social skills and self esteem. Most parents see an immediate response with the kids," Holmes said. "The kids also learn that it is OK to make a mistake."
Autistic kids, Holmes noted, "don't handle change well." But after working in the program a while, "they like working with lots of different dogs."
She recalls early in the program "one boy who would not come into the yard. He wouldn't even get out of the car." But the dogs and the colorful agility course eventually won him over.
"One mother said her son walked taller after these classes," added Holmes. Another boy did not speak for five years - he chose not to. "The third week [of classes] he was talking to the dog." Such is the strength of Agility Angels.
Holmes said she is forever grateful to those who have volunteered and made donations. "Every place we look, people have been willing to help."
The program has to charge a family $50 a month to help defray expenses, but Holmes notes that scholarships are available to help with finances.
To contact the program, visit at agilityangels.com
Contact Steve Pollick at:
spollick@theblade.com
or 419-724-6068.
Permanent Link
|
|
 |
|
Search
advertisement
