More therapy dogs to the rescue

Eight new teams of therapy dogs and handlers are working in Dutchess and Columbia counties.

At a recent Good Dog Foundation graduation at the Stanfordville Grange, Hank Sapoznik and Lapsig, Kathy Brady and Henry, Eliza Twitchell and Tookie, Annie Shaker and Georgia, Larry Stockl and Mac, Molly Jenks and Ace, Jeffery Tallackson and Duncan, and Caitlin Twain and Montus were honored for completing both the obedience and therapy training segments required to become a team with the foundation.

Good Dog teams are now working at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie; Northern Dutchess Hospital, the Thompson House and the Astor Home for Children in Rhinebeck and Columbia Memorial Hospital, the afterschool reading program coordinated by the Mental Health Association of Columbia and Greene Counties and the Hudson City Schools in Hudson.

The new grads bring the total number of Good Dog teams to 86 in Dutchess and Columbia counties in New York, Western Massachusetts and Connecticut.

New training classes begin in Stanfordville in late March. Contact Susan Fireman, executive trainer, at 518-398-5249 or solanina@aol.com.

The Good Dog Foundation is a nonprofit organization providing therapy dog services to 120 health care, social service, educational and community facilities in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Photo caption: Standing, left to right: Fireman, Stockl and Mac, Tallackson and Duncan, Twain and Montus, and Sapoznik and Lapsig. Sitting, left to right: Brady and Henry, Twitchell and Tookie, Jenks and Ace and Shaker and Georgia.

Photo: Kate Twain.