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UCLA professor’s dog brightens patients’ mood

History professor Margaret Jacob takes her dog Blizzard to the hospital to comfort patients.

By Amanda Schallert

June 6, 2013 2:02 a.m.

A man came back from visiting his son, who had broken his neck in a car crash, and rested his head in the fur of the collie that had come to offer him comfort.

Margaret Jacob, the owner of the collie named Blizzard, remembers the moment. She said its impact always strikes her.

Jacob, a history professor at UCLA, has been visiting hospitals with her dogs for the past 10 years as a volunteer with People Animal Connection. The UCLA organization brings dogs and their owners to comfort hospital patients, their families and hospital staff, said Erin Rice, director of People Animal Connection.

The program began in 1994 after a UCLA nurse noticed how patients responded positively to having a pet fish in their rooms, and then wondered how patients would respond to a dog’s presence instead, Rice said.

The hospital conducted studies and found that interactions with animals positively affected hospital patients, she added.

Rice said People Animal Connection relies completely on donations and currently involves 70 dogs and their owners.

“The two things that have kept the program going almost 20 years are the donations and the work of the volunteers,” Rice said. “It is a big commitment.”

Jacob is the only UCLA professor who participates in the program. She brings her 75-pound collie Blizzard to the medical center every two weeks.

Jacob said she was encouraged to join People Animal Connection by the bombings of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.

“(After 9/11) I realized I needed to do something for people besides teaching,” Jacob said.

She began training Reilly, her collie at the time, to visit hospitals and always be calm around people, she said.

Reilly once ate one of Jacob’s rare books, dated 1736. Teaching Reilly to always be friendly and never skittish around people came easily, she said.

Jacob rarely visits the same patient in the hospital twice, since most of them leave the hospital before she returns for a second visit, but she said she enjoys the spontaneity of meeting new people every two weeks.

She said she always kneels down to her patients so she is at eye-level with them when she talks to them.

“(Jacob) volunteers in some units regularly that have a really high need for comfort and care and she has such a nurturing way about her,” Rice said. “She’s very engaged with the patients.”

During one visit, Jacob visited a boy who had injured his head, which had stitches and was wrapped in gauze. He started to jump up and down on his bed excitedly and smiled when he saw Blizzard, Jacob said.

Natalie Berry, 42, is one of many family members who was comforted by Blizzard. She said her cousin was undergoing surgery for reasons related to cancer, and Blizzard’s visit comforted her as she sat in a hospital waiting room.

“(Dogs) bring joy, they calm the tensions, the stress,” Berry said. “They have a different energy they bring to the room. How affectionate they are makes you also feel comfortable.”

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Amanda Schallert
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