Kristen Decker saw a need in her community and used their family dog, Buster, to take action. Buster is a registered therapy dog through Intermountain Therapy Animals in Salt Lake City, Utah and uses his calm disposition and skills to serve hospitals and schools throughout Utah County.
Kristen, a mom of 6 and owner of Buster, had some free time on her hands and had noticed how calm and loving Buster was and wanted to use this trait for good.
Buster, a 7 year old mix between Bernese Mountain Dog and Poodle, has been registered as a therapy dog for 2 years. He loves to lay around and help other people feel loved. This, coupled with his lack of aggression and violence is what makes him such a great therapy dog.
Buster and Kristen went through several training sessions for Buster to be certified as a therapy dog. He is one of 3 dogs that cover the Utah Valley Hospital.
Kristen has goals to eventually increase the hours that Buster gets to spend in the hospitals. Due to there only being 3 dogs to cover the hospital, they still can’t cover all the floors.
“My favorite part is you just walk away feeling good, feeling like you really helped someone” said Kristen.
Buster goes on a variety of floors in the hospital, the emergency room, the cancer treatment floor, the rehabilitation floor as well as 6 floors of patients.
Buster loves to specifically be on the rehabilitation floor. He gets to spend time and play with those going through rehab and help be apart of their therapy.
“Seeing someone who's having a hard time walking across the room by themselves, seeing Buster on the other side of the room, and them wanting to get to him is just great.” says Kristen.
Buster also works in schools to help children with reading disabilities. The kids essentially read to Buster as motivation to read and to relieve the pressure of having to read to teachers.
Kristen and Buster are influencing and changing lives for the better within their community each and every day.