Memorial Health Care System introduces newest therapy dog, Dominos

A special dog is spreading puppy love to some special patients at a South Florida Hospital. Two-year-old Dominos will bring extra comfort to both children and staff as Memorial Healthcare System s newest therapy dog. There s currently six dogs in our program that are certified service dogs and are part of are animal assistant therapy program, and Dominos is gonna officially start Monday, so that ll be our seventh dog, said Tracy Meltzer, nurse practitioner at Memorial Regional Hospital. Dominos came from a service dog foundation where he previously underwent training from birth and became certified. Most dogs in the program work until they are 10 years old, but some have had longer tenures for Memorial. We ve had one that was 14 years old that still came into work for a few hours every day because that s just part of their routine, said Meltzer. The dogs that come in know up to 80 commands, and Memorial uses their most therapeutic commands for patients. He s v