Therapy Dog Connect

09/04/2026

09/01/2026

Meet Diane & Toby — our Handler Spotlight for the month!

Diane shared something that stuck with us: "When he is next to someone and they have tears in their eyes, you can see the stress start to leave their face."

That's what these visits are all about. Grateful for volunteer teams like Diane and Toby who show up and make a real difference for patients.

Read the full spotlight here:

"When he is next to someone and they have tears in their eyes, you can see the stress start to leave their face." — Diane and Toby, Therapy Dog Connect volunteers.

08/26/2026

🐶 It's International Dog Day! 🐶

Every dog deserves some love today — big ones, small ones, mutts, mixes, purebreds, the ones who fetch and the ones who'd rather nap. Whether yours is a couch companion or a certified therapy dog making hospital rounds, they all make our lives better.

Drop a photo of your dog in the comments — we want to see them all! 🐾

08/19/2026

New feature alert 🐾 Certifications just got a whole lot easier.

Handlers can now upload their therapy dog certs right from the app — scan it, upload a file, or type it in manually. Hospitals verify it on their end, and it's on record. No more paper copies floating around, no more "wait, did that expire?"

And when a cert IS about to expire, the handler gets a heads up automatically — before it becomes a problem.

Rocco's already got his Alliance of Therapy Dogs cert on file. Swipe through to see how easy it was ➡️

08/11/2026

This is real. This is anonymous. This is what a therapy dog visit can do.

A patient completed this survey after a visit last week — five stars, and a comment that says more than any metric could.

Hospital coordinators: this is the kind of feedback your program could be collecting, automatically, after every visit.

08/03/2026

🐾 Volunteer Spotlight: Greg and Allie

This month we're celebrating Greg and his two Golden Retrievers, Allie and Makana, who've been bringing comfort to patients at St. Anthony's North for 4 years — racking up 82 visits together.

Greg got started in therapy dog work back in 2016, and it didn't take long to see the impact a dog can have on someone having a hard day. One visit stands out: his team was called to the ER during the loss of a 3-day-old baby. On the family's worst day, Allie and Makana were able to offer a small moment of relief.

In Greg's words:

"Volunteering in this field has been one of the most rewarding tasks I have done in my life. You never know when something impactful will happen. It is well worth the time and effort to become a handler."

Thinking about becoming a handler yourself? Greg's advice says it best: it's worth it.

📖 Read more: https://therapydogconnect.com/volunteers/greg-allie

07/24/2026

Therapy Dog Connect now collects patient feedback via SMS after every visit — for patients who opt in!

Here's an example of what that feedback can look like (sample response, for illustration):

"The second Bella put her paw on my hand, I actually relaxed for the first time in days." — Example patient response, 5/5

Imagine hospital leadership seeing feedback like this after visits. A few minutes with a therapy dog can turn a hard hospital stay into a moment of real comfort — and now hospitals have the stories (and the data) to prove it.

07/22/2026

You’ve seen them on our social feeds, but now our Handler Spotlights have a permanent home! We’ve officially launched a brand-new page on our website dedicated to celebrating the incredible handlers and therapy dogs making a difference every day.

Follow here every month to see the Handler spotlights!

Replace spreadsheets and group texts with one streamlined platform. Therapy Dog Connect helps hospitals coordinate therapy dog visits, manage volunteers, and measure program impact.

07/20/2026

A hospital volunteer coordinator just shared this about Therapy Dog Connect:

“Knowing that a simple therapy dog visit can brighten someone’s day, bring a smile to their face, or provide a sense of calm during a difficult time… Therapy Dog Connect helps us make those meaningful connections more quickly and efficiently.”

This is exactly why we do this.