Dogs and Strange Music

Photo credit: Mary Lee Hahn / Foter / CC BY-NC-ND

It is always interesting to see how a phone conversation is transformed into an article.  Normally you end up being quoted in snippets, often saying something you know you never said. In the case of the USA Today article "Hospital helps kids through Healing Paws program" I think I said most of those things. Or at least the gist of it was what I said, even if the words are somewhat rearranged.

I would clarify that I did not say "When a trained therapy dog visits, it's like getting a strange person to perform music." I made an analogy between being visited by a dog you know and like versus a dog you don't know--and the benefits of listening to music you know and like versus new, unfamiliar music. Both can be very beneficial but they tend to cause very different feelings.