Elise Mebel’s 30-year tenure as a seasoned volunteer took her from working with therapy horses and their riders in Maui to canine therapy with help from her dog, Mooshum.
“He is named after a character in my favorite novel which is The Round House by Louise Erdrich, and his name means ‘old soul’ in the Native American Ojibwe language,” Mebel said.
More popularly known as Moosh, the fluffy Australian shepherd greeted visitors and residents on the sunny patio of Arroyo Grande’s Wyndham Residence assisted living facility on Jan. 4. All the while, he obeyed Mebel’s subtle hand gestures and commands to follow and sit.
Mebel and Moosh met in Maui more than 11 years ago. By the time he was 5, Moosh became a therapy dog with Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee also called HABIT. In 2019, he added another credential to his list: a therapy dog with the nationwide group Alliance of Therapy Dogs.
Now, Moosh and Mebel volunteer as therapy dog and therapy dog tester, respectively, for the alliance’s San Luis Obispo County chapter. They’ve steadily amassed online fans through Mebel documenting Moosh’s work on Instagram @mooshthetherapydog.
The duo is popular in real life too. Over the past year and a half, they’ve become frequent faces at the Wyndham Residence.
“I’ve always worked with this population, typically the elderly population,” Mebel said. “This is probably our 50th visit, it’s kind of Moosh’s second home.”
She explained that Moosh is the ideal therapy dog—a genial yet calm creature not startled by noises like kids’ squeals and unfamiliar objects like wheelchairs and crutches. His affable nature appreciates generous petting too, underscoring the difference in etiquette toward therapy dogs and service animals.
“Service dogs have rights with the American with Disabilities Act,” Mebel said. “They provide a service to their handler and to no one else … and they have rights to go in any facility and travel with their owner.”
Therapy dogs, on the other hand, have no such rights, she added. They can only accompany their handlers to places they’ve been invited to. They aim to provide brief periods of relief and joy to people in different situations, like those who can’t own dogs or are afraid of them.
“We talk about this in therapy dog training: You can’t pass off your therapy dog as a service animal,” Mebel said. “There are some dogs who are dual certified.”
While Mebel serves Alliance of Therapy Dogs as a general volunteer, too, she is the only volunteer tester in the area for about 200 miles. Of the 18,000 volunteers who work with the Wyoming-based group, only 800 are testers. More general volunteers and therapy dog testers and handlers are always welcome, Mebel said, and interested people can sign up through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs website.
As a tester, Mebel monitors how people handle their dogs when they wish for them to be therapy animals. It consists of three or four 40-minute observations, usually in a park bustling with activity in the form kids, other dogs, or in the case of Atascadero Lake Park, screeching flamingos.
“I have them do a series of handling tests where I give commands [like] ‘go right,’ ‘go left,’ see how that person can handle their dog,” she said. “I touch the dog everywhere to make sure the dog actually likes attention and doesn’t have anywhere that they don’t like to be touched.”
Moosh also becomes a teacher. Neutral to other dogs, he is the demonstrative example Mebel depends on during her handling test. When Moosh isn’t available, she uses another Alliance of Therapy Dog-certified canine who is neutral.
“We really work with people,” Mebel said. “If there’s an issue, like the dog is pawing, or the dog is not paying enough attention to the handler, we can work with that. We don’t work with aggression at all or any kind of protection of the owner. That’s really kind of the deal-breaker.”
The most successful therapy dog isn’t the most obedient one, according to Mebel. Success stems from the owner or handler who can advocate for them the best, especially when the dog has reached its fill for the day or doesn’t like a certain situation.
But having good eye contact with their handler helps too. It indicates that dogs are willing and want to participate in whatever comes next in the activity. Though Mebel works with dog and handler teams to improve their eye contact, there are times when it’s a sign of something more.
“Sometimes that’s the dog telling us they don’t want to be a therapy dog, which is OK,” she said. “You can be a great pet and not be a therapy dog. Sometimes it’s the owner that wants to be there.”
Inside Wyndham Residence, both staff and residents exuberantly greet Moosh and Mebel. They regularly meet some of the 50 senior citizens living in the facility. Activities Director April McClaskey told New Times that a few times a month, Wyndham’s residents take part in “therapy hour” in the living room and interact with Moosh.
One of them is Paul Wilkes whom Moosh immediately gravitated to when he walked into the room. Wilkes not only gets to meet Moosh often but also other therapy dogs in training when Mebel brings them in through volunteer work. Regularly petting those visiting dogs brings back memories for him, Wilkes said, like when his family dog once gobbled down a whole birthday cake and when their pet cat ate a stuffed quail he hunted with his golden retrievers.
“I’ve had dogs all my life, and this is just absolutely wonderful,” Wilkes said. “Moosh makes me feel warm. … Dogs, music, and children, that’s what we all relate to.” Δ
Reach Staff Writer Bulbul Rajagopal at brajagopal@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Volunteers 2024.