A seven-and-a-half-year-old, 130-pound Leonberger named Cooper has been a favorite among patients and staff at the St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage. He might be big, standing five-foot-four when he gets up on his hind legs, but he has the gentlest eyes and the sweetest heart of all. He is definitely the epitome of a gentle giant.
Cooper has earned one of the top levels of pet therapy certification through Bideawee in Wantagh. While other therapy dogs are restricted to a certain setting and audience, Cooper was not. His certification allows him to participate in any kind of therapy situation.
That is, he could do one-on-one interactions as well as in groups and easily adjust to children, the elderly, the wheelchair-bound, the bed-ridden, and many more. Cooper is also very flexible and can go from high-energy situations to confined spaces. And his breed is considered obedient, loyal, and loving.
When Cooper comes to visit patients at the hospital, he would immediately walk up to them and put his face right next to theirs. And everyone just wants to hug him to death. He looked so adorable to them and that feeling never ceased.
Lou Damore, Cooper’s fur dad, has been doing therapy visits with him for about four-and-a-half years now. Cooper started when he was just three years old. And seeing smiles form on the patients’ faces has always been their partnership’s greatest accomplishment. Some of these patients rarely get a visit and some miss their own dogs.
Cooper and Lou visit around 40 patients at the St. Joseph Hospital in Bethpage on Thursdays. And there’s no room that Cooper can’t light up with his adorable size and big heart. And on days that they can’t see him, they get updates about him through his Facebook, and seeing him in pictures also comforts them a lot.
Source: Long Island Weekly
