Pet therapy organizations deliver mental and physical benefits—plus plenty of puppy love

Goosey is not your average Cavalier King Charles spaniel.

Yes, with his feathered, floppy ears and big brown eyes, he looks like many members of his breed. And sure, at home he loves to chase squirrels in the yard just like his siblings, Bea and Nellie.

But when Goosey puts on his purple pet therapy vest, he knows it’s time to work, says his owner and handler Aimee Broussard. That’s when the magic happens.

“Once his vest goes on and we walk into the doors of a nursing home, he turns it on,” Broussard says.

Goosey and Broussard are one of 60 dog-human teams that provide pet therapy visits around Baton Rouge through local organization Bayou Buddies. Multiple times a week, you can find him asking to be petted at nursing homes, memory care facilities, schools, libraries and sites like the Baton Rouge General cancer wing and the Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport.

He’s known for what Broussard calls his “magic quilt” and “magic ears.” At each visit, Broussard will lay out Goosey’s handmade quilt on an inquirer’s or patient’s lap and set Goosey on top. She then suggests they pet his long, silky ears. Within minutes, Goosey snuggles up and falls asleep.

While Goosey dozes, Broussard witnesses amazing things. In her six years working with therapy animals, she has seen dementia patients pull the names of every dog they’ve owned from the depths of their memory. Often, she’s told by nursing home staff that Goosey’s visits bring out some of the residents’ first smiles in weeks.

“Those moments reinforce why we do what we do,” Broussard says.

Occurrences like these are common in the pet therapy world, says Maribeth Andereck, Bayou Buddies director and volunteer with her three border collies. Though each visit looks different, Andereck says she has seen how therapy dogs can draw depressed or isolated people out of their circumstances. Often, they help trigger memories or spark conversation when it’s needed most. “[The dogs] have this sense when people need them,” she says.

Pet Partners, a national animal-assisted interventions group, notes that pet therapy can support physical and mental health, particularly in aging adults. In studies, pet therapy is proven to alleviate depression and anxiety symptoms while boosting feelings of social support. In medical settings, interaction with therapy animals has been correlated with decreased perceptions of pain and improved recovery rates. It has also been shown to comfort people with dementia and promote socialization in the elderly.

Tiger Human Animal Therapy Service (Tiger HATS) is the local arm of Pet Partners and is sponsored by the LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. Its dog-human teams—and one miniature horse named Angel—provide pet therapy services much like Bayou Buddies, but Tiger HATS focuses largely on hospitals.

Program director Diane Sylvester says 25 dog-human teams visit hospitals two to three times a week. Each team goes through intensive training and evaluations (as do Bayou Buddies’ volunteers) to ensure the animals can manage the unique smells and sounds of a hospital. “The temperament has to be spot on,” she says. “They have to be able to handle being in all kinds of different situations, and the owner has to have good control.”

But the hard work is worth it, says Sylvester, who volunteers with three of her seven dogs. The visits give patients a break from their long days and diagnoses. The dogs might remind them of a pet waiting for them at home, or offer a glimmer of love and support.

“It’s a very tender, loving thing,” Sylvester says. “Dogs will give love easily. … We have patients who don’t have family members around. It gives them a little bit of the attention that they need.”

It’s the unconditional love and openness of dogs that make them ideal candidates for this kind of work. It also makes them great for other types of therapy services, too. This past fall, Goosey branched out from Bayou Buddies to become the first certified Reading Education Assistance Dog in the state.

Through the program, children can read to a therapy animal to help improve their literacy skills. In addition to their traditional pet therapy work, Broussard and Goosey have worked with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Louisiana and plan to offer one-on-one reading sessions at the Main Library at Goodwood this year.

Broussard says she’s seen how reading to Goosey gives the children an immediate confidence boost. “There’s no judgment. They’re not afraid to make a mistake,” Broussard says. “It’s an instant calming.”

Almost, as Broussard might say, like magic.

This article was originally published in the March 2026 issue of 225 Magazine.