NEW BERN, N.C. — Traveling by air can often be stressful, but at Coastal Carolina Regional Airport, passengers are finding comfort in the form of golden therapy dogs, Valiant and Jasmine. Bob and Mary Keubler, co-owners of New Bern Therapy Dog Training, began volunteering at the airport this spring with their dogs.
“It is such a gift to be able to come in here and ease tensions, bring smiles, have people just come up to us and say thank you for being here,” said Mary Keubler.
The Keublers, who are new to New Bern but have been therapy dog trainers for a decade, decided to bring their dogs to the airport after driving by and considering it a unique opportunity. “We were driving by and she goes you know we should check into the airport. It’s something that’s a little bit different to do,” said Bob Keubler.
Mary Keubler noted the dogs enjoy interacting with both passengers and airport employees. “The dogs love this visit, they love the interaction with all the people and they love not only the interaction with the people that are flying but also the employees here, the people that work at the rental car companies, everybody gets a bit of the dogs,” she said.
Amy Ritchie, with the airport, said the dogs have been a hit with travelers. “Now we get requests, when are they coming, when are they going to show up? They’re currently on a schedule of Mondays and Fridays when we have Breeze and American passengers both here in the terminal and they get some good visibility with that traffic,” Ritchie said.
Reflecting on their visits, Mary Keubler said, “We walk away from these visits thinking okay who got the most out of this, the passengers or us? Because it’s such a wonderful thing to be able to give people that little bit of love before they’re getting on a plane or people that are anxious waiting for their loved ones to arrive and the dogs are just an amazing distraction, and everybody loves them.”
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
