Nationwide Children’s celebrates first anniversary of Butterfly Paws expansion

• Facility dogs, like Gibbs, are service animals trained to work in a specific building and provide one-on-one support to patients, while therapy dogs offer comfort and joy.
• The program aims to expand its services by sending dog-handler teams to offsite locations and increasing the number of therapy dogs.

Gibbs isn’t a just a facility dog. According to his Nationwide Children’s Hospital trading card, he’s an MD.

The hospital canine program, Butterfly Paws, marked its one-year anniversary of expanded programming this month. The program provides care through trained facility dogs, like Gibbs, as well as therapy dogs for extra smiles.

The 2-year-old Labrador- and golden-retriever mix is supervised by his handler, Monica Davidson, a recreational and animal system therapist at the hospital.

Davidson explained that recreational therapy is providing treatment through fun activities intended to work on skills like self-esteem, communication or mood improvement.

Davidson and Gibbs are a behavioralist team, so the activities both with and without Gibbs target emotional regulation and behavioral activation, Davidson said, smiling down at Gibbs, chuckling that her partner has definitely helped.

“It’s hard being at the hospital. It just depends on what the kid needs,” she said.

“He’s helped tremendously. He is a different treatment modality, so when the kid is having a hard of time, Gibbs pops in, and they always brighten immediately because they’re with the facility dog.”

“Dr.” Gibbs knows roughly 45 commands, including holding a paint brush and picking up playing cards.

More akin to “Air Bud” than just being a golden-retriever mix, Gibbs is also trained in both volleyball and soccer. To help build the brand of the program and give kids something to keep and hold, the dogs have also had trading cards made about them for kids to collect.

Melissa McMillen, director of Butterfly Paws, explained that the difference between facility dogs and therapy dogs is the service-dog distinction of the facility animals, noting the importance of having additional therapy dogs on the team to provide comfort and joy.

“Facility dogs are service animals that are trained and placed to work in a building. Their job is one-on-one tasks for patients and really helping with functional goals that we’re trying to do when our traditional treatment modalities don’t really work with the patients,” McMillen said.

“We find, as Monica described, sometimes the dog just sets a whole different tone.”

McMillen said now that the program has a foundation for providing care with the facility and therapy dogs, her team is looking to expand its services, including sending dog-handler teams to its offsites or ambulatory sites and increasing its legion of staff therapy dogs.

“I mean, the excitement has just been unbelievable. As to almost coming up on a year, I just can’t believe the energy and how well-received it is.”

Sophia Veneziano is a Columbus Dispatch reporter supported by the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation. She may be reached at sveneziano@dispatch.com. The Dispatch retains full editorial independence for all content.

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