Therapy dog in training hopes to spread ‘paw-sitivity’ for Iowa nonprofit

By Nicole Tam

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — EveryStep, a Central Iowa nonprofit, brought in a new team member to help provide mental health services. Louie, a 10-month-old golden retriever, joined the organization five months ago and is busy learning new tricks every day.

“We can teach him to get up on a hospice patient’s bed at home. We teach him up. Just going through building his confidence. We build his confidence going into new places. He’s just learning so much all the time,” Annie Harmeyer, Louie’s caretaker, said.

The hope is that his gentle personality can help break down barriers.

“Talking about grief and talking about loss and all of those heavy questions that are hard to talk about, but we think through the voice of a dog, it’ll be a little bit more approachable,” Julie Matternas, EveryStep’s foundation executive director, said.

The goal is for Louie to become a certified therapy dog and provide comfort in hospice and grief programs, but Louie can’t be certified until he turns 1. Until then, he’s bringing smiles and enjoying life as a puppy.

Louie also launched his social media account. You can follow his journey @pawswithlouie on Instagram.

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