This week we had a special guest at one of our adult day care centers. Maria brought her wonderful dog, Romeo, to a Dancing Heart session. It was perfect timing because we had two new participants that day and Romeo’s presence made a tremendous difference in their comfort level in a new setting. Martha, one of the new participants, kept commenting every time Romeo did something cute. “See how he wags his tail. That means he’s happy. I think he’s smiling at me”.
Everyone had an opportunity to pat him, some of course were more interested in doing that than others, but nearly everyone loved having this special visitor. Especially when Romeo decided he wanted to dance, too, and got up on his hind legs while Maria held his front paws and off they went, dancing to the music!
The Dancing Heart program has many components to stimulate and encourage movement and cognitive thinking and Romeo is one very important part of how we help the participants to create community, be vitally engaged and to give them a sense of well-being!
Faith
