Team Therapy Dogs

June 16, 2020

Texas is reopening in phases, and as students and workers head back to school and work for the first time in months, stress and anxiety are high.

Luckily, for those who will need help adjusting to the new normal and manage the pressure, The Go Team Therapy Dogs will be here to help.

Program coordinator Jerilyn Cordova said the team’s goal is to “help bring some normalcy back to life.”

“I mean a lot of these kids haven’t been in school,” she said.

The Corpus Christi team was founded in 2014 to help first responders cope with the stress of their jobs. Now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, they are available to help everyone else handle the stress of getting back to everyday life.

Each dog has its own unique talent: the “A-Team,” if you will, when it comes to thier jobs.

Molly is the gentle veteran of the group.

“(She) is probably one of our most passive dogs,” Cordova said. “She loves to hug and just lean on people.”

Daisy, a dog owned by Casey Wirick, helps kids and teenagers going through the juvenile court system.

“She will push her way through, go to the one person and you can just feel the tension release,” Wirick said.

Robert Seals’ dog, Shuggie, has been his own personal therapy dog as well as helping out others.

Having had multiple surgeries over the course of a few years, he has seen the benefits the animals can have, saying Shuggie has been a huge help for him during this time of need.

“The love that she gives me and the patience — she stays with me,” Seals said. “If I can’t walk wherever, she sits right there with me.”

The dogs are calm and well-trained. When they go to schools, they are absolute rock stars.

“The dogs come in and you just see all these smiles and the kids scream ‘Dog!’,” Wirick said.

Each dog has its own card, so clients can call to request for an outing.

As we advance further into the new world, the Go Team Therapy Dogs are around to make sure we don’t have to do it alone.