Griswold’s Therapy Dogs Bring Comfort to Health Care Clients

Franchising allows home care agencies to benefit from an established name and reputation, while coming up with their own ways to stand out in the crowd. Franchise owners at Griswold, for example, are doing this by offering services that fall outside of the norm.

At Griswold Twin Cities, franchisee Nicole Myhre relies on her therapy dogs, Scout and Ruby, to enhance the well-being of her clients. The dogs underwent therapy dog training through Canine Inspired Change, a non-profit organization based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

“Most people I know like animals,” Myhre told Home Health Care News. “It really was just a matter of wanting to have animals around us, and then the support that they bring to our team.”

The franchise uses therapy dogs during initial assessments and bi-weekly hospital visits, and the feedback from clients has been very positive.

“Some of these people no longer have a dog, whether because of where they live, or because they’re not able to care for an animal anymore, but they are still animal lovers,” Brett Myhre, Nicole’s husband and co-owner of the franchise, said. “We’ll get calls from some of our clients, wondering if we can come out and just do a quick home visit. We’ll bring the dogs out to do visits with people that don’t have the opportunity to have an animal anymore, and it just brightens their day.”