Johnny Utah’s Story: What My Ever-Wiggling Brittany Taught Me About Animal-Assisted Speech Therapy
“’Do you think…’ said Junie,
“’That it just…’ said Jakie,
“’Might work?...’ said Poppa?
“’Go’!, said the baby...’Go, go, go!’”
The Rattletrap Car, by Phyllis Root
Five years ago I was a newly minted animal-assisted interventionist. So new, in fact, that I hadn’t even heard that term yet, let alone all the other acronyms that make up this field.
I was just flying by the seat of my pants, figuring out ways to incorporate my young Labradane Delta Dawn into speech therapy sessions to help calm anxious kids and motivate practice in more resistant ones.
There were amazing moments and moments that didn’t go as planned, but I was learning something new every time she accompanied me to work.
I could also immediately see how much I benefitted from having a therapy dog at work.
I was calmer and setting clearer boundaries on my time. And fitting in short walks throughout the day left my upper back and shoulders less sore after a day of hunching over little kids in chairs that are way too short for an adult to fit comfortably.
Partnering with Delta one or two days a week was going well, but I couldn’t imagine her thriving with even more time at work. However…I did know a dog that was crying out for a job to do.
A dog that made fast friends with everyone he had ever met…
A dog that literally smiled and made happy sneezes when people came through the door…
A dog that also had an extremely high energy level and very little obedience!
Like the family in the classic children’s book Rattletrap Car, I wondered…“Do you think it just might work?”
And Johnny Utah, my eight-year-old Brittany Spaniel, responded with a resounding “Go!”
Johnny Utah at age five, showing off his enthusiasm for life! Several years later, he would become a fantastic therapy dog partner, helping me provide animal-assisted speech therapy for three years.
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Special Agent Johnny Utah, speech therapy dog recruit?
Johnny did not resemble any therapy dog I had seen online. He did not sit or lie passively for long periods, he liked to jump up to greet people, and he was small in stature (about 30 pounds soaking wet).
Named for the brooding FBI agent hero of the original Point Break, Johnny Utah also resembled Keanu Reeve’s character is no way whatsoever. An ever-wiggling, impulsive fluff ball, my Johnny Utah didn’t overthink situations or hold grudges. He just loved!
Not knowing if it would head anywhere, I started with “puppy” obedience to establish better loose-leash walking and overall attention, taking both group classes and a few private sessions to troubleshoot his tendency to be easily distracted by smells on the ground and birds in the environment.
But because he was already mature and I had already improved my basic dog training skills by taking classes with Delta, he learned surprisingly quickly and retained everything we practiced. While I never took the time to teach Johnny a lot of tricks, he readily responded to luring and was willing to try almost anything for a treat.
I’d love to say I had a carefully planned out schedule for introducing him slowly into the work environment, as I highly recommend and have done therapy dogs since. But instead, the Covid pandemic hit two weeks before our Canine Good Citizen test was scheduled. Since I was seeing a fraction of my usual caseload in person and felt uncomfortable being alone in my nearly-empty office building (some days my car was the only one in the parking lot), I just started bringing him along on Delta’s days off.
And for Johnny Utah, that worked.
Future therapy dog Johnny Utah, ready to go as always, around age five.
The pros of a high energy speech therapy dog
While Johnny’s faster movements and higher need for contact (i.e., “Velcro dog”) worried me, I found almost immediately that my fears were unfounded.
Perhaps because he is smaller his wiggles didn’t overwhelm kids with a more approach-avoidant interaction style as much as I had anticipated, and adding a baby gate as a barrier as needed worked well.
Johnny was also not generally a licker, so there was less sensory overwhelm than there is with Sky (one of my current therapy dogs and also a vivacious Brittany).
For kids with a more passive temperament, I found playing games of fetch with a ball that bounces unpredictably or running through a tunnel helped increase their arousal and made engaging in therapy activities easier overall.
With kids expressing too high of energy for the situation, Johnny could escalate his energy and start mounting the kids or sneezing uncontrollably. While embarrassing, I often found kids were more willing work to calm their energy if I posited it as helping Johnny.
One of my clients at the time could be very defensive about being told by his mom to “calm down”. By working through calming strategies like breathing techniques and deep pressure input under the guise of helping Johnny, though, it enabled him to make quick gains in recognizing and advocating for his own energy needs.
Therapy dog Johnny Utah playing the “good listener ‘a’” in a Wired for Reading (SM) skit teaching the “two vowels go walking” vowel patterns.
Johnny had a special bond with this girl, with his higher energy and need for closeness drawing her out of her shyness. Here he gives her his famous nose bump instead of licking.
The challenges of a high energy speech therapy dog
As a smaller dog with a more excitable temperament, Johnny could be startled easily by children’s unexpected, quick movements. I had to increase my vigilance in sessions to minimize his stress, as unlike Delta he would try to return immediately instead of allowing the child some space to calm down.
Staying on his bed on command became an especially helpful tool on Johnny Utah’s work days but took time and patience to teach to a dog that just wanted to be velcroed to the children in his care.
I also needed to learn a new set of dog body language, as Johnny communicated very differently than Delta. His stress signs included lifting a paw, licking his lips, blinking, and circling, all of which looked cute to clients and their families who took them as signs he wanted more petting, not less. Learning to advocate for his needs became my priority to keep him from overworking.
Speech therapy dog Johnny Utah at age 8, training to stay on his bed as needed during animal-assisted speech therapy.
Retirement life for a speech therapy dog
After three years of working alongside Johnny, it had become clear shortly before his twelfth birthday he that it wouldn’t be healthy for him to continue. Though he still loved greeting every single person, he was so tired at the end of the day it was taking him a day or two to recover.
The first few months leaving him at home was difficult for both of us. He knew the closet where their vests were kept and my three therapy dogs (Delta, Johnny Utah, and new pup Bodhi) would compete to get closest to me to “earn” their vest.
I tried to add in extra one-on-one time with Johnny but it was genuinely difficult to give him the same amount of attention he had become accustomed to as a working co-therapist.
Retired speech therapy dog Johnny Utah shows off his famous smile. This is the expression families were met with at the door as they arrived for animal-assisted speech therapy sessions with happy-go-lucky Johnny.
Johnny Utah passed away in August of 2024 at the age of thirteen. Though his last year was a roller coaster of health problems, he never lost his personality or his love of people.
His last day was a happy one in which he strutted the whole way home after chasing a neighbor dog away while on a walk and had a special treat of chicken during our dinner before unexpectedly collapsing and passing quickly in my husband’s arms. I made it there moments later and choose to think he could feel my last kisses. He is buried in our field at home and his memories hang on the walls of our home and our hearts.
While Johnny was a once-in-a-lifetime companion and therapy partner, I’m so proud that he could share at least a bit of his story with other speech therapists as part of Paws for Progress: Integrating Animal-Assisted Interventions Into Your Speech-Language Pathology Practice, available now from ASHA Press.
I hope that his success as a higher-energy speech therapy dog will inspire others to try partnering with a more active canine co-therapist and see the transformative power they can bring.
May your days be filled with puppy wiggles and children’s giggles,
Sharlet
