June 30, 2016

Meet Gracie – Iowa’s Only Lutheran Church Charities Comfort Dog

By Jane Marsh

Gracie    Gracie is a five-year-old AKC golden retriever, trained and certified to the level of disability. She is one of 94+ LCC Comfort Dogs from Massachusetts to Napa Valley. They are all Golden Retrievers, bred for Lutheran Church Charities and trained for 1 year before they are then placed by request in a Lutheran church. Gracie is extremely well-trained, very compliant, and like all of the LCC Dogs, “no bark,”
“no lick,” “no paw” and “no treat.” She responds to 30 different commands. Gracie, as well as all other LCC dogs are nationally known and deployed frequently to national tragedies. Gracie, has had eight such deployments. Gracie is dual vested, a Comfort Vest and a Veteran Vest. Gracie goes to Chicago frequently for training to the LCC Training site.

Gracie is the only LCC Comfort Dog in Iowa and has several target audiences. Gracie is a frequent participant at Trinity Lutheran School, which has 400+ students. She attends 2 reading classes a week, spending time with children who struggle for various reasons with reading. They put their book on the floor, and Gracie lays right next to them. We also visit many nursing homes, assisted living, retirement homes, hospitals, and hospice facilities. Gracie is loved by the older seniors, and she loves them right back. Gracie has become a weekly visitor at the Davenport Police Department and  the SECC 911 Dispatch Center, spending time with those whose jobs are high stress. Gracie visits Camelot Schools for all levels of Special Needs. It is a known fact that loving dogs can lower a person’s blood pressure.
Every place we go, Gracie loves to be petted and even hugged. Even a bedridden patient wants to hug Gracie. She has been taught the command “rise,” and she rises up and places her front paws on the bed so that the patient can pet her. Grace knows the command “roll,” and we tell her to roll so the children can lay on her.

Gracie is a calming influence to so many we visit. Gracie has been deployed to the following tragedies, along with ten to twelve other LCC Comfort Dogs: Moore, Oklahoma tornadoes; Prescott, Arizona when the hotshot Firefighters perished; E5 tornadoes in Washington, Illinois; Vilonia, Arkansas tornadoes; Nashville, Illinois plane crash and funeral for the family; Newtown and Danbury, Connecticut, Sandy Hook School, and most recently to Orlando, along with many other locations.

For more information, please contact Jane Marsh at (563) 323-8001.

Filed Under: Community

Trackback URL: https://www.50pluslife.com/2016/06/30/meet-gracie-iowas-only-lutheran-church-charities-comfort-dog/trackback/