(upbeat music) - Intermountain Therapy Animals has over 300 therapy teams who visit over 100 facilities, spending time with individuals going through difficult experiences.

And team volunteer, Stephanie Jacobs, is here with beautiful Biscuit to tell us about the READ, Read program.

Hey, Stephanie.

- Hi, how are you?

- Your baby is beautiful!

- Oh, thank you, I think he's pretty handsome.

He gets told that daily.

- He's very handsome and so well groomed.

- Thank you.

- So let's talk about Intermountain Therapy Animals.

I mean, they do so much.

They're so important for people.

- Oh my gosh, they do so, so much good.

We're currently serving 149 facilities-- - [Mary] Wow.

- throughout Utah and Montana.

So there's a lot of magic taking place with all those dogs.

- Yeah, and so tell us what they do with people.

I mean, they make visits invited, just to make them feel better.

- So it's, while Biscuit is really, really cute, and it's so fun to take him to the hospital, but it really is so much more than that.

When Biscuit gets to interact with a patient or even like you're interacting with him right now-- - [Mary] I just can't not touch him.

- I know, there's actually these feel good hormones that are released in your brain when you pet an animal.

- Oh, yeah.

- So it automatically lowers your blood pressure, lowers your heart rate, which actually promotes healing.

It decreases anxiety.

- I can't keep my hands off him.

- It allows the kids to feel safer.

They're super instrumental.

Also sometimes we'll be at the hospital and a child won't wanna take their medication or they won't wanna get up and go for a walk.

But if they can walk the dog, then a nurse can get them outta bed, get them moving, or get them to take their medicine.

There's so many things that these dogs do.

Bosley, my other dog, is in the READ program that you mentioned, and that's a literacy program for children.

And they primarily work with first graders to third graders on improving their reading levels.

And that's pretty amazing.

They work with kids for about a 12-week stent.

And it's remarkable to see the children's reading improve, and it really allows the kids to feel safe while they read to Bosley, for example.

There's not a lot of shame from other children or feeling like they're not good enough.

So that's a really remarkable part of Intermountain Therapy Animals.

- It's great, and I know you've got a great lot to tell people about.

Thank you so much for bringing him.

- You're welcome.

- Thanks.

- Yeah.

Hopefully, we've got some stuff in there.

- And if you'd like to know more about Intermountain Therapy Animals, they do have an event coming up.

Go to therapyanimals.org.

That's therapyanimals.org.

I'm Mary Dickson.

Thanks for watching Contact.

(upbeat music) - Local events, arts, culture.

It's what brings us together.

Hi, I'm Mary Dickson.

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