4 Legged Friend Helping Iowa Children Feel Better, One Day at a Time

*The picture of the dog in the featured image is not the dog in this story*

Tanager Place is an agency that helps children with mental health and behavioral challenges. Located in Cedar Rapids, they want you to know you are not alone and they are here to help with mental health challenges your child may be facing child. They also just brought in the perfect partner to help out. Meet Mack, the first animal-assisted therapy dog at Tanager Place.

According to Thera Pet "animal-assisted therapy is when animals are used in goal-directed treatment sessions. These goals can be physical, mental, emotional, and/or social."

It turns out Mack was an immediate success. KCRG reports, that Mack is from Deafinitely Dogs, located in Cedar Rapids, and their goal is to train therapy dogs. Mack started showing signs as a puppy he felt most comfortable in a crowd of people.

Laurette Vanourny is a co-founder of Deafinitely Dogs, and she told KCRG Mack was born to be a service dog.

Mack had all the things that made him very close to growing up as a service dog...except for he’s super social. Mack is pretty sure that the world is here to meet him and that he should meet them.

Mack is the first dog to be used in animal-assisted therapy at Tanager Place and employees could tell the impact he had on the kids right away. KCRG reports he's been working with clients for 2 weeks and has already shown examples of caring for the kids.

Brooke Mohs is the Operations Manager for in-patient programs at Tanagers Place and she told KCRG about a time Mack was there to comfort a client.

It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve probably ever seen, actually. She was waiting to see her psychiatrist, she was having a rough day, she’s had a rough handful of days and Mack came in and she immediately started talking about how I was just having a really bad day until I saw you and you just made my whole life better.

The old saying is "a dog is a man's best friend." It turns out Mack might be the perfect best friend for kids who may be going through a rough time.