A Dogged Pal : Muttly’s Instant Love Is Just What the Doctor Ordered

Muttly, a big, friendly, mixed-breed dog, kept putting his head in the old man’s lap, but the man hardly noticed.

The man, who has Alzheimer’s disease, had not spoken for nine months. One day, as he petted Muttly, he smiled and said: “I used to have a dog.”

Now the man regularly talks to Muttly and will at least answer yes or no to his family and the staff at Hillhaven Convalescent Hospital in Orange.

Muttly also has prodded other residents, especially those with senile dementia or other problems that affect communication, to come out of their silent shells, said Nora Johnson, the hospital’s activities director.

Johnson was responsible for bringing Muttly, part golden retriever, part collie, to Hillhaven last March, and the place hasn’t been the same since.

“There’s sort of an uplifting atmosphere there,” said June Dashiell, president of the Orange County chapter of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Assn. “It’s kind of like a home feeling.”

Hospital administrator Roy Behnke said the “patients love him. We get smiles from people who don’t respond to other stimuli at all. It makes our place a little bit more like home.”

Other convalescent homes in the county also have resident pets for that reason, Johnson said.

“The idea of pet therapy is that pets provide instant love, instant companionship. A dog, especially, is able to return the affection. You pet his head and he wags his tail.

“Muttly will walk up to a patient in a wheelchair and put his head on the lap and get instant reaction from the person,” Johnson said. “The dog doesn’t look at a patient and see a wheelchair, he just sees a person who can give him some love.”

Pets have proven especially good for heart patients, she said, because they help to reduce stress, they return affection and they “give patients a reason to live.”

Muttly was left with the Grand Avenue Pet Hospital in Santa Ana when his owners moved out of state. Finding that the dog had a good disposition, veterinarians offered him, along with free veterinary service, to Hillhaven, Behnke said.

Now a little more than 4 years old, the specially trained Muttly makes his rounds to various room with staff members. He might dawdle, Behnke said, as patients pet him, but he quickly returns to the activities center if he hears the loudspeaker voice boom, “Muttly, home.”