We have recently added a grief therapy dog to our team.
Grace was named the official grief therapy dog of the Sheldon-Kukuchka Funeral Home Inc. 73 W. Tioga St. Tunkhannock, PA and is currently being trained to receive her therapy dog certification.
Grace, a chocolate brown Newfoundland, was born July 31, 2017 and enjoys many activities such as swimming, going for car rides, and giving comfort to her human friends.
Therapy dogs are specifically trained to provide affection, comfort and love to people in need.
Therapy dogs are required to have stable temperaments and very friendly, easy-going personalities because they interact with a variety of people while 'on duty.'
They also must meet set standards to be registered and certified.
Grace is working on her certification and is currently being trained by professional and highly-skilled trainer Barb Mattes, owner and training director of Coal Dogs Training in Clarks Summit. Barb is a Therapy Dog and CGC evaluator for TDI and AKC.
"A dog can provide a valuable sense of reassurance, joy, or calmness to people experiencing stressful, lonely or depressing situations or general times in their life," according to the American Kennel Club.
In the case of the funeral home, Grace’s goal will be to provide some comfort to those who are grieving and to help relieve their stress and anxiety. She may be especially helpful to children at their time of need.
We take pride in doing our absolute best to ensure our client family’s needs are met, and continuously strive to offer as much comfort as we possibly can to the families we serve.
Adding Grace to our team is an extension of that, we are really anxious for her certification so she can begin providing that extra comfort to families who request her assistance.
Grace is a part of our funeral director, Louis Marcho’s, family at home, when she’s not in training or at the funeral home.
Once Grace receives her certification, which is expected to be by Spring 2020, she will be available upon request at Sheldon-Kukuchka Funeral Home, Inc., Tunkhannock, PA.
For more information, contact Sheldon-Kukuchka Funeral Home, Inc. 570-836-3321
