LOS ANGELES — There’s a new breed of airport dog. They aren’t looking for drugs or bombs: They are looking for people who need a buddy, a belly to rub or a paw to shake.
“His job is to be touched,” volunteer Kyra Hubis said about Henry James, her 5-year-old golden retriever that works a few hours a week at the San Jose airport. “I am just standing there with him. They are talking to him. If I need to answer for him, I do. But I am at the end of his leash, he’s not at the end of mine.”
Mineta San Jose International Airport is widely credited with introducing the first airport therapy dog in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, when flights were grounded, passengers were stranded, and reaching friends and relatives in the East was nearly impossible. Passengers were anxious and afraid.
Enter Orion, owned by a volunteer airport chaplain who got permission to bring the dog to work. He made such a difference that San Jose formalized the program and now has nine dogs. Miami International Airport has one dog, and Los Angeles International Airport has 30 and hopes to expand.
The dogs are intended to take the stress out of travel.
You never know why people are flying, said Heidi Huebner, director of volunteers at LAX, which launched Pets Unstressing Passengers in April. Travelers might be in town for a vacation, a funeral, to visit a sick family member or to attend a business meeting.
“You can literally feel the stress levels drop, people start smiling, strangers start talking to each other and everybody walks away feeling really, really good,” Huebner said.
Dogs have to be healthy, skilled, stable, well-mannered and able to work on a slack 4-foot leash, said Billie Smith, executive director of Wyoming-based Therapy Dogs Inc., which certifies the LAX animals. They have to be comfortable with crowds, sounds, smells — and they need to pass through security like all airport workers.
Handlers are taught to watch for people who fear or dislike dogs or those who might have allergies. In most cases, people approach the dogs, identifiable by vests or bandanas.
When Claudia McCaskill’s family recently flew home from vacation she requested Casey — a 4-year old golden retriever who is the sole dog at Miami’s airport — meet the plane to greet her 5-year-old daughter, Carina, who is autistic.
Casey and handler Liz Miller were there with a gift basket and Carina fell in love with the dog.
“Thank you for visiting us at the airport so I would be happy,” Carina said in a video for Casey.
