Monthly Feature

Each month, we bring you a new feature about dogs and their people. Although we are particularly interested in therapy dog stories, we will also pursue and publish other doggy items. If you have an article which you feel may be relevant to our group, please contact the administrator by email.

PULASKI -- Steve Bodtke tends to attract a lot of attention as he makes his way by Harley-Davidson from his Blacksburg home to Pulaski Community Hospital.

Or maybe it's his traveling buddy who causes other drivers to slow down, point, and hold up their cellphones to snap photos.

Riding in his own sidecar with a specially-fitted seatbelt, Wolfgang seems relaxed, his huge, black, furry face close to the windshield. The 120-pound Newfoundland makes this trip with Bodtke once a month to work as a therapy dog in the Skilled Nursing Facility, a rehabilitation wing separate from but attached to the hospital.

They also visit Heritage Hall in Blacksburg at least once a week and have visited other assisted-living centers, schools and libraries and the Veterans Affairs hospital in Salem.

"It used to take me about a half-hour" to visit people at Heritage Hall, something the 2 ¹₂-year-old Wolfgang has been doing since he was a small puppy, Bodtke said.

"Now it takes about an hour and a half because everybody wants to see him."

As they walked through the door of the Pulaski hospital on Friday, a crowd gathered in the hallway to get a look at the gentle giant. Patients smiled as soon as they saw him in their doorways.

Nebritta Jackson, 85, of Shiloh immediately reached for Wolfgang when he walked into her room.

"You're a fine doggy," she told him. "Such a pretty dog, well-behaved."

As they petted Wolfgang, Bodtke told patients that the dog's full name is Will E. Wonka's Wolfgang of Johnson Farms. He told them how he brushes the dog's teeth every night with peanut butter-flavored toothpaste, how great he is in the house, and how the Coast Guard often uses Newfoundlands as rescue dogs because they're such good swimmers.

He told them how Wolfgang was a surprise Christmas gift from his wife, Martha, while they visited their son in Colorado in 2007, and how it was too cold to fly him back to Virginia that year -- so Bodtke drove the puppy all the way back from Steamboat Springs.

"Once we could see just how smart and gentle Wolfgang was around other people, we started looking into visitation with him," Bodtke said. He and his wife had never had a therapy dog before, he said.

First Wolfgang worked toward the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen Award. Then he became certified through Therapy Dog International. He has a tag, bandana and ID card as proof.

He had to learn that he could touch people only when told it was OK, partly because many elderly people have thin skin that is easily scratched, Bodtke said. He had to learn that he could look, but not react much, when metal bowls were dropped on a concrete floor.

At Pulaski Community Hospital, activities director Judy Jarrells coaxed Wolfgang into a bark. Then she told him, "inside voice." He barked once, much more quietly.

"Oh, I love him," said Jarrells, who met Bodtke and Wolfgang through a Christian motorcycle association. "If I had room, that's what I would have because he is just precious."

Wolfgang isn't the only therapy animal to visit the hospital, Jarrells said. There have also been a potbellied pig and a lop-eared rabbit. All were evaluated by a veterinarian first to check their temperament, she said.

Most patients love seeing Wolfgang, Jarrells said.

She has seen a few become confused "but that is very rare." Before going into rooms, she is careful to tell Bodtke who it's OK to let Wolfgang visit and who it isn't.

Some patients won't react to much else, Jarrells said, "but they will to him."

Wolfgang has been visiting Pulaski Community Hospital for about two years. He began riding in Bodtke's sidecar -- which was bought just for him -- when he was 6 months old.

Wolfgang is helping train his younger half-brother, 130-pound Geronimo, to be a therapy dog as well, Bodtke said.

A 47-year-old associate broker with ReMax in Blacksburg, Bodtke said he, Wolfgang and Geronimo all enjoy their volunteer work.

Bodtke said he enjoys it so much that it makes him feel a little selfish.

"It makes me feel so good when I can help make someone smile," he said.

"I am not doing this to get anything in return but I certainly feel that I get much more than I give.

Matt Gentry
The Roanoke Times

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