Adorable therapy dogs greet travelers at Portland International Airport

By FOX 12 Staff

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — It’s a busy and sometimes stressful time of year at Portland International Airport as holiday travel picks up, but on Wednesday, some travelers had a reason to smile thanks to the help of some furry friends.

DoveLewis and their Portland Area Canine Therapy Teams (PACTT) made a stop at PDX Wednesday morning. PACTT is the only canine therapy program certified to visit the airport, and the teams are there to help ease the minds of travelers and airport staff during what can be a crazy week.

PACTT is made up of a committed handler and a career-change or retired guide dog.

The teams say that canine-assisted therapy promotes physical healing by reducing anxiety, stress, fatigue, and depression.

“It’s important. We do about 250-300 visits a month with our teams and at Christmas time we do extra special visits to the airport, to secured facilities, to a lot of different locations,” said Kathy Loter, program director for PACTT. “Here specifically, because with the weather in the forecast, we’ve got a lot of travelers who are nervous and stressed and we just bring joy. If you notice, when people walk by, whether they touch the dogs or not, you can notice that their body language and their facial expressions change.”

This is just one of many stops that PACTT will make during the holiday season. They will also visit at-risk youth facilities, county courts, transitional house, Portland police, and OHSU.

For more information about PACTT, click the link below:

dovelewis.org/community/portland-area-canine-therapy-teams

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