Conversation with Heather Perry

After opening the Canine Ranch Country Club in November on Lorraine Road, which offers dog grooming, training and day care, Perry decided she wanted to make a difference and expand the property from a pups-only place to Southwest Florida Therapy Animals, which will train a variety of animals to become therapy animals. The organization will have its grand opening in the fall.

The reason that I decided to also add animal therapy was because… my horse, who is an extremely affectionate animal, he “kisses” on demand—but only when you ask him. I have to say “give me a kiss.” I was holding a friend’s son, who is very shy, and out of nowhere my horse bent over and “kissed” him. My friend’s son grabbed his face and they had this good 15 to 20 second moment. My friend was like “look at that!” Prince (the horse) has never done that before. My friend asked to bring her son over again, because he had brought out an energy in him.  She told me, your animals are so loving. You have a gift. Then, I thought, I’m not just going to do dog therapy, I’m going to do animal therapy. Dogs are great therapy animals, but so are other animals. 

There really is a magical interaction between animals and humans. I knew dogs could sense if you’re depressed. What I didn’t realize until I brought kids over here with special needs is how animals have a sixth sense. I met someone who babysits a boy with cerebral palsy, and she asked to bring him over. I told her we weren’t open yet, but they were welcome to come over. So she came over, and I put each one of the animals — I put the pigs, I put the goats, I put the rabbits — on his lap, and they all just sat there. I put his hand on them and help him pet them. The horse bent over and kissed him, and he actually cracked a smile. Animals just have a sense when people need them. I might put a goat on your lap right now, and if you don’t have a great need, he might just jump off. 

So, I decided that I’m going to fill up all the stalls with different animals over here. I’ve always loved animals, always had them around and kept them close by. Right now, we have five baby chickens, five ducks, two rabbits, two dogs, two horses, two goats and two micro-mini pigs. We’ll get a calf. We’re going to work with different places in the area—we’re going to just pick a handful to start with, assisted living and nursing homes, and a few hospitals. Eventually we’d like to expand that. The dogs will go to those places, and the pigs can go to those places now because they’re small. The pigs have gone to those places, they even went to a cancer center. They were very well received—I have a picture of the pig with a 103-year-old lady. One lady even got teary-eyed, because it brought back memories of her growing up on a ranch. For the pigs, it depends on how big they get. The one pig is only 4 pounds, if they stay under 10 pounds they can keep going. I want to have field trips out here to the farm for special needs schools and homes—they’re looking for field trips. We have a full catering kitchen, so we could do a catered lunch, and a picnic under the trees on the picnic bench out back, we could have an educational program—maybe a 10 minute program, our agility instructor could come out and do a demonstration— and a ranch tour. We have about nine acres, we have some trails. And the rest of the time, they can socialize with the animals. 

We have volunteers here, to help the animals socialize. We are training them to not be afraid of humans. The specialization process is simply, everyday, up to 10 people a day, will come by and pick up the animal and talk to them, and put them down. The gist is, the more people that pick them up and don’t hurt them, they learn that people do not hurt them. The more If they learn to not be afraid of people, they won’t hurt people. The only thing that one can get from an animal for therapeutic value is love. So, if they’re going to cuddle with us and not hurt us, that’s about the most we can expect. We can’t expect them to talk with us and reason with us about why we shouldn’t be depressed. They can only give us unconditional love and affection. 

The grooming and spa care part of Canine Ranch is moving a half-mile up the street, but the services at the Country Club are expanding. Patti Stanley, a certified dog trainer, will be offering Good Canine Citizenship certification for anyone who wants to get their dog certified. We’ll have a pseudo-hospital room for dogs to get used to things like oxygen tanks. Now, not all dogs will make it, but I believe there’s a place for most dogs. Not all hospitals require the certification.

I want like-minded people out here. I want it to be busy with animal lovers all the time. For the Country Club, we have a pet paddock, a pool. When we open in the fall, I want to sell “country club memberships” so people can come swim with their dogs and play, hold events here —we had a birthday party already— have dog yoga classes. None of the (farm) animals are named yet. I want to have a sponsor program, so for a donation an organization or someone can name an animal, or a stall, or even the big red barn. The barn needs naming too.