Music City Love on a Leash pet owner volunteers are committed to infusing comfort, happiness and healing to the Nashville community by increasing public awareness of and providing pet therapy. This volunteer organization, with national headquarters in California, provides an accessible certification process that allows qualified therapy teams to provide effective pet-provided therapy services in and around Middle Tennessee.
The Music City LOAL chapter was established in September 2015, and is comprised of 22 teams – two of which are cats!
LOAL-certified therapy pets and their owners visit residents in assisted living homes, VA Murfreesboro, memory care facilities, hospitals, hospice care facilities, schools, libraries, day-care centers, preschools and special education classrooms. More recently, they've visited colleges and universities to provide stress relief for students during final exam periods and Mental Health Mondays.
The organization began during the early 1980s when Liz Palika, an award-winning author and dog obedience instructor, began to introduce the concept of pet-provided therapy to residents of north San Diego County in California. In providing the service, she saw a need for a larger organization to accommodate the growing number of requests she received from assisted living facilities, memory-care facilities, schools and hospitals.
Liz officially created Love on a Leash in 1984. The organization was incorporated in 1995 as The Foundation for Pet Provided Therapy as 501(c) (3) charitable organization.
With more than 2,300 members throughout the United States, volunteers formed chapters, such as the Music City group.
The nonprofit is based on the following premise: A therapy pet's primary function is to brighten someone's day. The majority of LOAL members are involved in this social side of therapy work. Therapy pets and their handlers visit destinations to provide emotional support.
During August, Music City LOAL teams currently are scheduled for visits to:
- Harmony at Brentwood
- Hickory Gardens Senior Living
- Clarendale at Bellevue
- Centennial Heart at Skyline
Therapy pets are privately owned and typically visit facilities on a regular basis. All Love on a Leash members are volunteers. For the most part, the group's therapy pets are dogs; however they also certify cats and rabbits who have shown they like people and have the proper temperament. No breed restrictions apply, with the exception of wolf hybrids. All pets must be at least one year old with basic obedience knowledge to be considered. Once certified, the team (whether your pet is a dog, cat or rabbit) is covered by a general liability insurance policy while providing therapy visits.
All Music City LOAL dogs are eligible to earn AKC Therapy Dog titles, including purebreds and mixed breeds. To earn an AKC Therapy Dog title, dogs must be registered or listed with AKC and have a number.
Music City LOAL was nominated for a Hands On Nashville Volunteer Award during 2016. In Spring 2017, they were awarded Hall of Fame winner for their work at Signature Healthcare in Madison, Tennessee. They also became the first LOAL chapter nationally to receive a significant monetary donation from a generous Nashville family foundation.
The local chapter leader is Rebecca Pyle, whose teammates are Connelly and Nora, the only feline volunteers at this time although a new feline team has just begun their training to join LOAL. "Connelly loves going on visits with all of the dogs. Residents and patrons love hearing him talk to people and walk on a leash down the halls hugging the walls. He likes cuddling up next to people in bed or in a warm lap. And Nora loves people, especially kids and is very adventurous and sassy," she says.
For more details, email info@loveonaleash.org or call 760.740.2326.