DECATUR, Ill. (WCIA) — A new medical training room is opening in Decatur — but it’s not for doctors, nurses, or surgeons.

Pawprint Ministries has 45 comfort dog teams serving in Central Illinois. These dogs are often offering support in hospitals and cancer care centers. Now, all the dogs can be taught how to serve those people in a real-life hospital setting.

“We expose our dogs to a lot in a training situation so that when they do go out to serve, they’re prepared and they’re ready to go,” founder and executive director of Pawprint Ministries, Jennifer Dahn, said.

Pawprint Ministries is a local comfort dog organization that has served Central Illinois since 2014.

“Our dogs go out into hospitals, nursing homes, cancer care centers, schools, disasters, libraries, anywhere we’re called to serve,” Dahn said.

This requires specific and strict training.

“We noticed that we were needing a location to train our canines around medical equipment,” Dahn said.

So, they built the hospital training simulation lab. It gets dogs familiar with moving hospital beds, beeping sounds, and wheelchairs in a hospital room.

“It helps them learn how to navigate the IV tubing and help with proper paw placement. Our dogs have a ‘paws up’ command,” Dahn said.

A volunteer at Pawprint said that while the dogs see a lot of people’s best days, they often are there for their worst.

“It is tough for the dogs. They’re faced with so many different things. It’s unreal the number of things that you train for that you just don’t even realize are going to be an issue,” Libby Cross, a volunteer at Pawprint Ministries, said.

Preparing the dogs is no simple task, but the new training room gives them the tools they need to do it right.

“It takes a lot of concentration and patience and just a lot of repetition to get them to the place they need to be to serve,” Cross said.

Both Cross and Dahn are overjoyed about the new training space because they see first-hand the joy their dogs bring.

“Our dogs walk in with unconditional love and they’re just ready to give a hug. And when the world is crumbling, that’s what you need,” Dahn said.

Pawprint Ministries is volunteer based, and they pay for each owner and their dog to be trained.
It takes about two years to train a dog and costs $5,000.

Pawprint Ministries is hosting a tailgate parking lot fundraiser at their business on Sept. 20 at 11 a.m. There will be food, games, an auction, and lots of dogs.