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Bernese therapy
By Ginny Merriam of the Missoulian
Mountain dog
Moritz has healing presence
The tangible things about Moritz are
easy. He weighs 100 pounds. He eats 2 cups of dog food a
day. He came to Montana from Switzerland as a puppy,
companion to Lake Inez resident Barry Schieber. He cost
$1,000. He's brown, white and black, with a white tip on
his tail and a white cross on his chest, hallmarks of
the Bernese mountain dog that he is.
The intangibles are harder to talk about.
He's patient and sweet, Schieber says of his 2
1/2-year-old Moritz. When he visits patients at
Community Medical Center and the hospital's
rehabilitation center, he does "nothing special,"
Schieber says. Sometimes he just lies down in the room,
near the patient. Sometimes he puts his nose on the
patient's nose. Sometimes he just sniffs a little.
He seems to know what the patient wants, Schieber said
in a recent interview. He's very present. His manner and
abilities are uncanny, and they inspired Schieber to
write about him and about the visits. The result is the
new book, "Nose to Nose: A Memoir of Healing," which
Schieber and Moritz will sign Friday evening at Fact &
Fiction bookstore.
"When he goes to see a patient, he goes with an open
mind," Schieber said. "Something happens by his calm
nonchalance in entering a new situation. He goes with no
agenda."
Schieber came to Moritz serendipitously after Schieber
became sick in Lucerne, Switzerland, and was
hospitalized and recovering in December and January of
1999 and 2000. Through some friends, he got the idea of
a puppy, though he had never owned a dog and didn't know
much about them. He met Moritz, one of seven puppies who
were eight weeks old at a Bernese breeder's home. The
breeder told Schieber after he chose Moritz, "There is a
Swiss saying: He has a ghost of a woman in him."
Moritz flew home with Schieber when he was 12 weeks and
has lived at Lake Inez since.
Moritz soon showed that he was friendly and happy and
unusually calm and adjustable. He attracted people
wherever he went. Schieber thought he would be a good
hospital visitor. After their certification by the Delta
Society and training at Community Medical Center, they
began visiting in June of 2001.
Schieber, who has published two books of haiku poetry,
began writing about the visits on Tuesday evenings after
he and Moritz got home.
"As some of these stories started to come out," he said,
"I realized there was something to share."
Schieber, with the help of his editor, structured the
book as short chapters called "Visit One" through "Visit
12." Each tells of a day's worth of patients: a child
with cerebral palsy, a retired banker from Libby
recovering from a stroke. In each case, Moritz knows
what to do. He goes to the weaker side of a stroke
patient to encourage him to use that arm to pet him. He
doesn't touch another patient who's in excruciating
pain.
Moritz does something that makes people open up,
Schieber said.
"Quite often, it's like people lose their identity
almost in the intimacy and the context of sharing," he
said. "It's extraordinary. What makes the person open
up? What happens?"
Healing, Schieber has learned, is much more than a wound
growing together. It involves making the person whole
again.
"Moritz is part of this process," he said. "You can say,
'I've met a beautiful dog.' But that doesn't really
describe it.' "
Schieber has worked as an investment advisor and for
five years was director of a Buddhist institute in
Berkeley, California. He visited his home at Lake Inez
for 25 years for summers only and moved full-time to it
three years ago. He continues to learn from Moritz, and
he's happy to share him. Moritz will be with him at Fact
& Fiction on Friday.
"He does anything," Schieber said. "I've yet to find
something he won't do. He's just a happy being."
Reporter Ginny Merriam can be reached at
gmerriam@missoulian.com.
© 2000, Missoulian, Missoula, MT - A Lee Enterprises
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Wonderful photos of Moriz and the
places Barry and he have visited. |
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Moritz and Barry often receive
letters from readers, patients and teachers who have
been affected by Nose to Nose and pet therapy.
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