{"id":80114,"date":"2024-08-23T09:23:52","date_gmt":"2024-08-23T14:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=80114"},"modified":"2024-08-23T09:23:54","modified_gmt":"2024-08-23T14:23:54","slug":"keren-the-comfort-dog-boosts-morale-as-classes-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=80114","title":{"rendered":"Keren the comfort dog boosts morale as classes begin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By RORY MOORE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keren the Comfort Dog visited Fort Hays State University Monday in the Memorial Union as part of a collaboration between Health and Wellness Services and the Lutheran Church Charities K-9 Ministries. She stood by with her handlers, Mike and Linda Rust, to interact with students and relieve them of stress during the academic year, boosting their well-being as one of three visits to Hays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outside of visiting campus, Keren has a significant background, from being raised as a puppy to comforting people after traumatic incidents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was born and trained in Nebraska,\u201d Mike Rust said. \u201cThen she went to Chicago where she finished her training. When we picked her up, she had 2000 hours of training.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rust mentions that multiple people had to be trained in addition to preparing Keren for service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were seven handlers who went up for training,\u201d he said. \u201cWe went through training, came back to Ellsworth, and we had to pass the test they had to be a handler. If you didn\u2019t pass, you weren\u2019t a handler, so they\u2019re pretty serious about it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a licensed therapy dog, Keren\u2019s service to comfort people is not only been limited to stress relief but also to assisting in their recovery after personal or catastrophic tragedies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been to funerals, floods, fires and shootings,\u201d Rust said. \u201cShe\u2019s been from Chicago to Uvalde and then from Colorado to Missouri. She\u2019s made an amazing difference in people\u2019s lives. If she can get you in a better mood, you will feel better. You really can\u2019t put that on a scale since she\u2019s always just a friend.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only has Keren guided individuals through painful experiences, but she has also simply brightened their days with her presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of times, you never know if you make a difference in somebody\u2019s life,\u201d Rust said. \u201cThey walk away, and you don\u2019t see them again. It might change that person, or it might help them through a day when they\u2019re having a problem.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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By RORY MOORE Tiger Media Network Keren the Comfort Dog visited Fort Hays State University Monday in the Memorial Union as part of a collaboration… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":80061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":false,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,3398,11],"tags":[15737,14849,15700],"class_list":["post-80114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-keren","tag-keren-the-comfort-dog","tag-rory-moore"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/0820-Dog-Moore-4-of-5.jpg?fit=1117%2C782&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80114"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80116,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80114\/revisions\/80116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/80061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}