{"id":597,"date":"2017-09-12T21:25:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T21:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/?p=597"},"modified":"2017-09-12T21:25:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-12T21:25:26","slug":"xna-starts-therapy-dog-program-passengers-react-positively-to-pets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/2017\/09\/12\/xna-starts-therapy-dog-program-passengers-react-positively-to-pets\/","title":{"rendered":"XNA starts therapy dog program, passengers react positively to pets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally posted by Jeff Della Rosa at\u00a0talkbusiness.net<\/a>.
\n<\/strong>
\nNorthwest Arkansas Regional Airport recently established a therapy dog program to provide another layer of customer service at the Highfill-based airport.<\/p>\n

So far, public reaction to the Runway Rovers program has been positive, said Roberto Sucre, special projects coordinator for XNA. People have said how the dogs have improved their day, and appreciated how the airport has become involved with its passengers.<\/p>\n

Runway Rovers includes 10 volunteers along with 10 privately-owned dogs that are certified through a nationally recognized therapy dog association. This ensures the dogs are properly trained and their actions are covered under insurance. While the dogs are trained, they are not service or emotional support dogs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese dogs are there for people to pet,\u201d Sucre said. \u201cThey don\u2019t approach people. People have to approach them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other airports such as Denver International Airport, Los Angeles International Airport and Tulsa International Airport have similar programs, and some have other animals, including pigs and miniature horses. But for now, the one here only includes dogs, with breeds such as Great Pyrenees, Golden Retriever and Beagle.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very popular program at a lot of other airports,\u201d airport director Kelly Johnson said. \u201cWe did it here informally a couple of years ago. We had a volunteer that had a therapy dog that she brought out with her. But we\u2019ve gone ahead and formalized the program.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if one of the dogs were to bite someone, Johnson said the airport has an agreement in place with the pet owners, and insurance would cover the injury. \u201cWe haven\u2019t heard of any instances of that. Their training is fairly extensive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The volunteers also are trained how to respond when finding unattended luggage and provide useful information for first-time flyers, said. The program is an extension of the airport\u2019s existing volunteer program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted by Jeff Della Rosa at\u00a0talkbusiness.net. Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport recently established a therapy dog program to provide another layer of customer service at the Highfill-based airport. So far, public reaction to the Runway Rovers program has been positive, said Roberto Sucre, special projects coordinator for XNA. People have said how the dogs have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":272,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","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":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[197],"tags":[451,445,450,452,447,448,449,444,453,446],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-focus_community","tag-denver-international-airport","tag-jeff-della-rosa","tag-kelly-johnson","tag-los-angeles-international-airport","tag-northwest-arkansas-regional-airport","tag-roberto-sucre","tag-runway-rovers","tag-talkbusiness-net","tag-tulsa-international-airport","tag-xna"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Voice_of_Business_icon.jpg?fit=450%2C450","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8RhO8-9D","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":598,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions\/598"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/impactpossible.com\/voice\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}