Sherman, a regionally-famous therapy dog, now also serves as a service dog to his owner Sherry McAllister as she battles cancer.
Dogs are attention grabbers, ice breakers and all around conversation starters, but puppies have a way of warming even the most seasoned heart. Add the uniqueness of a 50-pound puppy and an owner with an empathetic spirit and you have an unstoppable force.
About 14 years ago, Sherry McAllister worked for the school district in Aberdeen. It was then that she adopted her first English Mastiff. Her students started asking for her to bring her massive and cuddly puppy to class. Then, a student put in a request for Mrs. McAllister to visit her grandmother in a nursing home with her English Mastiff. It evolved from there.
Today, McAllister is the proud mom of Sherman the Therapy Dog, a four-year old, 227-pound therapy dog with nearly 17,000 Facebook followers.
“Mastiffs are amazing therapy dogs. They have a sway and swagger to them,” McAllister said. “You can’t make them do anything. When he’s decided he wants a nap, he plops down, starts snoring and you can feel the vibration of his snoring through the floor.”
Although McAllister and Sherman call Longview home, they regularly travel from Seattle to Vancouver and take an annual trek to Unlimited Opportunities in Boonville, Missouri — an organization that provides support to special needs kids and their families. Because she won’t fly Sherman, it’s a five-day road trip with stops along the way for Sherman to see his fans at hotel and coffee shop meet-and-greets.
More locally, Sherman makes appearances at the Vancouver Petco for Meet a Helping Hero and other events, he has visited Battle Ground, Vancouver and Longview area nursing homes and works annually with the Woodland police department for Shop With A Cop.
Sherman also balances an active modeling career, working with catalogs, clothing lines and dog clothes. Partnering with Erika Renae Photography, he puts out an annual calendar and he’s been on the cover of two books including one written just for him. “Sherman The Therapy Dog: A Powerful Team — A True Story” was authored by Jim Burris who writes a dog series based on the true story of a dog duo out of Mount Vernon. When Burris heard about Sherman and McAllister, their story resonated with the east coast resident.
Along with Sherman, McAllister is mom to two other therapy dogs; a French Mastiff named Ruby Sue and their little sister, a 10-pound Chihuahua/Papillon mix named Gracie Lou. Lily Pad completes the pack but she is content to be a stay-at-home pooch.
At four months of age, McAllister began training Sherman to have good manners and honed the sense for humans that he was naturally inclined to have. She says you can’t train a dog to be a therapy dog. The dog will possess instinctive qualities for patience and empathy and demonstrate laid back mannerisms and good social skills. It’s then up to a trainer to work with the dog regarding noises they will encounter at care facilities such as crying, screaming and other sudden outbursts. McAllister said that Sherman can have a walker or a wheelchair brush up against his foot and he does not react. A therapy dog must be “bullet proof,” according to McAllister.
Ironically, all of this training has come full circle for McAllister and her family. In June of 2016, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and in recent months she found out she now also has a stage 4 gastrointestinal stromal tumor– another form of cancer.
Sherman now toggles between therapy dog — a dog that works in the community for the community — and McAllister’s service dog — a dog that works for one person to provide a life enhancing or life-saving task for that person — on days when she feels unstable from neuropathy in her feet, hands and face.
Through it all, McAllister and Sherman keep moving forward because she has seen first-hand the power of pet therapy. She has entered numerous rooms with Sherman where a patient has been put on hospice. One such story is particularly poignant.
“I’ve been doing this for years. We went to visit a lady who was on hospice and they asked Sherman to come to support the family. There had been arguing in the room. I knocked on the door and everything became quiet. I went over and touched the lady and she was rigid. I held her hand. Everyone started laughing about the size difference of Gracie and Sherman. Sherman plowed his head into her son’s side. Everyone started talking about ‘Remember, mom, this dog and that dog we had growing up’ and the whole mood of the room changed. Before we left, I went back over (to the patient) and her arms were loose. You could tell she was comfortable. They (therapy dogs) are still working for the patient because the patient was listening to her children recall happy memories and it changed everything,” McAllister said.
