The first time Georgia Granger was struck by the powerful effect that animals can have on people was more than 40 years ago, when she was feeling sad.

“I was crying on my living room floor, and my four dogs surrounded me,” she recalls. “That’s when I started thinking about the human-animal bond.”

There have been many more examples since then, from her mother preferring the presence of dogs over people while recovering from a stroke to the powerful effect a dog’s presence can have on hardened former gang members in counseling.

Early bonding

While living in Tennessee, Granger started attending meetings of the Delta Society, now known as Pet Partners. She was so inspired by one of the group’s founders, veterinarian Leo Bustad, that she developed her own organization dedicated to animal-assisted therapy.

Granger began building Human-Animal Bond in Tennessee (HABIT) in 1985 while her husband Ben was dean of the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. When Ben was hired to lead what was then CSU’s Department of Social Work in 1992, Georgia brought the nonprofit to Colorado State, renaming it Human-Animal Bond in Colorado (HABIC).

Ben, who passed away in January 2015, served as co-director of HABIC, but it was really Georgia’s baby from the start. “I had no idea it would grow like it did,” Georgia Granger says. “I haven’t been able meet the demand these last few years. But the passion has only increased over time. What we’re doing is too good to stop.”

In the program, HABIC-certified, animal-assisted therapy dogs (and even a couple of cats) work with professional therapists on customized treatment protocols that address challenges as varied as head trauma, elder issues and autism. HABIC is run under the umbrella of the School of Social Work in the College of Health and Human Sciences and currently operates 63 distinct programs staffed by about 150 human-animal teams.

The dogs visit nursing homes, respite care facilities, rehab clinics, mental health facilities, hospitals, youth correctional facilities, treatment centers for eating disorders and Veterans Affairs facilities — from Denver to Fort Collins, Estes Park to Greeley. Granger says HABIC is also active in 36 public schools, working with at-risk kids who are referred by a teacher, counselor or psychologist in cases involving everything from bullying to attention-deficit disorder to autism and Asperger’s syndrome.

Some of the most impressive experiences have occurred at the Platte Valley Youth Services Center in Greeley, a secure-custody facility for long-term sentenced/committed youth ages 10 to 21. Granger says even the most rough-and-tough youth soften and open up during individualized HABIC sessions with the trained dogs.

“It’s amazing how the dogs can change their attitudes,” she says. “They’ll break down and cry and talk more because the dog is there. They begin to trust you, and they’ll talk while petting the dogs. It makes it more likely for the counselors to hear things they’ve never heard before.”

‘Calmer state’

Anthony McAlister, a certified addiction counselor at Platte Valley who has used HABIC dogs for about a decade, agrees. “Clients tend to lower their defenses, because they’re not just speaking with a human; an animal is present,” he says. “They get in a relaxed, calmer state. They’re not as guarded as they would normally be.”

McAlister says the dogs’ mere presence in the facility has a positive effect on all who see them, and he’s started incorporating the animals into a new group therapy session.