Imagine you’re flying out of Myrtle Beach International Airport. You’re worried about connecting flights, and maybe some family drama at your destination. You’re not a well-seasoned traveler, and you’re a bit nervous as it is. Then the announcement comes that your flight is delayed. The stress is building, and your fellow passengers are starting to feel it too. And then along comes Loki, an English Cream Golden Retriever. He’s soft and fluffy, and so calm and gentle. And his sole purpose at that moment is to share some of that calm with the humans around him. For those he helps, he’s a much-needed calming influence in times of stress, illness or recovery. For Loki, it’s just another day of volunteer work as a licensed therapy dog. 

Loki’s human counterpart is Carolina Shores resident Ket Koett. Together, they were certified through the Alliance of Therapy Dogs about two and a half years ago and have been working to calm people and brighten their day at nursing homes and hospitals; they visit Coastal Pointe Assisted Living and Memory Care in Shallotte and McLeod Seacoast Hospital in Little River. 

“We go into memory care first, and he’ll just sit there while they pet him,” Ket said. She even said that patients’ families started buying dog treats for Loki’s visits because he’s so popular. 

Ket said she had a Burnese Mountain dog who passed away and soon after, she adopted Loki. She later moved to Brunswick County from Colorado, having picked the area off a map. Loki  was the smallest of his litter, but doesn’t look like it now. He is three, and Ket also has a female of the same breed — two-year-old Coconut. She is also a therapy dog, but is much more active and a bit bouncier at home than Loki.  

“When I was training Coconut, she was a little more difficult because she was a puppy. It’s just a matter of reinforcing,” Ket said. She also lovingly said Coconut was a “hot mess” when she isn’t working. 

Many dog owners have certain words they don’t say out loud until it’s the right time, like “walk” or “treat.” For Ket’s dogs, the word “work” gets them excited. She said she tries to work them each once a week because it’s good exercise for them and keeps them socializing.  

Ket said when they go to the airport to work, it’s like Loki is a celebrity. All the security staff know him, and people just seem to brighten up when they see him. The program is called PETS, or Pets Easing Travel Stress, and Loki wears a vest that says “Please pet me.”

“We just walk them by the gates and calm people,” Ket said. “At the airport is where we get our biggest crowds. We block people from getting to their gates because they crowd around us. People will wait until they can pet him. I am just there to hold him. I’m just his person. And people say they needed that so much.” 

When she’s not working with Loki or Coconut, Ket works from home for the Department of Energy and also sells Mary Kay cosmetics. She said she hopes to get more involved with therapy dog work though, possibly even training with HOPE Animal Assistance Crisis Team, an organization that sends therapy dogs to wherever they’re needed in the country to work with people following a disaster. Ket said Loki is not quite ready for that, but it is a goal of hers.

Loki and Coconut are both certified, and while there was no prescribed training course, dogs and handlers must pass several tests to achieve that certification.

“As long as a dog can behave themselves and listen to command, you become a unit. The testing involves working in a medical facility,” Ket explained. “The dogs have to be able to walk by another dog and keep going without acknowledging them, and come to you directly from where they are,” she said.

Ket’s mom Bobbie Reid also lives in the home and is also working to become certified as a therapy dog volunteer. She has already done her testing with an Alliance representative, working with a dog on three separate occasions, and she is just awaiting for her approval before she can start. Bobbie has already been going with Ket and the dogs for their work, and early next year she’ll take a class at the hospital and also go through the security checks to be able to work at the airport. 

“It’s nice to make people feel so good. A lot of these people don’t have visitors, so to have somebody pay attention to them, especially a dog, means a lot to them,” Bobbie said of making hospital visits. 

Ket also said it was very rewarding to see how people respond when Loki shows up. People’s faces light up at the airport and medical facilities. At the memory care center, Ket said that during Loki’s visits, one patient talked often about the coondogs she had, and she even remembers Loki’s name from one visit to the next. She and her mom were also able to take Loki into a hospital in Florida when a relative was recovering.  

For anyone thinking of working with their dog to become certified, Ket recommends shadowing a working therapy dog to see if it would be the right fit for the dog and human unit. She would also refer anyone interested to Alliance, https://www.therapydogs.com/alliance-therapy-dogs/. She said the organization is very supportive and helps find work for the dogs. They recommended the airport to her. 

Ket and Loki started their training in Colorado and finished when they made the move to North Carolina. Ket said that one reason she started training with him was because he was so easygoing. 

“He didn’t get into anything. I can do anything to him, even blow dry him. He does whatever I ask of him. Loki just wants to make me happy,” she said. 

“I think this is my calling, I think that’s why he was given to me,” Ket said.