Rigatoni

With one blue and one brown eye, Rigatoni Rae, or Toni, is a border collie mix service dog trained by the West Virginia University Hearts of Gold Program working at WVU Medicine Children’s in the Pediatric Blood and Cancer Center to support patients through their care.

“Research is showing there are a lot of benefits to patients,” Anita Graham, pediatric social worker for the Center and Toni’s handler, said. “Research has shown that utilization of a therapy dog decreases blood pressure, heart rate, anxiety and overall stress.”.

Toni is part of the Pediatric Oncology team and attends rounds, walks patients from the Infusion Center to the Intensive Care Unit, walks with patients recovering from surgery, motivates patients to come to her when they need to get up and move and just joins them in their beds for support.

Rigatoni ​​visits patients in both the hospital and the Infusion Center. Rigatoni’s Handler, Anita Graham of WVU’s School of Medicine’s  Division of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, said Rigatoni comes to work Monday through Friday.