My name is Kaye Martell, and I am the administrator for Upstate Therapy Dogs
. 
When my husband developed brain cancer, I saw how the dogs calmed him, and helped him with his anxiety and kept him more lucid by petting and just talking to them.I knew there had to be a way to utilize my dogs for the community so I got in touch with Therapy Dogs Inc. in 1998. Their name has since changed to Alliance of Therapy Dogs.I started with six people and we visited National Healthcare and Shriners Children’s Hospital when it was a full-service facility. We visited at night after the children ate and had free time. When it changed to an only orthopedic Hospital, we ended up doing day visits instead.We were originally Carolina Therapy Dogs, but that name changed in 2004 to Upstate Therapy Dogs. It started out with six people and it has since grown to 60+ Members as of this summer.Our visits started to increase as more and more facilities learned about therapy dogs, and their power to heal.For many years, I was the only tester observer, now we have five.We continued to test people for other areas to start up new groups, such as Hendersonville, Columbia, and Clemson. Now, with additional insurance coverage, people can be tested and certified to bring their dogs to work.During the pandemic, we were shut down for about two years, and then we slowly started coming back to visiting with Shriners and Prisma Health Care. Now we do visits to assisted living, special events; such as the Nami walk, Camp Hope, and many holiday events. Our newest long-term visits are at the Childrens Museum where we have visited monthly for almost a year and shared our dogs with reading, safety programs, and meet and greet.This is my 25th year of being active in Therapy Dogs. I have shared 10 different dogs over those years. At one time I had four working at the same time.
My first therapy dog, Homer, the Australian shepherd.
My current therapy dogs, Tango and Flash, both whippets.
Please feel free to get in touch with me anytime you have a question or if you have additional information you would like to receive about Upstate Therapy Dogs.Kaye Martell864-525-4220