Good Dog Dispatch

Ralph Hangs Up His Leash:
A Good Dog’s 11-Year Career

“He’s kind of a celebrity,” admits his owner, Anne Cohen, adding that she’s only his assistant.

For eleven years, Ralph has been doing rounds at Mount Sinai as a member of The Good Dog Foundation’s Pet-Assisted Therapy Program. He has soothed anxious patients, lifted spirits, and made even the most sterile hospital corridors feel a little like home.

Now, at fifteen, he’s preparing to retire — though you’d never know it from the way his tail still wags when he spots an open elevator.

A Surprising Partnership

Anne laughs when she tells the story of how it all began. “For many years, I didn’t even think I liked dogs. Then Ralph came to live with us in 2011 when he was ten months old — and that was that.”

A year and a half later, Anne retired. She was ready for something new. A cousin who was involved with The Good Dog Foundation told her about the organization and the important work that they do with Animal Assisted Intervention— and the idea clicked: “I knew I wanted to do some kind of volunteering, and I wanted to it with the dog. I kept hearing about what Therapy Dogs could do, especially in hospitals.”

Anne admits that the training wasn’t hard, though at first, she was nervous. “I didn’t want my baby to fail.” Of course, she needn’t have worried. In March of 2014, Ralph passed his certification—with flying colors.

The Patient Who Asked if Ralph Would Recognize Him

Anne wanted a placement where they could go every week, not once a month. “I wanted to become part of a community,” she says. Mount Sinai soon became their second home.”

Their first patient, the day after Labor Day, 2014, was an eight-year-old boy named Pablo, who had congestive heart failure and was waiting for a transplant. His heart was deteriorating – fast. “He was hooked up to monitors and tubes, and didn’t want to get out of bed,” Anne recalls.

“So, Ralph and I would sit with him, and we’d watch T.V. together. He’d show us his toys and his books. And Ralph would curl up next to him. He and Pablo were perfect together.” Two gentle souls sharing long, still afternoons, Ralph resting on the bed, Pablo stroking his fur.

But, as comforting as those visits were, Pablo needed to start moving before surgery. “He was a smart and funny kid but naturally, he was also frightened,” Anne recalls. The doctors wanted him to get out of bed, so Ralph became his reason to move.

It started with just a few steps. Pablo would take Ralph’s leash and walk slowly down the hall. As Pablo told CBS news, who followed his story: “He made me feel better, he made me do some exercise and walking.”

One afternoon, Pablo got the news everyone had been waiting for: a donor heart had been found, and his surgery was scheduled. That’s when he turned to Anne with a worried look and asked, “Do you think, when I get my new heart, Ralph will recognize me?”

Anne still gets emotional recalling this story.

Shortly after Pablo’s successful transplant, Anne and Ralph paid him a visit. Pablo stretched out his arms, and said proudly, “Look, Ralph. I’m not hooked up to anything!” Pablo recovered well –with Ralph’s help. Shari Kaplan, Senior Director of Volunteer Services at Mount Sinai Health System, remembers it vividly: “Ralph and Anne’s impact on one little boy was extraordinary. Pablo wouldn’t walk after his heart transplant until Ralph was there.”

On camera and off, it was pure joy — a boy with a new heart, reunited with the dog who had helped him heal.

The Dog Who Never Barked

Ralph’s calm, unflappable nature has made him a hospital favorite. “He knows he’s supposed to be quiet, no barking,” Anne says. “He’s so quiet people are stunned — they ask if I drug him.” The only time she’s heard him make a sound on the job was when a patient had a shiny balloon and Ralph saw the reflection in the window. “He made this tiny ‘oof’ sound, like he was saying, what is that thing?” she recalls. “Only once did he bark out loud — when I accidentally stepped on him. Completely my fault.”

Ralph has a talent for sleeping on the job, too — a skill that turns out to be therapeutic.

“Once, a patient had not been sleeping well,” Anne recalls, “So I put Ralph on the bed, and they both drifted off. After fifteen minutes, Ralph moved a little, so I went to pick him up. The man opened one eye and said, in Spanish, ‘We’re sleeping,’ and pulled Ralph closer.“

A Weekly Appointment

These days, Ralph and Anne spend most of their time in the palliative-care unit, where the staff greet him like a beloved colleague. “We walk down the hall and people light up,” Anne says. “They shout his name before they see me. I’m invisible.”

Patients who miss their own pets are often the most eager for a visit. “Sometimes they just want to pet him for a few minutes. Sometimes Ralph does his little wave.” That trick alone could get him a Ph.D. in morale boosting.

The Ones Who Stay With You

But Ralph’s work wasn’t only about the patients. His presence shaped life at Mount Sinai in other ways — touching not just those he visited, but the nurses, doctors, and staff who care for them. As Sherri Oustalet, Mount Sinai’s CARE and Pet Assisted Therapy Volunteer Coordinator, tells it: “In addition to comforting patients, Ralph and Anne attended many staff wellness events to bring a little light into the lives of Mount Sinai’s very busy staff. Anyone who crossed their paths were touched by their warmth and presence. We are grateful to The Good Dog Foundation for training Ralph so he could come here for over a decade, which is quite extraordinary.”

Hanging Up the Leash

On November 19, 2025, Mount Sinai staff gathered to give Ralph and Anne a heartfelt send-off on their final shift—a thank-you for the comfort, joy, and healing they’ve provided to patients and colleagues alike. As Oustalet described it, the farewell was Mount Sinai’s way of honoring “all the years of good work they’ve done, and how much they’ll be missed.”

“It’s such an honor to be brought into people’s lives,” Anne reflects. “Whether they’re sick, recovering, or facing something terminal, they’re under stress.”