{"id":64736,"date":"2025-12-18T23:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/64736\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T23:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T23:41:10","slug":"lehigh-valley-international-airport-abe-celebrates-10-years-of-canine-therapy-with-furry-flight-crew-allentown-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/64736\/","title":{"rendered":"Lehigh Valley International Airport (ABE) celebrates 10 years of canine therapy with furry flight crew | Allentown Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

HANOVER TWP., Pa. – It was a “dog-gone” good celebration at Lehigh Valley International Airport on Thursday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s marking the 10th anniversary of its canine therapy program. 69 News reporter Bo Koltnow takes a look.<\/p>\n

From a sweet-natured Scottish Terrier, high fiving St. Bernard, to the golden (retriever) hue of affection.<\/p>\n

Pooches part of LVIA’s pre and post flight therapy.<\/p>\n

“What makes Barkley a good therapy dog, he loves people, other dogs, he listens,” said a handler.<\/p>\n

This is the 10th anniversary of the airport’s Canines Offering Passenger Encouragement, or COPE Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Where a tail wagging terminal stroll leads to a much appreciated pet stop.<\/p>\n

“Very successful. Since 2015, 59 dogs have come through the program, ” said LVIA’s Colin Riccobon.<\/p>\n

Adding the impact was immediate, and the popularity of this canine crew has taken off.<\/p>\n

Deedee and Jim Carlson have been bringing 8-year-old St. Bernard Abby since she was two. The relief seen on arrival.<\/p>\n

“Sometimes they (passengers) cry because they lose their dog or they’re so happy. So happy because they lost a dog, or something like that,” Deedee said.<\/p>\n

12-year-old Sherman is the last of the originals, who we first met as a 2-year-old, when the program launched.<\/p>\n

Owner Sue Ann Reidman says he hasn’t lost a step.<\/p>\n

“He’ll walk from person to person, all down the line. He does different things. He’ll sit in front of each one,” she said of Sherman’s stroll.<\/p>\n

A furry flight crew, ready for a touchdown. LVIA is always on the lookout for more dogs to add.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HANOVER TWP., Pa. – It was a “dog-gone” good celebration at Lehigh Valley International Airport on Thursday.\u00a0 It’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[214,119,121,120,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-64736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-allentown","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-allentown","10":"tag-allentown-headlines","11":"tag-allentown-news","12":"tag-allentown-area"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}