By Joey Haas
Transcript for our video interview with Mackenzie Corbin from Armes-Hunt Funeral Home and Trish Hansen Kerr from Hansen Mortuary
Heather:
Hi everyone. And thanks for checking in with us on Funeral Innovations: Trends, Tips, and Technology this week. On this show, we chat with industry leaders and discuss marketing trends, business tips, and technology innovation, and we discuss how digital marketing helps you better serve your families. I’m Heather Mierzejewski. I am the marketing director here at Funeral Innovations.
Joey:
And I am Joey. I’m the marketing and design coordinator at Funeral Innovations.
Heather:
So thanks so much for joining us. This week, we are here to talk about therapy dogs, and we have Mackenzie Corbin and Trish Hansen Kerr. Is it K-ay-r or Kerr?
Trish:
Kerr.
Okay, thank you. Trish Hansen Kerr. If you guys want to kick it off by just telling us a little bit about yourselves and your firms, so that people know where you are, who you serve, that sort of thing.
Trish:
All right. So I’m Trish Hansen. We are in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona. We own two funeral homes, our own crematory, a cemetery, a pet cemetery. I’ve been doing this my entire life, although I’m not going to tell you how long that is. Truly though. I’ve been doing this about 37, 38 years. I’m one of the owners with my brother and we just get it done. We love people and love what we do.
HeatherL
Great. Thanks. Go ahead, Mackenzie.
Mackenzie:
I’m Mackenzie Corbin. This is Zuko and this is Judd. They’re our therapy dogs. We’re located in Grant County, Indiana. It’s Armes-Hunt Funeral Home. We have three locations within the county. I grew up in Grant County. I’m actually new to the funeral business. I worked in criminal justice and mental health for five years prior to joining the funeral home in February of this year. So I’m still learning a lot, but getting the hang of things.
Heather:
Well, welcome to the industry, Mackenzie. That’s terrific.
Joey:
So Mackenzie, you kind of, you mentioned your dog’s names, but would you both mind telling us a little bit about your therapy dogs and kind of introducing them?
Trish:
So I have two, I have Lilly who is 13 and Molly, who is two. They actually did not get therapy dog training, possibly shame on me, however they’re great dogs. They are my dogs and my brother and I just decided they’re good enough to realize what’s going on and how it’s happening. And so they’ve been trained really just in-house. But they’re great. They’re great. And I’m not sure you can see them or not, but I’m gonna bet. Yeah the old lady’s trying to really snore away over here and they’re golden doodles
Heather:
Did you pick that breed specifically to be a therapy dog?
Trish:
So ma or Lily was my pet, and about eight, nine years ago, my husband said we’re stupid, although he’s not in the industry. Well, he is, if you’re married to him, you’re in the industry. But he said, you know, you should take Lily to work and, oh my goodness gracious. It was, it’s been downhill from there it’s been wonderful. So I’ve just brought her to work and she’s just kind of meandered her way and she loves people and the people love her. It’s worked out great. That’s great.
Mackenzie:
Yeah. So Judd here. He actually belongs to our owner Gale arms and he’s been in the funeral home since he was 10 weeks old. He’s an English cream golden retriever weighing about 90 pounds. He’s a big boy. But he does get mistaken for a Great Pyrenees a lot. And he’s CGC certified, which is Canine Good Citizen. It’s a certification through AKC. And then he’s also a therapy dog certified. And then Zuko, he’s my dog. He lives with me. He was just a really good dog and I thought let’s do something different. And he’s also a CGC certified and he’s therapy dog certified. So Judd’s been doing this since he was about 10 weeks old and got certified in 2015 and Zuko didn’t start until he was three. And he’s been certified since the end of 2008.
Joey:
And can you talk a little bit about the process of getting them certified a little bit? Kind of what that was like?
Mackenzie:
Yeah. It takes about a year if you go through training. I really wanted to go through training and just kind of get all the information that I could get. This is my first dog. I never had a dog growing up. Zuko is my first. So we did the training. Judd did the same thing. Judd did beginner, intermediate advanced training as well. And then CGC is kind of a formality. They want you to have that to be accepted to test, to become a therapy dog. So we passed with flying colors. I actually didn’t do the training with Judd. My predecessor was awesome with him and she really set up a good platform to, you know, move forward. But yeah, it takes about a year.
Heather:
Okay. Gotcha. So Trish, you said you’ve been having a therapy dog at your funeral home for eight or nine years? Mackenzie, do you know how long you guys have had therapy dogs or has it just been in the past couple of years?
Mackenzie:
Yeah, so Judd was born in October of 2014. So he started when he was 10 weeks. So we’ve had about six years.
Heather:
Okay, great. What made you guys decide to incorporate therapy dogs into your business?
Trish:
Truly it was when my husband just said you’re being stupid and I’m like, wow, that’s a great idea. And, and the minute we brought them in, I’ll tell you what, well I brought Lilly in you know, who really it’s made a huge difference for is our staff. Oh the first time I did not bring Lily to work all those years ago. I mean, they, they were, they were devastated, asking where’s Lily? You know, so it not only helps our families, but she, they knock it out of the park for the staff. When Molly broke her leg just two weeks ago, heaven forbid, everybody here was so, Oh my gosh. So it’s just been, you know, it was my husband saying you’re crazy to get it done and we got it done and I would never go back.
Heather:
How about you Mackenzie? Do you know the history of the therapy dogs?
Mackenzie:
Yeah, I mean, I think it was just trying to get ahead of the curve on some things where we’re a smaller county, we’ve got about 65,000 people. And we just kind of wanted to do something different. My boss and owner Gale he’s always open to ideas and suggestions and this was his kids wanted him to get this dog and he did, and we’re like, just bring him over to the fever home. So it’s kinda just snowballed from there.
Joey:
Gotcha. so do you think you guys could talk a little bit about what their typical day looks like and kind of how they do their work?
Trish:
So for me, my brother will tell you it’s a blessing and a curse. Because what I do is I bring them to meet every family. So that way I get to introduce myself as to whom I am and give my condolences and the dogs just go and love on the families. Now, again, we ask are you okay with dogs, and generally speaking, I bet 99% of the time everybody said, absolutely. And so they just light up the room, forget meeting one of the owners, it became all about the dogs. But again, for me, it was a great chance to meet our families and say hello and give my condolences. And then the dogs just steal the show and make them feel like a hundred bucks. They ask if they can come to no, they don’t. They ask if they can come to the service. Absolutely they can come to the service or the visitation and viewing. So it all just depends on what we have going on as to what the family wants them to do. And then I bring them. So it’s real hands on for me, pretty much the curse then is I don’t get a ton done at what I probably should do. But it’s pretty awesome. I probably should get a Mackenzie who, you know, will actually do this and get work done in that direction.
Mackenzie:
So that’s you know, I was hired on as the dog handler but also the pet services coordinator. So we do pet cremations as well. And I do all those and meet with the families. I have been able to bring the dogs when we do arrangements for pet services and that’s just been so helpful in the grieving process. But also we go to every service unless otherwise specified. I have one dog we’ve had requests for both dogs, which I will do. It’s just a little, little more difficult to keep your eye on two dogs. And then, you know, if something goes awry, I need to move flowers, need to push play on this. Or, you know, I’m kind of a floater in that aspect too. So I, I have one dog at every service and it works out really well.
Heather:
Can either of you share a story of a particular time where you really saw the dogs making a difference?
Trish:
Gosh, just one? Just one is tough. I think the biggest one for me, it happened about a year ago. And a family had called and they had two kids, eight and five, and their dad died and they took care of their dad at home. They were a very involved family in the whole death process and through hospice and such. So when it came time to make funeral arrangements, she wanted to bring them in. And her son said, I’m not going. I’m not going to that funeral home or mortuary or whatever you call it. He was, and that’s the eight year old. And, and so she called and said, I can’t come in. I don’t know what to do. I don’t have a babysitter. Anyway, long story short, I said, bring them. We have a little yard area. I have two dogs. If you’re okay with dogs, let’s just see what happens. So we went into the grass area. She parked right in front where she could see the dogs or he could see the dogs. And we just stood out there and waited and hung out in the grass. They were champs. He came out, the dogs loved on him. I said, well, I’m getting ready to bring the dogs in to the mortuary. Would you want to come in? And he says, yeah, I’ll take the dogs. And he actually took Molly and we toured the funeral home. He got to look in all the rooms. He asked if his dad was here. And I said, no, and I explained that process and we went to the chapel where the services were going to be, and he’s, he comes, he’s buried his dad’s buried in our cemetery. They come now to visit I mean he just, the dogs just made it, he would have never gotten out of that car. If it weren’t for these two dogs, it helped open the door for him. And now every time he comes to visit in the cemetery, they know what vehicle I drive. So they know if my Suburban’s here, then the dogs are here. So they come in, they go take the dogs out to the grave. They played catch with them. They’re best friends.
Heather:
That’s wonderful. Yeah.
Mackenzie:
I believe in the healing power of a dog. I just, there’s some things that you just can’t explain. And one of them is that dogs just make everything better. But I’m going to speak more recently. You know, quarantine was really hard on these guys. They just get their energy from people and they look forward to that every single day. What are we doing? Where are we going? Who are we seeing? And, you know, we were really like, man, they’re depressed. Like they’re down. We had a nursing home. That’s one of our jobs as we go to nursing homes and we visit, and we have people that ask us to come back weekly to come and see them. We had a nursing home that asked us to come and do a visit during quarantine. And I said, well, how’s this gonna work? And she said, well, we’re going to go window to window. So we went to every single window at that nursing home, me and Judd, and I had a dry erase board and I was writing messages. We miss you. We can’t wait to see you. And I just hold him, you know, he’s 90 pounds, so he’s huge. I just hold up his front legs and we’d wave. And I mean, when we left there, yeah, that was very eyeopening for me. And just the power of a dog. And that moment we couldn’t be with them, but we were still there. So that was pretty cool.
Heather:
Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. It is cool.
Joey:
So you guys both have your dogs mentioned on your websites. Do you think you could, well, do you use your dogs in your marketing and if you do, could you talk a little bit about that?
Trish:
Yeah, we definitely do. And we don’t do the pet cremations. I think we kind of missed that boat here at our funeral homes. And, and that’s okay. You know, we were like, alright, so what else are we gonna do? So we put them on the website. We also then did a calendar if you can see this calendar. And so we put the calendar in and there’s pictures. We did it with kids, and so it’s also, then it’s got a clip where you can, if you want to preplan or you want to look into the cemetery, it also talks about our pet cemetery. And so we have kids in there and crazy pictures of the dogs. And so yes, that has helped out tons. And I think I heard Mackenzie say this too, you know, Oh, you’re the funeral home with the dogs? Yeah, I guess, you know. So, we do it as much as we can and now we just opened the pet cemetery about two months ago. And with all the COVID such, we haven’t been able to really get out in market a ton, but we will for sure use them in that area to kind of like Mackenzie they do with their grief, with their pets and with the cremation part. So yeah, not a ton maybe, but we’re getting there. The calendar has been huge and we give it away. We don’t make people buy it. If they want to donate, we put it to a, like a rescue, you know, a rescue for dogs or animals. So we’ll put it to a fund if people want to donate, but we tell people, please take this.
Joey:
So that’s great.
Mackenzie:
Yeah, we definitely use them as much as possible. Zuko is the more photogenic dog. He will smile for pictures. We do, we did a post for Easter and they were wearing bunny ears. We did a 4th of July post and things like that, but they also have their own walls and each of our three funeral homes introducing them some of their favorite things and pictures of them together and then pictures of them separately. I find that the kids love that. So it gets people talking.
Joey:
Great. I want to check out those posts you were mentioning, and as well, I want to get my hands on that calendar too. All of it.
Trish:
Our admin here, she does Facebook posts and they have their own page and all that. I’m not that they have all that Instagram, whatever, whatever, all that is. They, the dogs have it through Crystal and they do the same. They have that for a special holiday too which it’s, it’s amazing how many friends they have and all that.
Mackenzie:
We followed them on Facebook! We’re on there too.
Trish:
All right, well, we’ll get you right back.
Joey:
So your dogs have their own Facebook and Instagrams and stuff. How’s the interaction on those pages, is it higher you think then, you know, on your normal page? Like, I wanna hear a little bit more about like those Instagram and Facebook pages and you know, how that’s been received.
Heather:
Yeah or just community response in general, I think.
Mackenzie:
I wouldn’t say that it’s higher than our regular page, but it’s just more fun. Like I put a video on Instagram today of Judd. He howls every day at noon when the noon whistle goes off. And if we’re in a service, I have to rub his ears so that he doesn’t howl, cause he he’ll do it during the service, but today I just let him do it and I put it on his Instagram. So it just it’s, we kind of get to be the, I hate to say fun, but the lighter side of the business and I get to post the fun things I get to post their funny faces or their antics. And it does get people more comfortable to talk to us. Cause it is, it’s just an uncomfortable business for some people, for most people. Yeah.
Trish:
But yes, I would agree. I think Crystal will communicate with everybody, so the dogs will she’ll post something and somebody will say, Oh, that’s so great. And she’ll say, Oh, thank you for responding, blah, blah. You know, so she’s, she’s on that. I’m honestly not sure how much more or less they do, but in my prejudice side, I’m sure it’s much more than the funeral home.
Mackenzie:
They have a lot of followers, I saw!
Trish:
See, Mackenzie knows that much more than I.
Heather:
That’s great. So if you were speaking to other funeral directors or funeral homes or cemeteries who are thinking of getting a therapy dog, what recommendations would you make or what challenges have you overcome? What tips would you give for people thinking about it?
Trish:
I don’t, I don’t know if I’ve really, truly had a challenge. I’ve had maybe in all of our years, one gal who was truly afraid of Lily and I just turned Lily or I could see her face down the hall, we just turned and made an about face and went back to our office. But they should do it. Again, like Mackenzie said, this is the, this is the lighter side you with watching that eight year old boy and the kids, you know, it’s, it’s helping families. And especially the younger families realize, Oh, funerals, aren’t bad. There’s dogs at the funerals. Let’s have a funeral then the next time. And again, I think if we need in our industry, we have to continue to educate our families and people why we should have a funeral. Well, when you have a dog there, I just makes it even easier. That’s like a no brainer. You know, you come out in the yard, not realize everybody doesn’t have that. And you tell the kids to throw the ball and holy moly, now everybody’s happy because the kids are happy and the kids don’t feel weird at the funeral home. And the parents don’t feel weird cause the kids don’t feel weird and it’s the dogs. It’s nothing I can do or say or anybody on my staff it’s these dogs. And so I think there, I think we’re all Coocoo bird, if you don’t do it, but I’m probably glad some of you don’t because then it just makes Mackenzie and I, our firms look fabulous.
Mackenzie:
So just saying, yeah, I would say you need to be really dedicated. In my experience with training Zuko, and now having Judd, you know, you set the expectation of your dogs and I set a very high expectation. They know my body language, they know my voice, they know my tone. They know when it’s okay to play, they know when it’s not. So in that aspect you need to be dedicated. It’s just like having a child. I mean, you’re, you’re training them to be an employee and to provide a service and you know, they’re also the face of your business. So you want them to make you look good. Yeah.
Heather:
That’s a great way to put it. Do you guys think any dog can become a therapy dog or are there certain things to look for?
Trish:
Probably more of a Mackenzie question.
Mackenzie:
I mean, I think that there’s a certain demeanor that a therapy dog just needs to have. Like I said, there’s a time to play, and there’s a time to work. When their vests are off, they know that it’s okay, but when they’re Vests are on, they know that they’re working. So if you can train a dog to do that, then you can probably train it to do anything else. So it really goes back to their demeanor though, and, and how they’re going to act in a room full of people.
Heather:
Go ahead, Joey.
Joey:
Okay. So this is the last question we have. And we ask everybody this question in our videos. So what is the most important thing you’ve learned serving in the industry and you know, this could be dog related or not dog related, whatever you guys would like.
Trish:
Patience. Patience of just people. And you have to put everything about yourself aside and realize, this is not about you. This is about them. And how are you going to help them get through this journey? We call grief. And if you can’t do that and you can’t love them every day and put all your crap behind you, then don’t get in the business. You got to put that smile on whether you want to personally put that smile on it doesn’t matter. You’ve had a bad day today. They’ve had a worst day, so you gotta be patient and you gotta just love people.
Heather:
Wow. Great answer.
Mackenzie:
I don’t know if we have any Friends fans, but there’s an episode where Richard Burke is talking about people talking about his wife passing away and they, they give him the head nod. The side smile and the head nod. I’ve gotten really good at the side smile and the head nod. Just, you don’t always need to say something. People just want to be heard and especially, you know, at the worst times in their lives, like she said, you know, they’re having a worse day than you. You don’t need to respond all the time. Sometimes they just need a head nod and just know that they’re heard and that you care about them.
Heather:
It makes a lot of sense.
Joey:
Definitely, so that is all the questions we have. Thank you so much, Trish and Mackenzie. We really appreciate your time. And thanks for joining us this week on Funeral Innovations: Trends, Tips, and Technology. So we’ll be posting this video on our YouTube channel. You’ll be able to access it on our Facebook feed and we’ll be back with another show soon. So definitely check us out next week as well. If you have topics you’d like to see discussed or someone you’d like to hear from in an interview, add it in the comments down below and be sure to visit our website at funeralinnovations.com. Thanks so much you guys. Thanks.
Heather:
Bye, thank you so much guys.
