We’re interrupting our regularly scheduled programming to bring you a heartwarming story about one of our current clients and her very special dog. At Two Hands Interiors, we do home design, and we really love it – but getting to know our amazing clients and their family members, including the furry ones, is hands-down the best part of the gig.
Maestro, a 5-year-old golden retriever, can conduct music. With a baton in his mouth and a tuxedo collar, Maestro can keep the beat to a Beethoven recording – and, as a therapy dog certified by Rainbow Animal Assisted Therapy, it’s a skill he’s performed for everyone from preschool students to hospital patients.
But he wasn’t always conducting. When Barbara Toney and her husband, Rand, first met him as a 10-month-old puppy, there were some immediate issues.
First, his name. As a musical family — Barb majored in piano at the University of Illinois and taught elementary and junior high music — all the Toney pets had music-oriented names. But this dog’s name was “Astro.” (His litter was also named after characters from the Jetson’s television show.) But Barb’s daughter saved the day. It was her ingenious idea to name him “Maestro,” which sounds similar to “Astro” (so as not to confuse him) and follows the musical theme.
But more serious was the dog’s behavior.
“When we first got him home, he jumped on the cabinets. He was petrified of cars. He couldn’t walk up steps,” she says. “We didn’t know what to do.”
Later, they’d discovered that their then new dog had been confined to a crate for the majority of his life. Although he had been bred to be a show dog, his breeder decided he could never make it in the show ring, which ended his career before it started.
It wasn’t like Barb was unaccustomed to dogs or even golden retrievers for that matter. She’d grown up with a golden retriever in her family home in Highland Park. As a family with two children, they had two of them, Rhapsody and Melody. Her brother has a golden. Her daughter had a golden. None of their dogs had that sort of puppyhood or exhibited that sort of uncontrollable behavior.
But after many classes and finally finding a good trainer, Barb was delighted to find that their new golden was a quick learner, very food motivated, and wanted to please us.
“Maestro will do anything for a treat,” she says.
And since that time, he has indeed done a lot for a treat and seemingly just for the pleasure of helping.
Maestro visits with patients, families, and staff at Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove on a weekly basis. He connects with children and adolescents struggling with anxiety and depression at Compass Health Center in Oakbrook, and he helps preschool students learn dog safety at Glen Ellyn Park District.
After getting certified for therapy work through Rainbow, Maestro is also trained to offer support in traumatic situations, such as the aftermath of the 2022 Highland Park parade shooting. Even the year after the shooting, Barb and Maestro went back to the hospital on the anniversary of the shooting to offer support to the staff at the hospital, who were deeply affected by that tragedy.
Maestro knows a variety of skills beyond conducting. He can count using the tambourine. He knows his colors. (Barb is something of a magician). He knows how to sniff out essential oils during nose work dog trials. But perhaps the most amazing thing he does is “feel” the anxiety around him. When he enters a situation and Barb gives his command to “go say hi,” Maestro goes where he’s needed the most and he sits absolutely still and lets the person pet him or bury their heads in his fur and sob. “All dogs are amazing,” Barb says, “but there’s something about a fluffy golden” that people find comforting.
“We were in a hospital waiting room one time,” Barb says. “I asked a couple sitting together if they’d like to visit with us. Maestro, completely bypassed the woman who he was nearest to, and stood perfectly still next to the man. I actually thought he was being rude.”
But it was uncanny because the woman later told Barb that their son was undergoing surgery. She was feeling OK about it, but her husband was having a very tough time with it. And Maestro knew.
Over the years, Maestro has offered support to college kids and staff during final exam week, to Chicago Police officers and the National Guard during the Democratic National Convention, to the officers at the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and to bands like Cage the Elephant and rappers like Travis Scott, and so much more.
Barb and Maestro spend a lot of time serving others, but Barb says it’s all joy.
“I feel like I’ve found what I’m supposed to be doing,” she says. “And it’s so rewarding to me to see what he can do to offer comfort to people.”