Technology allows Maryland therapy dog to still bring joy to hospital patients

Dogtor Loki.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Good Morning America)

Loki the therapy dog is still comforting patients at the University of Maryland Medical Center, just from afar.

Loki is a 2-year-old Rottweiler. Her owner, Caroline Benzel, is a second-year medical student at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and began training her to be a therapy dog when she was just 18 weeks. "I've never met a dog that's so empathetic," Benzel told Good Morning America, adding that Loki, who also goes by Dogtor Loki, "can just read a situation where a patient is in a very bad way or a family member is going through a loss."

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.