Tails of service: A comfort dog arrives as a K-9 hero retires

The two-year-old, incredibly glossy pup was sponsored by The Heiser Foundation. “Woody was named in memory of my husband, Gary Sherwood, who had been President of The Heiser Foundation,” said Ingrid Sherwood.

He started his job as a facility dog in early February. Woody’s charge is to stay calm in what can be a frenetic atmosphere. Service Dogs of Virginia began training him at 9 weeks old. He’s learned how to settle people in crisis or under stress and even knows how to use his body for comforting compression therapy.

“Nothing really frazzles him,” said Tina Floyd, Service Dogs' development director. “He’s just a very stable and well-grounded dog. He doesn’t react to things that might be disruptive. He’s a gentle giant.”

One of Woody’s first assignments was visiting a woman about to enter hospice care. “I was a little bit nervous because we hadn’t interacted with a patient. I knew he would do well no matter what, but it was like he’d been visiting patients his entire life,” O’Neill recalled.

Nahla, nearly 10 years old, enjoys her retirement ceremony on March 3 at John Paul Jones Arena. Lt. Audrell Ragland, her handler, says she’s very laid back, with a caveat. “She didn’t like anybody to get near her vehicle,” she said. “She would let my kids come near the vehicle … but if you weren’t in her pack, she would let you know.” (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“He did what he was trained to do. He got up gently on the end of the bed and curled up right next to her,” she said. “He sat there for a good half hour, just letting her love on him, and he knew that she needed him. I could tell it meant everything to this patient.”

In addition to visiting the emergency room, you might spot O’Neill and Woody roaming the halls of the UVA Health University Medical Center, walking the Grounds or attending athletic events. If you’re lucky, you might even get a “boop” from Woody, who is also trained to touch his nose to yours.

Another early assignment was to help the University bid adieu to beloved police dog, Nahla. The black German shepherd has been on the force since 2019. She received a center court send-off before the March 3 men’s basketball game against Wake Forest, attended by K-9 colleagues Maggie, a bloodhound, and a black Labrador, Luna.

Nahla saved the day in 2024 when a local law enforcement agency called for help. They’d apprehended someone who’d dropped a handgun at a local high school and needed her help finding it.

Nahla, with her trusty Kong, poses on the Lawn with Ragland, O’Neill and K-9 newbie Woody. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

“It was dark – 9, 10 p.m.,” Lt. Audrell Ragland, Nahla’s handler, said. “A lot of times, the weapon, the gun or the explosive device, has what we call a ‘scent cone.’ So, we could be far off from the gun, but the scent cone – when the dog hits the scent cone, he or she is in it. So, I’m assuming maybe she hit the scent cone and went to the gun.”

Nahla told her handler she found it.

“She was giving me those clues of the tail wagging, she was getting excited, her movements were quick and fast, and then at the end of that, she sat. So that’s the ultimate,” Ragland said. It was a perfect execution of her training, and it took her all of 10 minutes to help remove a weapon from the community. 

It was Nahla’s first and only “find.”

“So, you can imagine all those years of training, all those other callouts, all those deployments of sweeps that we do for the University, all that hard work culminated into that one find,” Ragland said. “So, it kind of puts things in perspective. We don’t get a lot of rewards after all that training and all those deployments, but that one find supersedes all of that.”

Nahla’s reward in her retirement is her tasty treats, her favorite Kong toy and lots of well-earned downtime, which Ragland says she is thoroughly enjoying.