HIGH POINT, N.C. — Everyone loves their furry, feathery and scaly friends, but one dog in the state is vying for the title of pet of the year. 

Marcia Pearce grew up raising Great Danes and when she heard about puppies in the area, she knew she had to have one. 

“I told my husband, I said, ‘Oh, let's go look’. Well, he knew we weren't going to just look and we end up bringing back a Great Dane. And, you know, that was every bit of 15, 16 years ago,” Pearce said. 

Chance is not the first Great Dane Pearce has had, but is her first Great Dane who is a therapy dog. 

“We did the training, got him therapy trained, and we found Pet Partners and North Carolina Pet Partners, and they evaluated us. I had to take a handler class, that started our journey,” Pearce said. 

Chance is a registered therapy dog with Pet Partners. It's a nonprofit promoting animal and human interaction, including therapy animal education and community connections. He has been working for almost seven years. He has reached the highest title a therapy dog can receive with the American Kennel Club and is certified in animal assisted crisis response. 

“So if there's a crisis response, if something bad happens at a school or in a neighborhood, we're able to take our teams there and we can help people, you know, stress relief and stuff like that,” Pearce said. 

Marcia and Chance reading with a kid at the 'Read With Me' event in February. (Spectrum News 1/Sydney McCoy)

Therapy dogs go through extensive training and continue it throughout their career. Learning to handle different situations, how to stay calm in all scenarios, and to leave items alone.

“We reinforce training every time we go out with these dogs, we reinforce the well behavior. We reinforce saying hi to people walking up to a wheelchair walker, laying on the floor with someone to read. You're constantly reinforcing the training, and that's something people don't realize,” Pearce said. 

The pair have traveled over 30,000 miles over the years, visiting The Ronald McDonald House, hospice, hospitals, and other community events. Including their 870th therapy visit in February, at the Archdale Public Library, Read With Me event. Where kids can read and interact with therapy animals. 

“You just touched so many lives that you have no clue how many you've touched… it’s just amazing and it just makes you feel so good inside,” Pearce said. 

During the pandemic, the pair started a program to still visit their patients in a safe manner. 

“We made her some cards with our paw print on it and said, ‘If they hang this in the window Sunday afternoon at 1:00, we'll walk around window to window if they've got the paw print,  knock on the window and we’ll visit through the window’. And we did that the whole time of COVID until they were able to let us back in again. And what that meant to the residents to still see their animals, even though they couldn't pet and hug, they still got to see him,” Pearce said. 

Pearce says they typically do multiple visits a week, and have created deep connections with their new found friends and patients, staying in touch with families and attending the funerals for some of their patients who have passed. 

“It just really made a difference to be able to be there and help them get through the funeral with some smiles a little bit instead of just sad the whole time,” Pearce said. 

Marcia Pearce and Chance visiting a patient during the pandemic. (Photo provided by Marcia Pearce)

One of the daughters of a patient who passed nominated the pair for the Pet of the Year award through Pet Partners. 

“We were really excited when her daughter nominated us for this fundraising competition, made us make our day is pretty exciting,” 

The contest is a nationwide fundraising competition to help raise money to get more therapy animals certified and funding. Pet Partners also will help with the animal's insurance, offset medical bills for therapy animals who are diagnosed with cancer and more. 

“If we don't win, we don't care. It's fun to play. And what's even more important to me than winning the Pet of the Year is being able to reach more people. And when we're able to reach more people, we get more contacts that say, 'Hey, can you bring one of your therapy animals to us?' And they may not be [a] chance. It could be one of our friends. And and that's what's really nice is not just winning the competition, but getting the word out that we're here and this is what we do,” Pearce said. 

Pet Partners has other animals in its program including, cats, birds, llamas, bunnies, mini horses and more. Chance has also inspired other Great Danes and their handlers to get certified to be a therapy animal. 

“My reward is the joy that we bring to everybody. So, I felt like he gets the enjoyment of being pet and loved, that this is just an extra little icing on the cake,” Pearce said. 

Pearce also sews items like masks and donates them to health care workers, along with dog accessories to help support her and Chance’s travels as they are not allowed to accept donations directly. 

“It's been seven years, and that's quite a journey for us, and we're hoping to have a few more years to do it. And then we'll teach his little brother too to do it as well so we can continue on,” Pearce said. 

The pair hope to raise around $20,000 for the contest, but says she is happy to bring awareness to the therapy animal community. To donate for Chance to win, click here.

The contest ends on March 18, and the winner will be announced the next day.