Alex Bratty’s transformative journey: Bringing the power of a dog’s love to her community

Alex Bratty's workdays at Wipfli are intensely focused on building out and leading a new growth intelligence and insights initiative at the firm. It's a hectic and exciting time professionally for the longtime, strategy-focused Ph.D. researcher and consultant who initially joined Wipfli's marketing department in 2024.

Like many colleagues who work largely from home, Alex finds her devoted canine companions, Hannah and Grace, a steady source of stress relief and love.

But Alex’s superpower is regularly paying these benefits forward. Over the past six years, she’s put in countless hours to train three of her golden retrievers to become certified therapy dogs, working with a nonprofit called Michael’s Angel Paws. (Sadly, her initial two dogs, Sunny and Glory, have passed away.)

These days, on most Saturday afternoons, Alex’s four-year-old, relentlessly eager-to-please retriever, Hannah, accompanies her to the local hospital and an assisted living facility on a rural stretch of Long Island, New York, near her home on Shelter Island. Their visits aim to help people cope with difficult, scary circumstances. And those caring moments with the affectionate and sensitive pooch can make a big difference.

Dynamic duo: Alex and Hannah

Limitless benefits

“Who benefits the most — the people we visit, the dog or me? I’ve come to view it as a triple win,” she said. Hannah, she noted, is always the center of attention. “She’s giving love. She’s getting love. And she’s being a little bit of a goofball at times. I love seeing the interaction with the patients and the staff. If we put a smile on someone’s face, that’s mission accomplished.”

During the school year, Alex has added a visit with Hannah to the public library a few times a month to support kids attending an after-school reading program. “It takes the anxiety out of reading for some kids. They can just read to Hannah and not have to worry about humans. It’s very cute,” she said.

She acknowledges that the benefits also accrue immeasurably to her day job. “My volunteer life helps me show up as my best self at work on Monday,” she said.

During her hiring process in 2024, Alex discovered Wipfli’s firmwide commitment to volunteering through the annual Community Day and other programs encouraging associates to support causes meaningful to them. Alex felt certain that the values of the firm would be a great match with her own, adding, “It turns out I’m living Wipfli’s values every single week.”

Commitment to caring

Alex first got involved in therapy dog training classes in Las Vegas, where she and her husband lived before they moved to Long Island in 2023. That commitment evolved from their dogs’ initial success in obedience training and multiple wins in obedience competitions.

Certified therapy dogs are often a less familiar type of assistance animal compared to service dogs (like guide dogs), which assist individuals with disabilities defined by the Americans with Disabilities Act. A third classification, emotional-support animals, has no specific training or certification requirements.

Hospital staff also reap the benefits.

“Our training was intense, and it required doing work every day,” Alex said. “One of the big challenges for golden retrievers is getting them to deliver their love calmly because they are so enthusiastic. I had to take them to busy places like PetSmart and Home Depot, which allow dogs, where we worked on their exposure to various stimuli, like loud noises and tempting smells, and impulse control,” she said.

“When they are around people, even though they are a therapy dog, they aren’t allowed to say hello until I give them the cue. And they have to be confident navigating a loud and bustling environment without getting distracted.”

The dogs must be retested and recertified every other year. Since she moved to New York, Alex can complete this process with the Las Vegas-based nonprofit through recorded videos.

Letting up on this routine is something she can’t even imagine doing, given the powerful impact she observes at every visit. “When I see behavioral health patients who were so closed off come out of their rooms for the first time to interact with and love on Hannah, I am reminded why we’ve got to do this work.”