THERAPY DOG TRAINING

WHAT IS A THERAPY DOG?

A therapy dog is a dog who is trained to be well mannered in all settings and provide therapeutic relief for people other than their handler. They can be authorized access to places not normally granted to dogs! Therapy dogs can be granted access to places like hospitals, nursing homes, schools, recovery shelters after a natural disasters and so many more!

WHAT DOG CAN BE A THERAPY DOG?

Like service dogs, there is no age, breed or gender restrictions. As long as the dog has the right personality and can pass the Therapy Dog Test held by the AKC they can get registered as a therapy dog and begin their working career!

HOW DOES THE DOG SELECTION PROCESS WORK?

We can utilize the same three options for where the dog comes from as service dogs; your personal dog you have already, an animal shelter or a breeder. Once we know where we want the dog to come from the next step is going to be to find a dog in that environment who is the best candidate! What makes a dog the best candidate? We need a dog who truly enjoys getting love and attention not only from their people but complete strangers! Out of those dogs we then need a dog who is driven for training as we have lots of work to and this takes many hours of training. Once we have a dog who loves strangers and has enough drive to do the training we need to test their confidence. They’ll have to go to some pretty strange places that may make them a little nervous. For example, a hospital that has lots of beeping and loud carts rolling around can be a massive challenge for many dogs! The percentage of dogs who are great candidates is low but they are out there! This is all a part of what makes this process so challenging but such a sweet reward to have at the end. There is no feeling like when you see the joy on a persons face who needed some good ole puppy lovin’ on a tough day!!!