What is a Therapy Dog?
By Brianne Statz, CPDT-KA
Dogs can be a great
source of happiness – think about the way your face lights up when you see your
dog at the end of a long work day. They
can improve mood and reduce stress. A
therapy dog is a pet with a stable temperament that can provide affection,
comfort and stress reduction for people in settings such as hospitals, nursing
homes, schools and disaster areas. A
therapy dog needs to have basic obedience skills, and to become certified, the dog
must pass an evaluation along with his or her owner. (Hint, hint – dropping in to a beginner doggy
school or doggy high school week 4 class is a great way to brush up on the key
skills of leash walking and polite greetings!).
Dogs are not the only
animals that can help people – there are therapy cats, bunnies and horses
too! Recently I began volunteering my
time with a local organization, the “I Am Magic Foundation” (http://www.immagicfoundation.org/). While the primary focus has been on horses
helping people, we have also started working on training several dogs to make
therapy visits (it’s a bit easier to travel with a dog than a horse). Nikki the lab mix made her first visit to a
long term care facility recently, and the residents (and Nikki!) were delighted
with the visit. Our goal is to certify
several rescue dogs through the “Love on a Leash” organization (http://www.loveonaleash.org/). Eventually we hope to start a local chapter
of this organization to complement and help support the work with horses.
Do you think your dog
might make a good therapy dog? We would
like to build a group of therapy teams that can make visits to assisted living
facilities, schools, or any facilities that may benefit from a dog visit. If you are interested, we can help support
your goal by providing training tips and helping with the certification
process.
If your dog is not a
good fit for a therapy dog, but you are interested in helping out, we are also
looking for volunteers to help coordinate visits with facilities, work with the
rescue dogs living on the farm toward certification, or volunteer with the
horses as well. For more information,
contact brianne@teacherspettraing.com
or discoveryourmagic@immagicfoundation.org.
Happy Training!