How to Involve a Dog in Pet Therapy Work

By Melissa Maroff

Instructions

Step 1:
Determine if your pooch would make a good therapy dog. There is a checklist of basic questions that your answer should be a resounding “yes” to. The main one being: Is your dog happy to be around people? Paws’itive Teams, a San Diego-based service dog organization provides a good checklist on their website (see Resources below).
Step 2:
Test your dog first to see if she has therapist potential. Take her on a leash to a place where there are a lot of people, such as a park, and see how she reacts to and interacts with people petting her. See if she responds to your commands while in a hectic environment.
Step 3:
Ascertain if your dog needs special training before doing therapy work. Some dogs automatically have what it takes and that includes being well behaved, well socialized and in good health.
Step 4:
Decide if you and your dog should start out on your own or join a professional organization such as Therapy Dogs Inc., which provides registration, support, insurance and other services to owners of therapy dogs. Facilities might prefer that your dog is registered with a professional organization.
Step 5:
Decide if you want to enroll your dog in therapy training to become certified. Many facilities (if not most) require certification and that your dog meets certain criteria, such as the ability to walk through a crowd that includes wheelchairs.
Step 6:
Contact hospitals, nursing homes, retirement residences, hospices, schools and any other special needs center in your area that could benefit from and welcome therapy dogs. Find out how to go about applying.
Step 7:
Pay visits to some prospective places on your own without your dog. Tour the facilities and get to know staff and residents, find out how receptive they would be to visits from a therapy dog and most importantly, whether or not they require your dog be certified.
Step 8:
Make sure your dog is current on all vaccinations before making therapy visits.
Step 9:
Bathe your dog close to the time of each visit, make sure his coat is free of parasites and trim his nails. Brush and comb your dog immediately prior to each visit.
Step 10:
Give your dog a verbal or physical cue before each therapy visit so that she’ll know her destination and what to expect. She’ll soon come to eagerly await the visits and the special “alone” time with her guardian and best buddy. Well, almost alone. It’ll be sort of like a “Fido and Me” class.

Tips & Warnings

Start a little therapy dog club. Contact people you know with dogs who have therapy potential, and see if they would be interested in joining you on visits.

Resources

Photo/Video Credit

Photo by Melissa Maroff

More Puppy Pages

How to Get Your Dog Involved in Providing Companionship for the Elderly

Rewarding experiences await you if you accept the challange of sharing your dog with elderly people who can't have pets of their own.

A therapy dog is not a service dog that assists the blind or disabled, but provides a different kind of help. They visit hospitals, nursing homes, mental health centers and shelters to aide in physical therapy and bring comfort to the ill and elderly...

Becoming a therapy dog team is a rewarding volunteer activity for everyone involved. Therapy dogs serve in a variety of roles. Some of them visit people in hospitals and long term care facilities, others participate in reading programs at schools, some...

Having a dog for a pet can be very therapeutic for you. You can choose to share the joy your dog brings you by using your dog for therapy. While it takes some training and work, here’s how to use your dog for therapy.

In 2000, a law was passed that made retired military dogs eligible for adoption. There are special requirements, but if you meet the criteria, you can open your home to a retired military dog. Here's how.