[YorkieTherapy]

Hi there! Guinness's papa here. Usually my wife does the posting, but I could not help myself with this thread.

Guinness has been a therapy dog for over a year now. He was registed by Delta Soceity Pet Partners Progam. Both my wife and I went through the evaluation to pass as handlers. A lot of people do not realize that not only does the dog have to pass, but the owner/handler has to as well. There have been many cases where the dog passed, but the handler didn't!

Aside from the dog, here is an insight as to what they want from the handlers: They want you to be able to hold a conversations with the patient/resident of the facilty, while also keeping an eye on your dog and making sure they are not getting stressed, consoling or comforting them whenever needed. You want to make sure the experience is always positive for your dog. This includeds knowing when your dog has had enought and ending the visit. An hour visit wipes them out! Guinness always sleeps happily the rest of the day afer a visit. Dog therapy is definitley multi-tasking!

How we knew Guinness could be a therapy dog is when we took him to his first AKC puppy obedience training. His trainer happened to be a Delta Evaluator and Service Dog Trainer. She told us that Guinness would be a good candidate for a therapy dog, but he had to undergo a lot more training.

We are lucky, in that we are shadowed/mentored by five Delta Evaluators when we go on group visits. It just worked out that way! We know them from our dog training school, where they are also instructors, so we are very fortunate.

If you are interested in seeing whether your dog has the termprment and dispostion to be a therapy dog, go to Deltasoceity.org for a pre-evaluation. In Northern California, where we are, they do this twice a year. Check your area to see if they are conveniently located for you.

If Delta is not conveniantly located for you, another good organization is TDI, or Therapy Dog International.

This year, we want to pass Delta's complex visit evaluation. You see, Delta has two levels. Predictable and Complex. Predictable, which is what we have now, allows visits to nursing homes, reading programs. Basically, situations without surprises.

With Complex visiting, we can join our group in going to see children at Shriner's Hospital, Stanford, and Lucile Packard. Many of these children are undergoing cancer treatment, dialysis, etc. Complex visiting will allow us to do one-on-one Hospice situations.

Our evaluators have already told us there is absolutely no reason why Guinness should not pass. I guess this is their nice way of saying that it is his owners that are holding him back! LOL!

We are starting to consider looking for a second therapy Yorkie. An experienced breeder will be a valuable resource, because they observe their puppies and get to know them way before they let them go to their forever home, so we are lookikng for one. Anyone out there?

If we were looking for a lab, we would be in luck, as many of the therapy dogs in our group come from service dog breeding programs, and didn't quite make it, but they made great therapy dogs.

Sorry this was sooo long. Hope it helped a bit. We just wanted to give you an insight. Bottom line, therapy work is very rewarding. We are very passionate about it. Some of the "moments" we have experienced, we will remember forever.